Donald MacKenzie MacKinnon was born on 27 August 1913 in Oban, Scotland. A philosopher and theologian, his genius was in his ability to connect themes in analytic philosophy, Christian doctrine, literature, and politics. Fellow and Tutor at Keble College, Oxford in 1937, he held the Wilde Lectureship in Natural and Comparative Religion in 1945. At thirty-four years old, MacKinnon was appointed Regius Chair of Moral Philosophy at the university of Aberdeen in 1947, and his final position was Norris-Hulse Chair of Divinity at Cambridge from 1960 to 1976.
Fellow of the British Academy in 1978 and Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1984, he was awarded honorary degrees from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Stirling. His renown as a speaker was confirmed by invitations to lecture at Cambridge, Exeter, and the London School of Economics. Important works include Christian Faith and Communist Faith (1953), A Study in Ethical Theory (1957), Borderlands of Theology (1968), and Themes in Theology: the Three-Fold Cord (1987). Two Festschriften were published in his honour: The Philosophical Frontiers of Christian Theology (1982) and Christ, Ethics and Tragedy (1989).
