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International Conference on Baptist Studies VI

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Wake Forest, NC
July 11-14, 2012

Following five successful International Conferences on Baptist Studies at Oxford in 1997, Wake Forest University Divinity School in 2000, IBTS Prague in 2003, Acadia Divinity College (Canada) in 2006, and Whitley College Melbourne, there will be a sixth at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (North Carolina, USA), from Wednesday 11 to Saturday 14 July 2012.  All of these conferences have taken Baptists as their subject matter, but participation has not been restricted to Baptists, either as speakers or attendees.  The theme this time is ‘Mirrors and Microscopes: Historical Perceptions of Baptists’, which includes Baptist self-appraisals, the views of others about Baptists, and the treatment of Baptists in historiography of all types.  What have been the different and sometimes conflicting ways in which Baptists have understood themselves and their mission?  How have other contemporaries looked at the Baptists?  How have historians represented – and misrepresented – the denomination?  The theme will be explored by means of case studies, some of which will be very specific in time and place while others may cover long periods and more than one country.

A number of main papers will address key aspects of the subject, but offers of short papers, to last no more than 25 minutes in delivery, are very much welcome as well.  They should relate in some way to the theme of ‘Historical Perceptions of Baptists’.  The proposed title should be submitted to Professor D. W. Bebbington, School of History and Politics, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, United Kingdom (e-mail: d.w.bebbington@stir.ac.uk).  Papers from the first conference appeared as The Gospel in the World: International Baptist Studies, edited by David Bebbington, and volumes representing the subsequent conferences have been published in the series Studies in Baptist History and Thought (Paternoster Press) or are currently being prepared for publication.  We intend that a volume containing many of the papers will again appear after the sixth conference.

Full board over the three days will be provided at low cost.  The provisional program and information about bursaries for speakers from outside North America and Western Europe are available below.  For further information contact Professor Richard Pierard (e-mail: charrichp@aol.com), a member of the international continuation committee that co-ordinates the conference.

Program:

Download Conference Program

Bursaries:

Download the Bursaries

Registration: