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Woman hater. Fanatic. Ruthless revolutionary. Such charges have been made against John Knox. What is his legacy, both negative and positive? What can Christians today learn from his life and teachings? We put these questions to David F. Wright, former dean of the faculty of divinity at the University of Edinburgh and a longtime editorial adviser for Christian History

How do people today view John Knox?

Knox has a bad press in Scotland nowadays. He’s become a bogey figure blamed for various ills. He’s thought of as a misogynist, a woman hater. Knox is also seen as an insolent, arrogant person given to harshness and even cruelty. And whenever someone discusses the development of music or theater, Knox (and Calvinism in general) gets blamed for any tendency in Scotland to want to censor or restrict artistic freedom.

How true are these charges?

There is a bit of substance in all of them, but the modern picture is greatly exaggerated and reflects little awareness of Knox and his work.

For example, people remember his notorious The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. However, the title is often misunderstood, but regiment simply means “rule,” and monstrous means “not in accord with nature.” Knox is objecting to women as monarchs, not damning the whole lot. In other writings, you see him acting in an extremely tender and affectionate way toward women. Even in the exchanges between him and Mary Queen of Scots, he’s defiant because he believes he’s standing on principle, but he remains remarkably respectful.

One shouldn’t forget, also, that Knox produced visionary ideals for Scotland. The First Book of Discipline is a kind of manifesto for a Christian commonwealth; it is far-seeing about the need for universal education for children, about universities, and about relief for the poor.

What did Knox give the religious reformation in Scotland? Would it have happened without him?

I suppose there would have been reformation of some kind, just as there was in most other European nations. And Knox didn’t work alone.

But Knox was the most important preacher and leader of reform by a long way. Clearly, he must have been a major drafter of The Scots Confession and The First Book of Discipline. He’s terribly important also because he spearheaded the rejection of the papacy without (as happened in England) leaving the church subject to the monarch. He drastically purified the church—a much more thorough reformation than the one England was experiencing at the same time.

Were there efforts at reform within the Catholic church?

The pre-Reformation Catholic church in Scotland was at a low ebb spiritually. It didn’t have high levels of piety, learning, or theological scholarship.

Still, in the 1540s, councils of the old church, spearheaded by a fine archbishop, John Hamilton, produced commendable reform proposals, but they remained paper reforms. Hamilton even sponsored a catechism that spoke strongly about justification by faith. But there simply wasn’t enough spiritual vigor to carry through the changes and make the Protestant movement unnecessary.

How would you respond to people who say that Knox purified worship to the point that it lost much of its beauty?

In The Book of Common Order or “Knox’s Liturgy,” as it’s sometimes called, the prayers become long and wordy. The prayers become like sermons, as do the exhortations in the Communion service. I don’t see Knox at his best in that context. But the concentration on Scripture and preaching was very important.

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