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{{Use British English|date=September 2017}}
'''Donald Macpherson Baillie''' (5 November 1887 – 31 October 1954) was a Scottish [[theologian]], [[ecumenicism|ecumenist]], and parish [[Minister (Christianity)|minister]].

== Early life ==
Baillie was born in the [[Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900)|Free Church of Scotland]] manse in [[Gairloch]], [[Ross-shire]], on 5 November 1887, the son of Rev. John Baillie (1829-1891) and Annie Macpherson.<ref name=":0" /> He was a younger brother to John Baillie (1886-1960), and older brother to Peter. His father died when Donald was three, and his mother moved her three sons to Inverness. While there, Donald was educated at [[Inverness Royal Academy]].<ref name=":1" />

The family later moved to Edinburgh, to allow the boys to continue their education, with Donald enrolling at [[University of Edinburgh|Edinburgh University]] in 1905. Donald began in literary studies, but like his older brother he soon changed to philosophy, winning first class medals in both metaphysics and moral philosophy as well as the George Saintsbury Prize for English Verse. He matriculated at New College, Edinburgh in 1909, where he concentrated on theological and biblical studies with H. R. MacKintosh, H. A. A. Kennedy, and Alexander Martin. He also spent two semesters at the German [[University of Marburg|universities in Marburg]] under [[Wilhelm Herrmann]] and [[Adolf Jülicher|Adolf Julicher]] and in Heidelberg under [[Ernst Troeltsch]] and [[Johannes Weiss]].<ref name=":1" /> 

Baillie began his own pastoral work as an assistant in North Morningside Church, Edinburgh and in 1917 volunteered to serve with the [[YMCA|Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA)]] in France. He had to be relieved of his duties there due to a chronic asthmatic condition which plagued him all his life. He then filled an interim position at St. Boswell's Church in Edinburgh.

From 1911 until 1914, he was Assistant to the Professor of Moral Philosophy. He also spent some time with the YMCA in France.

Baillie completed his ministerial training at [[New College, Edinburgh|New College]] in March 1913.<ref name=":1" />

== Ministry ==
He was ordained into the [[United Free Church of Scotland]] in 1918 and was minister of [[Inverbervie|Bervie]] United Free Church until 1923. He then moved to St. John's, [[Cupar]] he was there until 1930 (by which time, the United Free Church had mostly merged back into the [[Church of Scotland]] in 1929) and then at St. Columba's, [[Kilmacolm]] until 1934.<ref name=":2" />

== Other work ==
Donald was appointed Kerr lecturer at the [[University of Glasgow]] in 1923, delivering lectures in 1926.

During his time in Cupar, he wrote ''Faith in God and its Christian Consummation'' (1927), which was based on Kerr Lectures.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Relton |first=H. M. |date=May 1928 |title=Book Review: Faith in God and its Christian Consummation |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0040571x2801609521 |journal=Theology |volume=16 |issue=95 |pages=298–299 |doi=10.1177/0040571x2801609521 |issn=0040-571X|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Newlands |first=George |title=Donald Baillie (1887–1954) |date=2009-04-20 |work=The Student's Companion to the Theologians |pages=237–244 |editor-last=Markham |editor-first=Ian S. |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118427170.ch32 |access-date=2024-07-10 |edition=1 |publisher=Wiley |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781118427170.ch32 |isbn=978-1-118-47258-3|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This led to his appointment as a professor of divinity at [[St Mary's College, St Andrews|St Mary's College]], [[University of St Andrews]], where he spent the remainder of his life.

In 1935 he became Professor of Systematic Theology at the [[University of St Andrews]], where he had been Additional examiner for the BD degree in Divinity and Ecclesiastical History from 1921-1924, and which had awarded him an Honorary DD in 1933. Other academic positions included External Examiner for the BD in Divinity at the University of Edinburgh from 1933, Forwood lecturer in the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Liverpool, 1947, and Moore lecturer at the [[San Francisco Theological Seminary]], 1952.<ref name=":2" />

In 1948 he, [[Isobel Forrester]] and his brother [[John Baillie (theologian)|John]] formed the [[Scottish Churches Ecumenical Association]], which in 1950 merged with the Dollarbeg group which had organised ecumenical conferences since 1945<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Gay |first=Doug |title=A Practical Theology of Church and World: Ecclesiology and Social Vision in 20th Century Scotland |url=https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/1699/Gay_thesis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |journal=University PhD thesis |via=University of Edinburgh}}</ref> or 1946.<ref name=":1">{{Citation |title=Isobel Forrester |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/66407 |work=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |access-date=2023-06-05 |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/66407 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

His more famous work was ''God was in Christ'' (1948), which explored the paradox of [[Irresistible grace|grace]], and applied it to [[Christology|incarnational theology]]. The book went through five printings, including a separate German edition.<ref name=":1" />

Several of his sermons were gathered into two posthumous volumes, ''To Whom Shall We Go?'' (1955) and ''Out of Nazareth'' (1958). 

== Death ==
Baillie died, while still in post of being the Professor of Systematic Theology, of emphysema in [[Maryfield Hospital]], Dundee, on October 31, 1954, at the age of 67 years.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Papers of Donald M. Baillie |url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/508cc1df-45a7-33e7-a97e-51fd65033223 |access-date=10 July 2024 |website=Archives Hub}}</ref>

==References==
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[[Category:1887 births]]
[[Category:1954 deaths]]
[[Category:Scottish Calvinist and Reformed theologians]]
[[Category:20th-century ministers of the Church of Scotland]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish Presbyterian ministers]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of St Andrews]]
[[Category:20th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians]]

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