Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history. On this episode we are talking about the figure Adam Smith.

He is known as the founder of the modern study of economics.

But there's a lot to Adam Smith.

Let's jump in.

Adam Smith was born in 1723 in County Fife in Scotland. His father was in the legal profession, sometimes

advocate, sometimes judge, and his father died when Adam Smith was only two months old. He was raised a good Scottish

Presbyterian by his mother, Margaret. Her maiden name was Douglas. A legend has it

that young Adam Smith was was if that is true. But what we do know is that at the age of 14 he entered Glasgow

University having mastered Latin, a little bit of history, a little bit of

law, and of course Bible and of course the Westminster Shorter

Catechism. He studied there at Glasgow took his degree he later studied at

Oxford at Balliol College in Oxford, but he clearly

preferred his native Scotland. So he went back. By 1751, Adam Smith was appointed chair of logic at the University of Glasgow, and

then in 1752 he was appointed chair of moral philosophy.

Now this was a very important position in Scotland,

a very important position, as it turns out,

in the history of the 18th century

and the history of ideas,

Adam Smith followed Francis Hutchinson.

Francis Hutchinson was the prior chair of moral philosophy,

published books on moral philosophy,

moral sentiment, and is seen as one of the founders of the Scottish

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