| Unit name | Baptist History and Principles (Trinity and Baptist College) |
|---|---|
| Unit code | THRS30045 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52) |
| Unit director | Professor. Liveley |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of Religion and Theology |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
College Unit Code: C32021
College Unit Director: Stephen Finamore
The unit will integrate history and principles. It will begin with historical questions about the origins of English Baptists and move to doctrinal issues of ecclesiology and initiation. Lectures will cover:
1. the development of General and Particular Baptists;
2. the New Connection;
3. mid-eighteenth-century high Calvinism;
4. the rise of associations;
5. the founding and early history of the Baptist Missionary Society;
6. early moves towards Union;
7. ministerial training;
8. nineteenth-century controversies;
9. social conscience,
10. the ecumenical movement and other twentieth-century developments, including the impact of the mission context on the tradition.
Particularly significant individuals will provide points of focus, for example, Spurgeon and Clifford. The various issues of principle, such as those of authority, confessions, religious freedom, will be taken up at appropriate points of the course.
The unit aims to:
1. give an account of the history of mainly English Baptists from their origins to the present day;
2. examine the theological principles which are part of Baptist identity;
3. indicate the contemporary debates among Baptists, with special reference to the ecumenical context.
On completion of the unit students will:
1. have a good grasp of the history of English Baptists from their origins to the present day;
2. be able to analyse and evaluate how Baptist principles and polity have taken different forms in history;
3. be able to engage critically with contemporary issues for present day British Baptists, especially in an ecumenical context.
The unit consists of mainly class lectures and some seminars. Learning will be by lecture and classroom debate and discussion. The study of Baptist principles will take both a lecture and case study approach.
Two essays of 3000 words each
1. Fiddes, P.S., Tracks and Traces (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2003)
2. Haymes, B., Gouldbourne, R and Cross, A.R., On Being the Church; Revisioning Baptist Identity, Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2008
3. Hayden, R., English Baptist History and Heritage (Didcot: Baptist Union of Great Britain, 2005)
4. Hayden, R. (ed.), Baptist Union Documents 1948-1977 (Didcot: The Baptist Historical Society, 1980)
5. White, B.R. The English Baptists of the Seventeenth Century (Didcot: The Baptist Historical Society, 1983).
6. Wright, N.G., Free Church, Free State, (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2005)
