Bampton Lectures

Bampton Lectures, a series so called after the name of their founder, the Rev. John Bampton, a minor canon of Salisbury, who at his death in 1751 left £120 per annum to the university of Oxford, for the endowment of eight divinity-lecture sermons, to be preached at Great St Mary's every year, and to be published, at the expense of the estate, within two months of their delivery. The lectures are directed to be upon the following subjects: 'to confirm and establish the Christian faith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics; upon the divine authority of the holy Scriptures—upon the authority of the writings of the primitive Fathers as to the faith and practice of the primitive Church—upon the divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ—upon the divinity of the Holy Ghost—upon the articles of the Christian Faith as comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.' Only men who have taken the degree of M. A., either at Oxford or Cambridge, are qualified for election, and the same person shall never be chosen twice. The first course was delivered in 1780, since when, with the exception of the years 1834, 1835, and 1841, there has been an unbroken series of very valuable, but rather learned than popular discourses. None of these have caused such controversy as the lectures delivered by Dr Hampden (q.v.) in 1832, on 'The Scholastic Philosophy considered in its Relation to Christian Theology,' which were attacked on all sides, their author being accused of Rationalism and Socinianism. Other more eminent lecturers have been Heber (1815), Whately (1822), Milman (1827), and Horne (1828). The course delivered by Dean Mansel (q.v.) in 1858, on 'The Limits of Religious Thought,' also gave rise to an interesting, but less bitter discussion. Since then, Canon Liddon's lectures (1866) on 'Our Lord's Divinity,' Hatch on 'Early Christian Organisation' (1880); Bigg on the 'Christian Platonists of Alexandria' (1886); Canon Gore on 'The Incarnation' (1891); and Illingworth on 'Personality Human and Divine' (1894), have been among the most important. The similar Hulsean Lectures (q.v.) at Cambridge are treated elsewhere.