Festschrift Honors Prominent British Baptist Historian
Pathways and Patterns in History: Essays on Baptists, Evangelicals, and the Modern World in Honour of David Bebbington
Edited by Anthony R Cross, Peter J Morden and Ian M Randall
London/Didcot: Spurgeon’s College/The Baptist Historical Society, 2015
Professor David Bebbington is a highly regarded historian. He holds a chair at the University of Stirling, and is both a popular and influential academic historian, whose writings have significantly shaped our thinking about the history of evangelicalism, Baptist life, and political developments.
In Pathways and Patterns, colleagues, former research students and friends join together to pay tribute to his outstanding work. Not only has he stimulated academic endeavour, he has also given much personal support, not least to those in the Baptist Historical Society and in Colleges, among them Spurgeon’s College and Baylor University (USA) where he is a Distinguished Visiting Professor. This volume reflects his wide involvements and the grateful esteem in which he is held.
Among Professor Bebbington’s achievements has been both instituting and masterminding the very important International Conference on Baptist Studies (ICOBS), held every three years in different parts of the world. It is appropriate, then, that this volume was presented to him at the Seventh ICOBS Conference held in Manchester, July 2015. The Editors are Anthony R. Cross, a Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford; Peter J. Morden , Vice Principal and Lecturer in Church History and Spirituality, Spurgeon’s College, London and Ian M. Randall, Senior Research Fellow, Spurgeon’s College, London, and a Research Associate of the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide.
Timothy George, Dean Beeson Divinity School, Samford University says, ‘Here is a collection of sparkling essays, weighty and well-researched, in honour of one of our most consequential Christian scholars. A worthy tribute to a great historian.’
Nigel G. Wright, Principal Emeritus of Spurgeon’s College, writes, ‘David Bebbington is the doyen of evangelical historians, a position of esteem justly gained by disciplined and meticulous research allied to creative flair and interpretation.’
There are 19 chapters, as well as a preface, introduction and complete bibliography; the first chapter is written by the subject’s wife, Eileen, and covers ‘The Nottingham Legacy’ of David Bebbington’s life. 9 chapters are devoted to ‘Baptist Studies’, 5 on ‘Evangelical Studies’ and the rest on ‘Socio-political studies’.