Guide to the John Murdoch MacInnis Papers

John Murdoch (also Murdock) MacInnis was born in Prince Edward Island, Canada, in 1871. In 1897 he went to northern Minnesota to do missionary work and in the same year he met and married Ida Elizabeth Coffin (1869-1959). In April 1898 he was ordained by the Red River Presbytery and served as a missionary pastor at Hallock, Minnesota (1898-1900), then as pastor of Macalester Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, and as chaplain of Macalester College chapel (1900-1901). After spending two years at Santa Clara, CA, he received a call to the Montrose Presbyterian Church, PA, (1903-1908). While at Montrose, he worked with Reuben A. Torrey to establish the Montrose Bible Conference and served as its secretary, 1914-1923. Subsequent pastorates included Gaston Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, (1909-1911); Park Street Presbyterian Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia, (1911-1913); and South Presbyterian Church, Syracuse, NY, (1913-1922).

MacInnis attended Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, for a period of time. Temple University School of Theology in Philadelphia conferred on him a B. D. degree in 1911. The Iowa Christian College awarded him a B. A. in 1913, and M. Litt. and Ph. D. degrees in 1914. In 1920 the University of Syracuse awarded him a D. Litt.

In 1922 MacInnis accepted a teaching position at The Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA), and was made dean in 1924 when Reuben A. Torrey left that position. MacInnis reorganized the curriculum and questioned some of the financial transactions of the preceding administration. When his book, Peter, the Fisherman Philosopher, based on a series of lectures he had given at Moody Bible Institute in 1922, and officially endorsed by the Board of Directors, was published, it came under fire from militant Fundamentalists, who accused MacInnis of being a Modernist. The dismissal of two staff members, M. H. Reynolds and Besse D. McAnlis, exacerbated the situation. At first the Board of Directors stood firmly behind MacInnis, refusing to accept his resignation, but as pressure grew more intense the Board on November 6, 1928, accepted his resignation, effective December 31, 1928, in the middle of the school year. Several members of the Board of Directors and of the BIOLA staff resigned in protest, and some students withdrew from the school. After MacInnis left, the new Board destroyed the remaining copies and type forms of MacInnis' book. The controversy aroused considerable attention in the religious as well as the secular press, with leading Fundamentalists supporting or opposing MacInnis.

The Bible Institute of Los Angeles maintained the Hunan Bible Institute, Changsha, China, as its China Department. In 1924 MacInnis visited China, speaking at colleges, conferences, and churches.

After leaving BIOLA, MacInnis worked for the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), the Synod of California and the Presbytery of Los Angeles. He developed and conducted leadership schools, spoke at conferences, preached, and wrote for publication.