Bebbington to Speak Nov. 1 on History of Baptists and Seminoles in Indian Territory

October 29, 2019

Dr. David Bebbington will return to Bison Hill Friday, Nov. 1, to deliver a lecture on Baptists and Seminoles in Indian territory in the 1840’s to 1907. The lecture will take place in the Tulsa Royalties Auditorium inside Bailey Business Center on the OBU campus from 4-5:30 p.m. The public is invited. His visit is presented by OBU’s Hobbs College of Theology and Ministry, the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences, and the Native American Student Association.

Bebbington is emeritus professor of history at the University of Stirling in Scotland, where he began teaching in 1976. He has also taught at the University of Alabama, Birmingham; Regent College, Vancouver; Notre Dame University, Indiana; University of Pretoria, South Africa; and on many occasions as Visiting Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He was an undergraduate at Jesus College in Cambridge from 1968-71. He began his doctoral studies in 1971 before becoming a research fellow at Fitzwilliam College in Cambridge in 1973.

Bebbington’s principal research interests are in the history of religion, politics, ideas and society in Britain during the eighteenth century, and in the history of the global evangelical movement. He has written numerous books, including, “Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s,” “Victorian Nonconformity,” “William Ewart Gladstone: Faith and Politics in Victorian Britain,” “Holiness in Nineteenth-Century England,” “The Dominance of Evangelicalism: The Age of Spurgeon and Moody,” “Victorian Religious Revivals: Culture and Piety in Local and Global Contexts,” “Baptists through the Centuries: A History of a Global People,” and “Patterns in History: A Christian Perspective on Historical Thought.”

He has made speaking appearances on Bison Hill many times over the years. In 2009, he presented a lecture called, “Gladstone as Preacher and Reader.” In 2011, he spoke at OBU through several lectures on “Baptists and Enlightenment.” In 2014, he spoke as a special guest lecturer, in a forum titled, “Segregation, Seven-Day Revivals and Tuesday Night Visitation: Continuity and Change in Baptist Life.” He returned again to campus in 2017 to participate in a Philosophy Forum panel as well as present a chapel lecture on the life of William Carey.