John Thomas McNeill (28 July 1885, Elmsdale, Prince Edward Island - 2 February 1975,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

) was a Canadian church historian. He was the son of William Cavendish McNeill (1849-1928). He was educated at

Prince of Wales College Prince of Wales College (PWC) is a former university college, which was located in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. PWC merged with St. Dunstan's University in 1969 to form the University of Prince Edward Island. PWC traces its his ...

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

New College, Edinburgh New College is a historic building at the University of Edinburgh which houses the university's School of Divinity. It is one of the largest and most renowned centres for studies in Theology and Religious Studies in the United Kingdom. Students ...

Halle University Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

and

the University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the be ...

. In 1920 he was awarded a doctorate from the latter, where he served on the faculty until 1944. In 1922 he was awarded the

Herbert Baxter Adams Prize The Herbert Baxter Adams Prize is an annual book prize of the American Historical Association. It is awarded for "a distinguished first book by a young scholar in the field of European history", and is named in honor of Herbert Baxter Adams, who ...

for his work ''The Celtic Penitentials and Their Influence on Continental Christianity''. As of 1951, he was Auburn Professor of Church History at Union Theological Seminary. He was the father of William H. McNeill, and grandfather of J.R. McNeill, both leading historians and presidents of the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

. He was also an ordained

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

minister. He served alongside of John Baillie and Henry P. Van Dusen as a general editor of th
Library of Christian Classics
series, which includes modern translations of the writings of Christian theologians and thinkers such as

Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known ...

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North A ...

Calvin Calvin may refer to: Names * Calvin (given name) ** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States * Calvin (surname) ** Particularly John Calvin, theologian Places In the United States * Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet * Calvi ...

Luther Luther may refer to: People * Martin Luther (1483–1546), German monk credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation * Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American minister and leader in the American civil rights movement * Luther (give ...

and other reformers and early church fathers. McNeill himself was the chief editor of the series' release of John Calvin's

Institutes of the Christian Religion ''Institutes of the Christian Religion'' ( la, Institutio Christianae Religionis) is John Calvin's seminal work of systematic theology. Regarded as one of the most influential works of Protestant theology, it was published in Latin in 1536 (at th ...

i
The fresh translation in more contemporary English based on his extensive knowledge of Patristics and Classical literature was done by Ford Lewis Battles at McNeill’s personal request _encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1559565933 two volumes
The production of this most recent English translation (released in 1960) of the French Reformer's "magnum opus" was the work of several Latin scholars and theologians on both sides of the Atlantac. Charles Partee called him "the doyen of American Calvin scholars".Charles Partee, ''The Theology of John Calvin'' (Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), p. 2, n.

Works

*''A History of the Cure of Souls'' (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951). *''The History and Character of Calvinism'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954). *''The Celtic Churches: A History A.D. 200 to 1200'' (University of Chicago Press, 1974). *''The Library of Christian Classics'' (

Westminster John Knox Press Westminster John Knox Press is an American publisher of Christian books located in Louisville, Kentucky and is part of Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, the publishing arm of the Louisville, Kentucky-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) The P ...

, 2006).

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McNeill, John T. 1885 births 1975 deaths Canadian male non-fiction writers Canadian Presbyterian ministers 20th-century Canadian historians McGill University alumni Presidents of the American Society of Church History