2024 – Revisiting the Whitley Lectures.

Starting in 2024 is a new monthly opportunity to read and reflect together, via Zoom, from the Centre for Baptist Studies. The focus for this reading group will be revisiting past Whitley Lectures.

The Whitley Lecture is an annual lecture by a Baptist offered through the Colleges and in other ways. It was first established in 1949 in honour of WT Whitley (1861–1947), the Baptist minister and historian. The lecture is designed as an encouragement to research and writing by Baptist scholars, and to enable the results of this work to be published.

It was relaunched in 1996 and since then has covered a whole range of topics from politics, the Bible, women, children, the Lord’s Supper, suffering, worship, and more.

Once given and once heard, it can be quickly forgotten. An opportunity to revisit some of them offers a chance to think again about whatever the theme might be.

All the Whitley Lectures up to 2017 can be read here for free on the Biblical Studies website here. This website is run by Rob Bradshaw, the librarian at Spurgeon’s College, and it is a treasure trove of material. To join this reading group will therefore cost you nothing.

The idea is you read the Lecture for that month in advance and come ready to talk about it (or even listen to others talk about it) on Zoom. The date and time will be the third Tuesday of the month, 8-9pm.

On some occasions we hope the author of the Lecture will be able to join us and offer their own reflections on what they wrote, for many, quite a long time ago.

Here’s the plan:

If interested or want to sign up, email Andy Goodliff andrew.goodliff@regents.ox.ac.uk You will then receive an email with the Zoom link each month

Latest video:


2023 Group – Reading ‘Tracks and Traces’ by Paul Fiddes