Barnes, Albert

Barnes, Albert, 1798–1870, American Presbyterian clergyman, b. Rome, N.Y. From 1830 he was pastor of the First Church in Philadelphia, mother church of the Presbyterian denomination in America. In the schism (1837–70) in Presbyterianism between the strict Calvinists and those whose views had become tinged with New England liberalism, Barnes's opinions and writings placed him with the liberal wing. His commentaries on biblical books, published as Notes: Explanatory and Practical (rev. ed., 6 vol., 1872), attracted wide attention.