Preserving a Reformed Heritage


Book Description

This is the story of the Free Church of Scotland in the 20th Century. It outlines the life and witness of the Church throughout the century dealing with some of the issues which faced the Church in that period. A companion volume entitled 'A Divided Church', provides an account of the division which occurred in the Free Church of Scotland in 2000, a division that led to the emergence of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing). This is not an exhaustive history, nor is it an 'official' one. It is in the nature of 'Aspects of the History of the Free Church of Scotland in the 20th Century.' The Free Church itself reflected a confessional evangelical and reformed position throughout the century, though not without testing times, not least right at the end of the century.




Dissent and the Bible in Britain, C.1650-1950


Book Description

This book considers the use of the Bible by dissenters in Britain from the mid-17th to the mid-20th centuries. It reconsiders the divided history of Protestantism: dissenters were people drawn together by the belief that they were truer to the Bible than any other Christians, yet still divided by differences in how they read it.




Building on a Common Foundation


Book Description

In the second half of the nineteenth century Scottish Baptists like other Evangelical Protestant denominations were focusing more on things they had in common, such as a commitment to home evangelization and church-planting; providing a common fund to assist small and struggling congregations; the provision of theological education for the training of prospective pastors, together with the need to disseminate information between the churches concerning their progress in the work of the gospel. From the start of this Baptist Union in 1869 the numbers of churches and members grew steadily until 1935. It was a remarkable story of dedicated Christian service. Scottish Baptists came through two world wars, the social revolution of the 1960s, and the materialistic emphases of the 1980s with a significant degree of success in adapting their evangelistic activities to relate to their social context. There is little doubt that from the late 1980s the growing secularization in this country ensured that mission strategies adopted by these Scottish Christians were less successful than in previous decades. However, a revitalization of its work in the early years of the twenty-first century has given renewed grounds for hope for its work and witness in the coming years.




Pathways and Patterns in History


Book Description

Professor David Bebbington is a highly regarded historian. He holds a chair at the University of Stirling, has been President of the Ecclesiastical History Society, and has delivered numerous endowed lecture series, as well as being deeply involved in the Dr Williams’s Dissenting Academies Project. He is both a popular and influential academic historian, whose writings have significantly shaped our thinking about the history of evangelicalism, Baptist life, and political developments. In Pathways and Patterns, colleagues, former research students and friends who are indebted to Professor Bebbington and value his contribution to scholarship join together to pay tribute to his outstanding work. Not only has he stimulated academic endeavour, he has also given much personal support, not least to those in the Baptist Historical Society and in Colleges, among them Spurgeon’s College and Baylor University (USA) where he is a Distinguished Visiting Professor. This volume reflects his wide involvements and the grateful esteem in which he is held. Among Professor Bebbington’s achievements has been both instituting and masterminding the very important International Conference on Baptist Studies (ICOBS), held every three years in different parts of the world. It is appropriate, then, that this volume was presented to him at the Seventh ICOBS Conference held in Manchester, July 2015.




Metrical Psalmody in the Free Church of Scotland


Book Description

This booklet is an historical study of the place of Metrical Psalms in the public worship of the Scottish Reformed and Presbyterian Church. It maintains that only the Biblical materials of praise, without instrumental accompaniment have warrant for use in public worship services, a position well supported by the history of the practice of the Reformed and Presbyterian Churches in Scotland and elsewhere.