Bampton Lectures Explained

The Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford, England, were founded by a bequest of John Bampton.^[1] They have taken place since 1780.

They were a series of annual lectures; since the turn of the 20th century they have typically been biennial. They continue to concentrate on Christian theological topics. The lectures have traditionally been published in book form. On a number of occasions, notably at points during the 19th century, they attracted great interest and controversy.

Lecturers (incomplete list)

1780–1799

• 1780 – James Bandinel Eight Sermons preached before the University of Oxford
• 1781 – Timothy Neve Eight Sermons preached before the University of Oxford
• 1782 – Robert Holmes^[2] The Prophecies and Testimony of John the Baptist, and the parallel Prophecies of Jesus Christ
• 1783 – John Cobb Eight sermons preached before the University of Oxford
• 1784 – Joseph White Mahometism and Christianity^[3]
• 1785 – Ralph Churton On the Prophecies Respecting the Destruction of Jerusalem
• 1786 – George Croft Eight Sermons preached before the University of Oxford
• 1787 – William Hawkins Discourses on Scripture Mysteries
• 1788 – Richard Shepherd The Ground and Credibility of the Christian Religion
• 1789 – Edward Tatham Chart and Scale of Truth^[4]
• 1790 – Henry Kett^[5] A Representation of the Conduct and Opinions of the Primitive Christians, with Remarks on Gibbon and Priestley
• 1791 – Robert Morres Eight sermons preached before the University of Oxford
• 1792 – John Eveleigh Eight Sermons Preached before the University of Oxford
• 1793 – James WilliamsonThe Truth, Inspiration, Authority, and End of the Scriptures, considered and defended
• 1794 – Thomas Wintle Expediency, Prediction, and Accomplishment of the Christian Redemption Illustrated
• 1795 – Daniel Veysie The Doctrine of Atonement illustrated and defended
• 1796 – Robert Gray, Sermons on the Principles Upon Which the Reformation of the Church of England was Established
• 1797 – William Finch Objections of Infidel Historians and Other Writers Against Christianity
• 1798 – Charles Henry Hall Fulness of Time
• 1799 – William Barrow Answers to some Popular Objections against the Necessity or the Credibility of the Christian Revelation

1800–1824

• 1800 – George Richards The Divine Origin of Prophecy Illustrated and Defended
• 1801 – George Stanley Faber Horae Mosaicae
• 1802 – George Frederic Nott Religious Enthusiasm
• 1803 – John Farrer Sermons on the Mission and Character of Christ and on the Beatitudes
• 1804 – Richard Laurence An attempt to illustrate those articles of the Church of England, which the Calvinists improperly consider as Calvinistical
• 1805 – Edward Nares A View of the Evidences of Christianity at the End of the Pretended Age of Reason^[6]
• 1806 – John Browne, Fellow of Corpus Christi College Sermons preached before the University of Oxford^[7]
• 1807 – Thomas Le Mesurier The Nature and Guilt of Schism
• 1808 – John Penrose An Attempt to Prove the Truth of Christianity
• 1809 – John Bayley Somers Carwithen A view of the Brahminical religion
• 1810 – Thomas Falconer Certain Principles in Evanson's Dissonance of the 'Four generally received Evangelists' ^[8]
• 1811 – John Bidlake The Truth and Consistency of Divine Revelation
• 1812 – Richard Mant An Appeal to the Gospel
• 1813 – John Collinson A Key to the Writings of the Principal Fathers of the Christian Church who flourished during the first three centuries ^[9]
• 1814 – William Van Mildert The General Principles of Scripture-Interpretation
• 1815 – Reginald Heber The Personality and Office of the Christian Comforter
• 1816 – John Hume Spry Christian Union Doctrinally and Historically Considered
• 1817 – John Miller The Divine Authority of Holy Scripture
• 1818 – Charles Abel Moysey The Doctrines of Unitarians Examined
• 1819 – Hector Davies Morgan A Compressed View of the Religious Principles and Practices of the Age^[10]
• 1820 – Godfrey Faussett The Claims of the Established Church to exclusive attachment and support, and the Dangers which menace her from Schism and Indifference, considered
• 1821 – John Jones The Moral Tendency of Divine Revelation
• 1822 – Richard Whately The Use and Abuse of Party Feeling in Matters of Religion
• 1823 – Charles Goddard^[11] The Mental Condition Necessary to a due Inquiry into Religious Evidence
• 1824 – John Josias Conybeare An Attempt to Trace the History and to Ascertain the Limits of the Secondary and Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture^[12]

1825–1849

• 1825 – George Chandler The Scheme of Divine Revelation Considered
• 1826 – William Vaux The Benefits Annexed to a Participation in the Two Christian Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper
• 1827 – Henry Hart Milman Character and Conduct of the Apostles Considered as an Evidence of Christianity
• 1828 – Thomas Horne The Religious Necessity of the Reformation
• 1829 – Edward Burton Inquiry into the Heresies of the Apostolic Age
• 1830 – Henry Soames An inquiry into the doctrines of the Anglo-Saxon church
• 1831 – Thomas William Lancaster The Popular Evidence of Christianity
• 1832 – Renn Dickson Hampden The Scholastic Philosophy considered in its relation to Christian Theology^[13]
• 1833 – Frederick Nolan Analogy of Revelation and Science Established
• 1834 – Richard Laurence An Attempt to illustrate those Articles of the Church of England which the Calvinists improperly consider as Calvinistical
• 1836 – Charles Atmore Ogilvie Eight Sermons
• 1837 – Thomas S. L. Vogan The Principal Objections against the Doctrine of the Triniy
• 1838 – Henry Arthur Woodgate The Authoritative Teaching of the Church
• 1839 – William Daniel Conybeare An analytical examination into ... the writings of the Christian Fathers during the Ante-Nicene period
• 1840 – Edward Hawkins Connected Principles
• 1841 – Samuel Wilberforce was invited to lecture butwithdrew^[14] following the death of his wife Emily
• 1842 – James Garbett Christ, as Prophet, Priest, and King
• 1843 – Anthony Grant The Past and Prospective Extension of the Gospel By Missions to the Heathen
• 1844 – Richard Wiliam Jelf An inquiry into the means of grace, their mutual connection, and combined use, with especial reference to the Church of England
• 1845 – Charles Abel Heurtley Justification^[15]
• 1846 – Augustus Short The Witness of the Spirit with our Spirit
• 1847 – Walter Augustus Shirley^[16]
• 1848 – Edward Garrard Marsh The Christian Doctrine of Sanctification^[17]
• 1849 – Richard Michell The Nature and Comparative Value of the Christian Evidences^[18]

1850–1874

• 1850 – Edward Meyrick Goulburn The Resurrection of the Body
• 1851 – Henry Bristow Wilson The Communion of Saints
• 1852 – Joseph Esmond Riddle The Natural History of Infidelity and Superstition in contrast with Christian Faith
• 1853 – William Thomson The Atoning Work of Christ viewed in Relation to some Ancient Theories
• 1854 – Samuel Waldegrave New Testament Millenarianism^[19]
• 1855 – John Ernest Bode The Absence of Precision in the Formularies of the Church of England
• 1856 – Edward Arthur Litton The Mosaic Dispensation Considered as Introductory to Christianity
• 1857 – William Edward Jelf Christian Faith, Comprehensive, not Partial; Definite, not Uncertain
• 1858 – Henry Longueville Mansel The Limits of Religious Thought
• 1859 – George Rawlinson Historic Evidence for the Truth of the Christian Records
• 1860 – James Augustus Hessey On Sunday: its Origin, History, and Present Obligation
• 1861 – John Sandford The Mission and Extension of the Church at Home
• 1862 – Adam Storey Farrar A Critical History of Free Thought in reference to the Christian Religion
• 1863 – John Hannah The Relation between the Divine and Human Elements in Holy Scripture
• 1864 – Thomas Dehany Bernard The Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament
• 1865 – James Bowling Mozley Miracles^[20]
• 1866 – Henry Parry Liddon The Divinity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
• 1867 – Edward Garbett Dogmatic Faith, an inquiry into the relation subsisting between revelation and dogma
• 1868 – George Moberly The Administration of the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ
• 1869 – Robert Payne Smith Prophecy a Preparation for Christ
• 1870 – William Josiah Irons Christianity as Taught by St. Paul
• 1871 – George Herbert Curteis Dissent, in Its Relation to the Church of England
• 1872 – John Richard Turner Eaton The Permanence of Christianity
• 1873 – Isaac Gregory Smith Characteristics of Christian Morality
• 1874 – Stanley Leathes The Religion of the Christ

1875–1899

• 1875 – William Jackson, FSA Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford The Doctrine of Retribution
• 1876 – William Alexander The Witness of the Psalms to Christ and Christianity
• 1877 – Charles Adolphus Row Christian evidences viewed in relation to modern thought
• 1878 – Charles Henry Hamilton Wright Zechariah and his Prophecies Considered in Relation to Modern Criticism^[21]
• 1879 – Henry Wace The Foundations of Faith
• 1880 – Edwin Hatch The Origin of Early Christian Churches
• 1881 – John Wordsworth The One Religion: truth, holiness and peace desired by the nations, and revealed by Jesus Christ
• 1882 – Peter Goldsmith Medd The One Mediator
• 1883 – William Henry Fremantle The World as the Subject of Redemption
• 1884 – Frederick Temple The Relations between Religion and Science^[22]
• 1885 – Frederic William Farrar The History of Interpretation
• 1886 – Charles Bigg The Christian Platonists of Alexandria
• 1887 – William Boyd Carpenter Permanent Elements of Religion
• 1888 – Robert Edward Bartlett The Letter and the Spirit
• 1889 – Thomas Kelly Cheyne The Origin and Contents of the Psalter
• 1890 – Henry William Watkins Modern Criticism considered in its Relation to the Fourth Gospel
• 1891 – Charles Gore The Incarnation of the Son of God
• 1892 – Alfred Barry Some Light of Science on the Faith
• 1893 – William Sanday Inspiration^[23]
• 1894 – John Richardson Illingworth Personality, Human and Divine
• 1895 – Thomas Banks Strong Christian Ethics
• 1897 – Robert Lawrence Ottley Aspects of the Old Testament
• 1899 – William Ralph Inge Christian Mysticism (online text)

1900–1949

• 1901 – Archibald Robertson Regnum Dei
• 1903 – William Holden Hutton The Influence of Christianity Upon National Character
• 1905 – Frederick William Bussell Christian Theology and Social Progress
• 1907 – James Hamilton Francis Peile Reproach of the Gospel: An Inquiry into the Apparent Failure of Christianity
• 1909 – Walter Hobhouse Church and the World: in Idea and in History
• 1911 – John Huntley Skrine Creed and the Creeds: Their Function in Religion
• 1913 – George Edmundson The Church in Rome in the First Century
• 1915 – Hastings Rashdall The Idea of Atonement in Christian Theology
• 1920 – Arthur Cayley Headlam Doctrine of the Church and Christian Reunion
• 1922 – Leighton Pullan Religion Since the Reformation
• 1924 – Norman Powell Williams The Ideas of the Fall and of Original Sin
• 1926 – Alfred Edward John Rawlinson New Testament Doctrine of the Christ
• 1928 – Kenneth E. Kirk The Vision of God: The Christian Doctrine of the Summum Bonum
• 1930 – Laurence Grensted Psychology and God a study of the implications of recent psychology for religious belief and practice
• 1932 – B. H. Streeter Buddha and the Christ
• 1934 – Robert Henry Lightfoot History and Interpretation in the Gospels
• 1936 – Frank Herbert Brabant Time and eternity in Christian thought
• 1938 – Alfred Guillaume Prophecy and Divination among the Hebrews and other Semites
• 1940 – George Leonard Prestige Fathers and Heretics
• 1942 – Trevor Gervase Jalland The Church and the Papacy: a Historical Study
• 1944 – Spencer Leeson Christian Education
• 1946 – Philip Arthur Micklem The Secular and the Sacredhttp://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100483b.htm
• 1948 – Austin Farrer The Glass of Vision

1950–1999

• 1952 – Robert Leslie Pollington Milburn Early Christian Interpretations of History
• 1954 – Henry Ernest William Turner The Pattern of Christian Truth: A Study in the Relations Between Orthodoxy and Heresy in the Early Church
• 1955 – Thomas Maynard Parker Christianity and the State in the Light of History
• 1956 – E. L. Mascall Christian Theology and Natural Science: Some Questions on their Relations
• 1958 – John Gordon Davies He Ascended Into Heaven
• 1960 - Eric Waldram Kemp "Counsel and Consent"
• 1962 – Alan Richardson History Sacred and Profane
• 1964 – Stephen Neill Church and Christian Union
• 1966 – David Edward Jenkins The Glory of Man
• 1968 – Frederick William Dillistone Traditional Symbols and the Contemporary World
• 1970 – Cheslyn Jones Christ and Christianity: a study in origins in the light of St Paul
• 1972 – Howard E. Root "The Limits of Radicalism"^[24]
• 1974 – Peter Baelz The Forgotten Dream: Experience, Hope and God
• 1976 – Geoffrey W. H. Lampe God As Spirit
• 1978 – A. R. Peacocke Creation and the World of Science
• 1980 – Anthony E. Harvey Jesus and the Constraints of History
• 1982 – Peter Hinchcliff Holiness and Politics
• 1984 – J. A. T. Robinson The Priority of John
• 1986 – Maurice Wiles God's Action in the World
• 1988 – John Barton "People of the Book?"
• 1990 – Alister E. McGrath Genesis of Doctrine: a Study in the Foundations of Doctrinal Criticism
• 1992 – Colin Gunton The One, the Three and the Many: God, Creation and the Culture of Modernity
• 1994 – Eric William Heaton The School Tradition of the Old Testament
• 1996 – Ursula King Christ in All Things: Exploring Spirituality With Teilhard De Chardin

2000–present

• 2000 – John Habgood Varieties of Unbelief
• 2001 – David Fergusson Church, State and Civil Society
• 2003 – Oliver O'Donovan The Ways of Judgment
• 2005 – Paul S. Fiddes Seeing the world and knowing God: ancient wisdom and modern doctrine
• 2007 – Raymond Plant Religion, Citizenship and Liberal Pluralism
• 2009 – Richard Parish Catholic Particularity in Seventeenth-Century French Writing: Christianity is Strange ^[25]
• 2011 – Frances Young God's Presence: A Contemporary Recapitulation Of Early Christianity^[26]
• 2013 – Michael Banner Imagining life: Christ and the human condition^[27]
• 2015 – David F. Ford, Daring Spirit: John's Gospel Now
• 2017 – George Pattison A Phenomenology of the Devout Life^[28]
• 2019 – Peter Harrison Rethinking Relations Between Science and Religion^[29] YouTube Published as Some New World: Myths of Supernatural Belief in a Secular Age''
• 2021 – Jessica Martin Four-Dimensional Eucharist ^[30]
• 2022 - Alec Ryrie The age of Hitler, and how we can escape it
• 2023 - Willie James Jennings Jesus and the Displaced: Christology and the Redemption of Habitation
• 2024 - Rowan Williams Recognizing Strangers: Solidarity and Christian Ethics

See also

• Bampton Lectures (Columbia University)
• Hulsean Lectures

External links

• Bampton Lectures from Project Canterbury with links to all known online Bampton Lectures
• Bampton Lectures
• General bibliography, good source for Bampton Lectures volumes (PDF)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Bampton Lectures (Nuttall Encyclopædia) . WOBO . 20 February 2024. Bampton bequeathed funds for the annual preaching of eight divinity lecture sermons on the leading articles of the Christian faith, of which 30 copies are to be printed for distribution among the heads of houses..
2. Dictionary of National Biography, article Holmes, Robert (1748–1805).
3. Book: A comparison of Islam and Christianity in their history, their evidence and their effects . 1784 .
4. Web site: Archived copy . rylibweb.man.ac.uk . 13 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20010211201628/http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data1/dg/methodist/bio/biot.html . 11 February 2001 . dead.
5. http://198.82.142.160/spenser/BiographyRecord.php?action=GET&bioid=35386 Biography: Anonymous on Rev. Henry Kett
6. Nares used de Luc to support a conservative stance in his 1805 Bamptons, which was still sympathetic to geology unlike his later works. Archive.org, 2006.
7. https://archive.org/details/cu31924029180657 Sermons preached before the University of Oxford
8. Against the views of Edward Evanson. PDF, pp. 26–29.
9. https://archive.org/details/keytowritingsofp00coll A Key to the Writings of the Principal Fathers of the Christian Church who flourished during the first three centuries
10. https://biography.wales/article/s-MORG-DAV-1785 Dictionary of Welsh Biography
11. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Goddard, Charles (1769/70–1848), Church of England clergyman by W. M. Jacob.
12. https://archive.org/details/bamptonlecturesf00cony Internet Archive
13. Strongly attacked by John Henry Newman's pamphlet Elucidations of Dr. Hampden's Theological StatementsAnglican History.
14. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/29385Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
15. https://archive.org/details/justificationeig00heur Justification
16. https://www.whistonweb.co.uk/history/shirley.htm Bishop Shirley died, having given only two of the lectures
17. The Bampton Lectures for 1848 were given by another Evangelical, Edward G. Marsh, a former Fellow of Oriel, and now incumbent of Aylesford, Kent.Web site: EvanTheo2 . 2013-09-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120205185427/http://www.anglicanbooksrevitalized.us/Peter_Toons_Books_Online/History/evantheo2.htm . 2012-02-05 .
18. Concise Dictionary of National Biography.
19. After one of the most comprehensive and learned reviews of the history of the doctrine, he came out infavor of a qualified millennialist view. Papal Rome is certainly the mystical Babylon, and although its fall has not yet truly taken place, it is shortly to be expected. ((PDF)
20. The book is the last statement, by a great English Protestant theologian, of a world of divinity which henceforth vanished except in the scholastic manuals. (PDF)
21. http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc12/htm/ii.xxvi.ix.htm Wright, George Frederick
22. In his Bampton Lectures of 1884 he defended the proposition that the physical operation of the universe was determined, implying that God does not interfere with it. Temple asserted that God's superintendence of the world, including the evolution of life, was guaranteed through God's original creative decree. In his view the theory of evolution left the argument for an intelligent creator stronger than before.Web site: Archived copy . 2006-12-20 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070208195000/http://www.hssonline.org/society/about/newsletter/older/gregory.html . 2007-02-08 .
23. For many years the Bampton Lectures at Oxford had been considered as adding steadily and strongly to the bulwarks of the old orthodoxy. [...] But now there was an evident change. The departures from the old paths were many and striking, until at last, in 1893, came the lectures on Inspiration by the Rev. Dr. Sanday, Ireland Professor of Exegesis in the University of Oxford. In these, concessions were made to the newer criticism, which at an earlier time would have driven the lecturer not only out of the Church but out of any decent position in society ...https://lachlan.bluehaze.com.au/1860-essays-reviews/a-d-white.html
24. Now available as Howard E. Root, Theological Radicalism and Tradition: 'The Limits of Radicalism' with Appendices, ed. Christopher R. Brewer. London and New York: Routledge, 2017.
25. as described in the French Studies OUP 2011,
26. Web site: Lectures and Seminars, Hilary term 2011 . Oxford University Gazette Supplement (1) to No 4938 Vol 141 . . 2011-01-12 . 2013-04-21.
27. Web site: Lectures and Seminars, Hilary term 2013 . Oxford University Gazette Supplement (1) to No 5009 Vol 143 . . 2013-01-09 . 2013-04-21.
28. Web site: Towards a phenomenology of the devout life. University of Oxford. 6 April 2017.
29. Web site: Rethinking Relations Between Science and Religion. 20 March 2019.
30. Web site: The Bampton Lectures.