John William McGarvey

John William (J. W.) McGarvey (March 1, 1829 – October 6, 1911) was a minister, author, and religious educator in the American Restoration Movement. He was particularly associated with the College of the Bible in Lexington, Kentucky (today Lexington Theological Seminary) where he taught for 46 years, serving as president from 1895 to 1911. He was noted for his opposition to theological liberalism and higher criticism. His writings are still influential among the heirs of the conservative wing of the Restoration Movement, the Churches of Christ and Christian churches and churches of Christ.

McGarvey was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, to John McGarvey, an Irish immigrant who was proprietor of a general store, and Sarah Ann Thomson. John McGarvey died when J.W. was four years old, and after a very few years his mother married Gurdon Flower Saltonstall, a doctor and hemp farmer. The McGarvey/Saltonstall family moved to Tremont, Illinois, in 1839. J.W. attended a private school there taught by James Kellogg. Tremont was heavily populated with transplanted New Englanders, including his Connecticut-bred teacher Kellogg, and was a broadening experience for young McGarvey.

McGarvey's religious upbringing was significant; his mother had been a student of the prominent Restoration Movement leader Barton W. Stone, and his stepfather left a portion of his inheritance to Alexander Campbell's Bethany College, with the interest to go toward the tuition of any of his sons that might attend. Still, young McGarvey was unsure of his salvation and questioned the teaching on the subject that he heard from local preachers.

McGarvey attended Bethany College from 1847 to 1850, where he was taught by Alexander Campbell, W. K. Pendleton, and Robert Richardson. McGarvey was baptized by Pendleton in 1848. He was deeply impressed by his mentor's elderly father Thomas Campbell and attended devotional services in their home in addition to his regular classes and chapel assemblies. Though he was pursuing Classical studies and not ministry at Bethany, he determined to become a preacher if his speaking ability developed sufficiently by the time of his graduation.

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