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David G Whitla

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Chuch History, Faculty Member

Queen's University Belfast, History, Anthropology, Politics and Philosophy, Alumnus

University of Ulster, Education, Alumnus

Reformed Theological College, Church History, Visiting Lecturer of Church History

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David G Whitla is Professor of Church History at Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, PA. His area of general interest is early modern British religious history, with a particular research focus on the theology and spirituality of English Puritanism and the Scottish Covenanters of the late 16th and 17th centuries, as disseminated through a nascent print culture and the preached word. His PhD from Queens University of Belfast (2019), supervised by Prof. Crawford Gribben, was entitled, Sir Archibald Johnston of Wariston: The Formation of a British Puritan (1611-38). He is a visiting professor of Church History at the Reformed Theological College (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and China Reformed Theological Seminary (Taipei, Taiwan). He also serves on the steering committee for the Puritan Theology in Post-Reformation Context program unit for the Evangelical Theological Society.
Supervisors: Crawford Gribben

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Papers by David G Whitla

Wariston at Prayer: Lessons on the Use and Abuse of Prayer from the Diary of a Covenanter

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal, 2023

Wariston at the Table: Lessons on the Use and Abuse of the Lord's Supper from the Diary of a Covenanter

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal, 2022

Wariston on the Word: Lessons on the Use and Abuse of Scripture from the Diary of a Covenanter

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal, 2021

"The Right Channel of New Obedience": Sanctification in the Sum of Saving Knowledge

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal, 2020

Four Centuries Ago: An Historical Survey of the Synod of Dort (1618-19)

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal , 2019

2019 marks the four-hundredth anniversary of the successful conclusion of one of the most signifi... more 2019 marks the four-hundredth anniversary of the successful conclusion of one of the most significant – and arguably one of the most overlooked – ecclesiastical assemblies in Church History. The Synod of Dort (1618-19) and the canons it produced have been both praised and denounced by historians and theologians for the past 400 years. Generally speaking, these widely different opinions have represented the winning and losing side of the great Calvinist-Arminian dispute, which the Synod sought to resolve. English Puritan Richard Baxter’s oft-cited opinion is representative of the victors at Dort: writing in 1656, he concluded, “The Christian World since the days of the Apostles has never seen a Synod of more excellent Divines than … [the Westminster Assembly] and the Synod of Dort.”2 Nineteenth-century American liberal theologian Charles Briggs represents a very different appraisal of Dort and its divines: “The scholastic theologians of … Holland perverted [the] precious doctrinal achievements of Calvinism into hard, stern, and barren dogmas … They divided the Calvinistic camp into two parties, scholastic Calvinists and moderate Calvinists.”3 But a close examination of the synod’s history and its canons reveals that this was not an unnecessary dispute over words between allegedly “moderate” and “stricter” Calvinists. While there were nuances of opinion at this as in every assembly of Christ’s Church, the Synod of Dort was a field of battle between two very different understandings of the Gospel. As such, it was a debate worth having, and because it is a debate that is very much alive in Christendom, this is a Synod still worth listening to. This essay contextualizes the Canons of Dort by offering a brief historical introduction.

“What Is My Present Life but a Death to Me?” Archibald Johnston of Wariston (1611–1663) and the Puritan Experience of Melancholy

Puritan Reformed Journal, 2019

One of the many benefits that the revival of interest in the Puritans has brought to the contempo... more One of the many benefits that the revival of interest in the Puritans has brought to the contemporary church is the renewed availability of their great pastoral manuals. Within the ever-expanding library of reprints, one of their most pastorally helpful productions is their masterful treatment of depression, or, to use their diagnostic glossary, melancholy. The skill with which these physicians of souls handled this perennial problem biblically and pastorally has guaranteed these works a lasting appeal and usefulness. What is harder to measure is the extent to which they impacted their original readership four centuries ago. Certainly, the abundance of titles that appeared in the seventeenth century and the multiple editions published suggest a healthy market, but less accessible are firsthand accounts from the sufferers themselves, recording their own struggles and the help they received from such works. One of the best ways to enter into the mental world of the seventeenth-century Puritan is to read their spiritual diaries and autobiographies. This article examines the experience and treatment of melancholy from the perspective of a sufferer: Sir Archibald Johnston of Wariston (1611-63), author of the Scottish National Covenant and member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines.

Telling Tales: A Survey of Scottish Covenanter Historiography

Reformed Theological Journal, 2017

Book Reviews by David G Whitla

Review: Chris R. Langley, Catherine E. McMillan, and Russell Newton, eds. The Clergy in Early Modern Scotland. St Andrews Studies in Scottish History. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2021. Pp. 271.

Journal of British Studies, 2023

"Review: Chris R. Langley (ed), The National Covenant in Scotland, 1638-1689 (Boydell, 2020)"

Journal of the Northern Renaissance, 2022

"Review: Whitney G. Gamble, Christ and the Law: Antinomianism at the Westminster Assembly (RHB, 2018)", Studies in Puritanism and Piety Journal 3 (2021)

Studies in Puritanism and Piety Journal, 2021

"Review: Chad Van Dixhoorn, Gods Ambassadors: The Westminster Assembly and the Reformation of the English Pulpit (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage, 2017)", Reformed Theological Journal 37 (2021)

Reformed Theological Journal, 2021

"Review: Alexander Campbell, The Life and Works of Robert Baillie (1602 1662): Politics, Religion, and Record-Keeping in the British Civil Wars" (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2017), Journal of the Northern Renaissance (2018)

Journal of the Northern Renaissance, 2018

"Review: Robert Letham, The Westminster Assembly: Reading Its Theology in Historical Context (P&R Phillipsburg, 2009),” Puritan Reformed Journal 3, no. 1 (2011): 378–85

Puritan Reformed Journal, 2011

Books by David G Whitla

The Sum of Saving Knowledge (ed. David G. Whitla)

Crown and Covenant Publications, 2022

Written in 1650 by two pastors (David Dickson and James Durham) to summarize the Westminster Stan... more Written in 1650 by two pastors (David Dickson and James Durham) to summarize the Westminster Standards for the lay person. So popular was the book, that it was bound with almost every edition of the Westminster Standards for the next three centuries and became a cherished part of the Scottish Reformed literary heritage—though it remains largely unknown today. This new gift edition, lightly edited and in modernized English, may again make The Sum a treasured companion for Christians at all stages of their journey. It also includes a newly created apparatus to help the reader easily locate specific sections.

Preaching and Sermons in Post-Reformation Scotland

A Companion to the Reformation in Scotland, c.1525–1638, 2021

Chapter Abstract: This chapter will reconstruct homiletic practices in the century following the ... more Chapter Abstract: This chapter will reconstruct homiletic practices in the century following the legal foundation (1560‒67) of the Reformation in Scotland. Paying attention to the primacy of preaching which advanced and contested the claims of Reformation, the chapter will use select print and manuscript material to uncover a lost aural world. The chapter will document the impact of linguistic and political change alongside changes in religious belief and practice, as the polity of the Kirk became increasingly disputed, and as English influences moved from the Laudianism of the 1630s to the radicalism of the 1650s. The study will draw upon recent scholarship to contextualize preaching and sermons in Scotland during this period in respect of homiletic practices elsewhere in the three kingdoms. Book Description: This book presents customized chapters by 28 authors on the evolution of the Scottish Reformation from the late 1520s to 1638. The book has broad thematic frameworks into which the specific chapters fit. There are 10 such major themes, namely: external and internal pressures for change; breakthrough and revolution; theological and philosophical formulations; varieties of dissemination and implementation; humanism and higher education; legal systems and moral order; appropriations in literary and popular cultures; outsiders; evolution of new national identity; historiographical traditions and prospective developments. While there are introductory elements, the chapters both recall previous studies and off er new research. Concerns of the book are to recall Reformation core religious dimensions and to highlight Scottish contribution to the rich tapestry of the Reformation in Europe. Contributors include: Alexander Broadie, Flynn Cratty, Jane E.A. Dawson, Timothy Duguid, Elizabeth Ewan, Paul R. Goatman, Michael F. Graham, Thomas Green, Crawford Gribben, W. Ian P. Hazlett, Ernest R. Holloway III, David Manning, Alan R. MacDonald, Alasdair A. MacDonald, John McCallum, Jamie McDougall, David G. Mullan, Gordon D. Raeburn, Andrew Spicer, Bryan D. Spinks, Scott R. Spurlock, Laura A.M. Stewart, Mark S. Sweetnam, Kristen Post Walton, David G. Whitla, Jack C. Whytock, and Arthur H. Williamson.

Portraits of Christ

Crown and Covenant, 2020

John Owen: Rules for Walking in Fellowship

Reformation Heritage Books, 2014

In Rules for Walking in Fellowship, English Puritan John Owen supplies struggling congregations w... more In Rules for Walking in Fellowship, English Puritan John Owen supplies struggling congregations with biblical guidelines for making church life in the present a foretaste of heavenly fellowship to come. He discusses both the responsibilities congregations have toward pastors as well as the duties members have toward one another. Together, Owen presents twenty-four rules for fostering gospel fellowship, supporting them with numerous proof texts, brief explanations, and words of motivation to keep them. His simple approach makes this book ideal for personal or small group study. Here, then, is a collection of indispensable biblical rules that will challenge Christians in any given congregation, of whatever denomination—a little gem that is at the same time doctrinal, practical, and ecumenical.

Teaching Documents by David G Whitla

A Study Guide to The Sum of Saving Knowledge

Crown and Covenant Publications, 2022

This 11-part Study Guide has been prepared as a companion to The Sum of Saving Knowledge (Crown a... more This 11-part Study Guide has been prepared as a companion to The Sum of Saving Knowledge (Crown and Covenant, 2022). This modern edition of the Reformed classic by David Dickson and James Durham has been prepared with small groups in mind and can be used as an evangelistic study, an introduction to Reformed theology, a theological refresher for seasoned Christians, or as a supplement for personal devotions.

Wariston at Prayer: Lessons on the Use and Abuse of Prayer from the Diary of a Covenanter

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal, 2023

Wariston at the Table: Lessons on the Use and Abuse of the Lord's Supper from the Diary of a Covenanter

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal, 2022

Wariston on the Word: Lessons on the Use and Abuse of Scripture from the Diary of a Covenanter

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal, 2021

"The Right Channel of New Obedience": Sanctification in the Sum of Saving Knowledge

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal, 2020

Four Centuries Ago: An Historical Survey of the Synod of Dort (1618-19)

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal , 2019

2019 marks the four-hundredth anniversary of the successful conclusion of one of the most signifi... more 2019 marks the four-hundredth anniversary of the successful conclusion of one of the most significant – and arguably one of the most overlooked – ecclesiastical assemblies in Church History. The Synod of Dort (1618-19) and the canons it produced have been both praised and denounced by historians and theologians for the past 400 years. Generally speaking, these widely different opinions have represented the winning and losing side of the great Calvinist-Arminian dispute, which the Synod sought to resolve. English Puritan Richard Baxter’s oft-cited opinion is representative of the victors at Dort: writing in 1656, he concluded, “The Christian World since the days of the Apostles has never seen a Synod of more excellent Divines than … [the Westminster Assembly] and the Synod of Dort.”2 Nineteenth-century American liberal theologian Charles Briggs represents a very different appraisal of Dort and its divines: “The scholastic theologians of … Holland perverted [the] precious doctrinal achievements of Calvinism into hard, stern, and barren dogmas … They divided the Calvinistic camp into two parties, scholastic Calvinists and moderate Calvinists.”3 But a close examination of the synod’s history and its canons reveals that this was not an unnecessary dispute over words between allegedly “moderate” and “stricter” Calvinists. While there were nuances of opinion at this as in every assembly of Christ’s Church, the Synod of Dort was a field of battle between two very different understandings of the Gospel. As such, it was a debate worth having, and because it is a debate that is very much alive in Christendom, this is a Synod still worth listening to. This essay contextualizes the Canons of Dort by offering a brief historical introduction.

“What Is My Present Life but a Death to Me?” Archibald Johnston of Wariston (1611–1663) and the Puritan Experience of Melancholy

Puritan Reformed Journal, 2019

One of the many benefits that the revival of interest in the Puritans has brought to the contempo... more One of the many benefits that the revival of interest in the Puritans has brought to the contemporary church is the renewed availability of their great pastoral manuals. Within the ever-expanding library of reprints, one of their most pastorally helpful productions is their masterful treatment of depression, or, to use their diagnostic glossary, melancholy. The skill with which these physicians of souls handled this perennial problem biblically and pastorally has guaranteed these works a lasting appeal and usefulness. What is harder to measure is the extent to which they impacted their original readership four centuries ago. Certainly, the abundance of titles that appeared in the seventeenth century and the multiple editions published suggest a healthy market, but less accessible are firsthand accounts from the sufferers themselves, recording their own struggles and the help they received from such works. One of the best ways to enter into the mental world of the seventeenth-century Puritan is to read their spiritual diaries and autobiographies. This article examines the experience and treatment of melancholy from the perspective of a sufferer: Sir Archibald Johnston of Wariston (1611-63), author of the Scottish National Covenant and member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines.

Telling Tales: A Survey of Scottish Covenanter Historiography

Reformed Theological Journal, 2017

Review: Chris R. Langley, Catherine E. McMillan, and Russell Newton, eds. The Clergy in Early Modern Scotland. St Andrews Studies in Scottish History. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2021. Pp. 271.

Journal of British Studies, 2023

"Review: Chris R. Langley (ed), The National Covenant in Scotland, 1638-1689 (Boydell, 2020)"

Journal of the Northern Renaissance, 2022

"Review: Whitney G. Gamble, Christ and the Law: Antinomianism at the Westminster Assembly (RHB, 2018)", Studies in Puritanism and Piety Journal 3 (2021)

Studies in Puritanism and Piety Journal, 2021

"Review: Chad Van Dixhoorn, Gods Ambassadors: The Westminster Assembly and the Reformation of the English Pulpit (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage, 2017)", Reformed Theological Journal 37 (2021)

Reformed Theological Journal, 2021

"Review: Alexander Campbell, The Life and Works of Robert Baillie (1602 1662): Politics, Religion, and Record-Keeping in the British Civil Wars" (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2017), Journal of the Northern Renaissance (2018)

Journal of the Northern Renaissance, 2018

"Review: Robert Letham, The Westminster Assembly: Reading Its Theology in Historical Context (P&R Phillipsburg, 2009),” Puritan Reformed Journal 3, no. 1 (2011): 378–85

Puritan Reformed Journal, 2011

The Sum of Saving Knowledge (ed. David G. Whitla)

Crown and Covenant Publications, 2022

Written in 1650 by two pastors (David Dickson and James Durham) to summarize the Westminster Stan... more Written in 1650 by two pastors (David Dickson and James Durham) to summarize the Westminster Standards for the lay person. So popular was the book, that it was bound with almost every edition of the Westminster Standards for the next three centuries and became a cherished part of the Scottish Reformed literary heritage—though it remains largely unknown today. This new gift edition, lightly edited and in modernized English, may again make The Sum a treasured companion for Christians at all stages of their journey. It also includes a newly created apparatus to help the reader easily locate specific sections.

Preaching and Sermons in Post-Reformation Scotland

A Companion to the Reformation in Scotland, c.1525–1638, 2021

Chapter Abstract: This chapter will reconstruct homiletic practices in the century following the ... more Chapter Abstract: This chapter will reconstruct homiletic practices in the century following the legal foundation (1560‒67) of the Reformation in Scotland. Paying attention to the primacy of preaching which advanced and contested the claims of Reformation, the chapter will use select print and manuscript material to uncover a lost aural world. The chapter will document the impact of linguistic and political change alongside changes in religious belief and practice, as the polity of the Kirk became increasingly disputed, and as English influences moved from the Laudianism of the 1630s to the radicalism of the 1650s. The study will draw upon recent scholarship to contextualize preaching and sermons in Scotland during this period in respect of homiletic practices elsewhere in the three kingdoms. Book Description: This book presents customized chapters by 28 authors on the evolution of the Scottish Reformation from the late 1520s to 1638. The book has broad thematic frameworks into which the specific chapters fit. There are 10 such major themes, namely: external and internal pressures for change; breakthrough and revolution; theological and philosophical formulations; varieties of dissemination and implementation; humanism and higher education; legal systems and moral order; appropriations in literary and popular cultures; outsiders; evolution of new national identity; historiographical traditions and prospective developments. While there are introductory elements, the chapters both recall previous studies and off er new research. Concerns of the book are to recall Reformation core religious dimensions and to highlight Scottish contribution to the rich tapestry of the Reformation in Europe. Contributors include: Alexander Broadie, Flynn Cratty, Jane E.A. Dawson, Timothy Duguid, Elizabeth Ewan, Paul R. Goatman, Michael F. Graham, Thomas Green, Crawford Gribben, W. Ian P. Hazlett, Ernest R. Holloway III, David Manning, Alan R. MacDonald, Alasdair A. MacDonald, John McCallum, Jamie McDougall, David G. Mullan, Gordon D. Raeburn, Andrew Spicer, Bryan D. Spinks, Scott R. Spurlock, Laura A.M. Stewart, Mark S. Sweetnam, Kristen Post Walton, David G. Whitla, Jack C. Whytock, and Arthur H. Williamson.

Portraits of Christ

Crown and Covenant, 2020

John Owen: Rules for Walking in Fellowship

Reformation Heritage Books, 2014

In Rules for Walking in Fellowship, English Puritan John Owen supplies struggling congregations w... more In Rules for Walking in Fellowship, English Puritan John Owen supplies struggling congregations with biblical guidelines for making church life in the present a foretaste of heavenly fellowship to come. He discusses both the responsibilities congregations have toward pastors as well as the duties members have toward one another. Together, Owen presents twenty-four rules for fostering gospel fellowship, supporting them with numerous proof texts, brief explanations, and words of motivation to keep them. His simple approach makes this book ideal for personal or small group study. Here, then, is a collection of indispensable biblical rules that will challenge Christians in any given congregation, of whatever denomination—a little gem that is at the same time doctrinal, practical, and ecumenical.

A Study Guide to The Sum of Saving Knowledge

Crown and Covenant Publications, 2022

This 11-part Study Guide has been prepared as a companion to The Sum of Saving Knowledge (Crown a... more This 11-part Study Guide has been prepared as a companion to The Sum of Saving Knowledge (Crown and Covenant, 2022). This modern edition of the Reformed classic by David Dickson and James Durham has been prepared with small groups in mind and can be used as an evangelistic study, an introduction to Reformed theology, a theological refresher for seasoned Christians, or as a supplement for personal devotions.