David William Bebbington (born 25 July 1949) is a British historian who is a professor of history at the University of Stirling in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and a distinguished visiting professor of history at

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

Biography

Bebbington was born in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

, England, on 25 July 1949 and was raised in

Sherwood Sherwood may refer to: Places Australia *Sherwood, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Sherwood, South Australia, a locality *Shire of Sherwood, a former local government area of Queensland *Electoral district of Sherwood, an electoral district from ...

, a northern suburb of Nottingham. An undergraduate at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

(1968–1971), Bebbington began his doctoral studies there (1971–1973) before becoming a research fellow of

Fitzwilliam College Fitzwilliam College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college traces its origins back to 1869 and the foundation of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, a venture intended to offer academically excellent students of all ...

(1973–1976). Since 1976 he has taught at the University of Stirling, where since 1999 he has been Professor of History. He was President of the

Ecclesiastical History Society The Ecclesiastical History Society (EHS) is a British learned historical society founded in 1961 to foster interest in, and to advance the study of, all areas of the history of the Christian Church through twice yearly conferences and publication ...

(2006–2007).

Bebbington quadrilateral

Bebbington is widely known for his definition of evangelicalism, referred to as the ''Bebbington quadrilateral'', which was first provided in his 1989 classic study ''Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s''. Bebbington identifies four main qualities which are to be used in defining evangelical convictions and attitudes: * Biblicism: a particular regard for the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

(e.g. all essential spiritual truth is to be found in its pages) * Crucicentrism: a focus on the

atoning Atonement (also atoning, to atone) is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other ex ...

work of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...

on the cross * Conversionism: the belief that human beings need to be converted * Activism: the belief that

the gospel The gospel or good news is a theological concept in several religions. In the historical Roman imperial cult and today in Christianity, the gospel is a message about salvation by a divine figure, a savior, who has brought peace or other benefits ...

needs to be expressed in effort Bebbington (along with Mark Noll and others) has exerted a large amount of effort in placing evangelicalism on the world map of religious history. Through their efforts they have made it more difficult for scholars to ignore the influence of evangelicals in the world since the movement’s inception in the eighteenth century.

Works

Thesis

Books

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

David W. Bebbington's academic faculty page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bebbington, David 1949 births 20th-century British historians 21st-century British historians Academics of the University of Stirling Alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge British Baptists Fellows of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Historians of Christianity Living people People from Nottingham Presidents of the Ecclesiastical History Society