George Arthur Buttrick
George Arthur Buttrick | |
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Born | March 23, 1892 Seaham Harbour, England |
Died | January 23, 1980[1] Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
Education | Victoria University of Manchester |
Occupation(s) | Christian pastor Christian author Academic lecturer |
George Arthur Buttrick (March 23, 1892 – January 23, 1980) was an English-born, American-based Christian preacher, author and lecturer.[2][3][4]
Early life
Buttrick was born in Seaham Harbour, England on March 23, 1892.[4] He attended the Victoria University of Manchester and later emigrated to the United States.[4]
Career
Buttrick served as a pastor in Quincy, Illinois, Rutland, Vermont, Buffalo, New York, and in 1927 he succeeded Henry Sloane Coffin as minister of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City.[4]
In 1936, Buttrick officiated the marriage of Fred and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, the parents of Donald Trump.[5]
Buttrick gave a lecture series at Yale University. From 1955 to 1960 he was Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Preacher to the university at Harvard University.[4] He was then a guest professor at the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York and went on to teach at Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.[4] He later taught at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.[4] He also taught classes on preaching at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.[citation needed]
Buttrick was also Commentary Editor for The Interpreter's Bible, a twelve volume set of the Holy Scriptures, in the King James and Revised Standard Versions with general articles and introduction, exegesis and exposition, first published by Abingdon-Cokesbury Press in 1952.
Death and legacy
Buttrick died in 1980.[4] His son, David G. Buttrick (1927–2017), was a Presbyterian minister who later joined the United Church of Christ and became the Drucilla Moore Buffington Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School.[6]
Frederick Buechner has often cited Buttrick as a central influence on his career, including his decision to become himself a Presbyterian minister. Buttrick's influence was also cited by Eugene Peterson, who was raised Pentecostal but became an intern at Madison Avenue during Buttrick's ministry and was inspired by his preaching.[7] In fact, according to Peterson's biographer [[Winn Collier]], both Buechner and Peterson were sitting in the pews of Madison Avenue Presbyterian that same year, having their shared epiphanies under Buttrick's preaching.[7]
Bibliography
- Parables of Jesus (1928)
- Jesus Came Preaching: Christian Preaching in the New Age (1931)
- Christian Fact and Modern Doubt (1934)
- Prayer (1942)
- Christ and Man's Dilemma (1946)
- So We Believe, So We Pray (1951)
- Faith and Education (1952)
- Sermons Preached in a University Church (1959)
- Biblical Thought and the Secular University (1960)
- Editor, Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, 4 vols (1962)
- Christ and History (1963)
- God, Pain, and Evil (1966)
- The Beatitudes, A Contemporary Meditation (1968)
- The Power of Prayer Today (1970)
References
- ^ "George Arthur Buttrick, 87, Dies; Presbyterian Pastor and Scholar". The New York Times. January 24, 1980. Retrieved April 29, 2017.
- ^ Theodore Alexander Gill, To God be the glory: sermons in honor of George Arthur Buttrick, Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1973, p. 11 [1]
- ^ Charles F. Kemp, Life-situation preaching, Bloomington, Minnesota: Bethany Press, 1956, p. 184 [2]
- ^ a b c d e f g h T. A. Prickett, The Story of Preaching, Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2011, pp. 80-81 [3]
- ^ Hannan, Martin (May 20, 2016). "An inconvenient truth? Donald Trump's Scottish mother was a low-earning migrant". The National. Glasgow, Scotland: Newsquest. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
- ^ "David G. Buttrick". The Tennessean. April 26, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
- ^ a b A Burning in My Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson, Translator of The Message by Winn Collier, p. 72-75