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OBU—Oklahoma Baptist University

Bebbington to Speak Sept. 4-8 as Special Guest Lecturer

September 3, 2014

Dr. David Bebbington, religious scholar and professor of history at the University of Stirling, Scotland, will visit OBU's campus Sept. 4-8. Bebbington, who also spoke on campus in 2005, comes as a special guest lecturer.

Bebbington has been a member of the history department of the University of Stirling since 1976. He also taught at the University of Alabama, Regent College in Vancouver, University of Pretoria in South Africa, Notre Dame University and Baylor University.

Thursday, Sept. 4 at 7:30 p.m., in the Tulsa Royalties Auditorium, Bebbington will be part of a forum titled "Segregation, Seven-Day Revivals and Tuesday Night Visitation: Continuity and Change in Baptist Life." The event is an OBU community forum on historical practice and its modern results. Paul Roberts, vice president for information integration and dean of library services, will moderate. The panel will include Dr. Stan Norman, provost and executive vice president for campus life; Dr. Andy Finch, pastor, First Baptist Church, Blanchard, Oklahoma; Dr. Bobby Kelly, Ruth Dickinson professor of religion; and Dr. D.H. Dilbeck, assistant professor of history. A reception will be held following the event.

Bebbington will speak during campus chapel service Friday, Sept. 5, at 10 a.m. in Raley Chapel's Potter Auditorium. He will speak on the Parable of the Mustard Seed from Luke 13:18-19, continuing the parables of the Gospel of Luke fall chapel series.

Monday, Sept. 8, at 10 a.m., he will host an address titled "The Christian-Classical View of the Past in the Middle Ages." The event will take place in the Tulsa Royalties Auditorium in the Bailey Business Center on the OBU campus. That evening at 7 p.m., he will host a community address titled "Revivals, Revivalism and Baptists," also in the Tulsa Royalties Auditorium.

For over 30 years, Bebbington has been lecturing around the world. In 2012, he published, "Victorian Religious Revivals: Culture and Piety in Local and Global Contexts," where he detailed case-studies of awakenings that took place between 1841 and 1880 in Britain, North America and Australia.

Dale Griffin, dean of spiritual life, said he is excited for this opportunity. "We are pleased Dr. Bebbington is an honored guest and is speaking as part of our Parables of the Kingdom chapel series. He is uniquely gifted to speak on the Parable of the Mustard Seed as found in the Gospel of Luke," he said.

The Distinguished Speakers Committee formed in 2004 as a student initiative. The committee is dedicated to bring nationally- and internationally-known speakers, such as Bebbington, to the OBU campus for co-curricular academic discourse.