Revisiting Baptist thinking for today 

A new monthly online reading group focusing on past Whitley Lectures is set to run throughout 2024. Andy Goodliff explains more  

 
Starting in 2024 is a new monthly opportunity to read and reflect together, via Zoom, from the Centre for Baptist Studies. The focus for this reading group will be revisiting past Whitley Lectures.

The Whitley Lecture is an annual lecture by a Baptist offered through the Colleges and in other ways. It was first established in 1949 in honour of WT Whitley (1861–1947), the Baptist minister and historian. The lecture is designed as an encouragement to research and writing by Baptist scholars, and to enable the results of this work to be published. 

It was relaunched in 1996 and since then has covered a whole range of topics from politics, the Bible, women, children, the Lord’s Supper, suffering, worship, and more.

Once given and once heard, it can be quickly forgotten. An opportunity to revisit some of them offers a chance to think again about whatever the theme might be.
 
The Centre for Baptist Studies, based at Regent’s Park College, has various aims, but one of them is to help Baptists, both ministers and members of congregations, to think about their faith and ask what if anything might our being Baptist bring to bear on a question or issue.
 
All the Whitley Lectures up to 2017 can be read here for free on the Biblical Studies website here. This website is run by Rob Bradshaw, the librarian at Spurgeon’s College, and it is a treasure trove of material. To join this reading group will therefore cost you nothing.
 
The idea is you read the Lecture for that month in advance and come ready to talk about it (or even listen to others talk about it) on Zoom. The date and time will be the third Tuesday of the month, 8-9pm.
 
On some occasions we hope the author of the Lecture will be able to join us and offer their own reflections on what they wrote, for many, quite a long time ago.
 
Here’s the plan:
 

• Jan 16  Power and Discipleship: towards a Baptist Theology of the State - Nigel Wright (1996)   
• Feb 20 Reinventing the Wheel: Women and Ministry in English Baptist Life - Ruth Gouldbourne (1997)
• Mar 19 A Shared Meal and A Common Table: Some reflections on the Lord’s Supper - Keith Jones (1998)     
• Apr 16 Seen and Heard: Reflections on Children and Baptist Tradition - Anne Phillips (1999)
• May 21 Tradition and Renewal in Baptist Life - Steve Holmes (2003)
• June 18 Being Human: A Black British Christian Woman’s Perspective - Kate Coleman  (2006)
• July 16 More Light and Truth? Biblical Interpretation in Covenantal Perspective - Sean Winter (2007)    
• Sept 17  How Can we Sing the Lord’s Song? Worship in and out of the Church - Craig Gardiner (2008)
• Oct 15 A Thousand Crucifixions: The Materialist Subversion of the Church? - Sally Nelson (2009)
• Nov 19 Wrestling with the Word: A Woman Reads Scripture - Anne Clements (2011)
• Dec 17 Always On the Way and in the Fray: Reading the Bible as Baptists - Helen Dare (2014) 

If interested or want to sign up, email Andy Goodliff andrew.goodliff@regents.ox.ac.uk You will then receive an email with the Zoom link each month