Arthur Balfour - Writings and Academic Achievements

Writings and Academic Achievements

Balfour's writings include:

• Defence of Philosophic Doubt (1879)
• The Humours of Golf, a chapter of the Badminton Library's volume on golf (1890)
• Essays and Addresses (1893).
• The Foundations of Belief, being Notes introductory to the Study of Theology (1895).
• Questionings on Criticism and Beauty (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1909), based on his 1909 Romanes Lecture.
• Theism and Humanism (1915), based on his first series of Gifford Lectures given in 1914 and still in print. In 1962, Oxford writer C. S. Lewis told Christian Century that Theism and Humanism was one of the ten books that most influenced his thought.
• Theism and Thought (1923) based on his second series of Gifford Lectures, given in 1922.

He was made an honorary Doctor of Laws of the University of Edinburgh in 1881, of the University of St Andrews in 1885, of the University of Cambridge in 1888, and of the Universities of Dublin and Glasgow in 1891, and an honorary Doctor of Civil Law of the University of Oxford in 1891. He was Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews in 1886 and of the University of Glasgow in 1890, Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh in 1891, and a member of the Senate of the University of London in 1888; . He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1888, was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1902, and was president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1904 and of the Aristotelian Society from 1914-15. He was known from early life as a cultured musician, and became an enthusiastic golf player, becoming captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 1894–1895.

He was also a member of the Society for Psychical Research, a society dedicated to studying psychic and paranormal phenomena, and was its president from 1892–1894.