They were a series of annual lectures; since the turn of the 20th century they have sometimes been biennial. They continue to concentrate on Christian theological topics. It is a condition of the Bampton Bequest that the lectures are published by the lecturer; they have traditionally been published in book form, and recent ones are available as video recordings. On a number of occasions, notably at points during the 19th century, they attracted great interest and controversy.
Lecturers (incomplete list)
Links to the text of some of the lectures up to 1920 are available at the Project Canterbury Web site.[2]
1780–1799
1780 – James BandinelEight Sermons preached before the University of Oxford
1781 – Timothy NeveEight Sermons preached before the University of Oxford
1782 – Robert Holmes[3]The Prophecies and Testimony of John the Baptist, and the parallel Prophecies of Jesus Christ
1819 – Hector Davies MorganA Compressed View of the Religious Principles and Practices of the Age[11]
1820 – Godfrey FaussettThe Claims of the Established Church to exclusive attachment and support, and the Dangers which menace her from Schism and Indifference, considered
1821 – John JonesThe Moral Tendency of Divine Revelation
1822 – Richard WhatelyThe Use and Abuse of Party Feeling in Matters of Religion
1823 – Charles Goddard[12]The Mental Condition Necessary to a due Inquiry into Religious Evidence
1824 – John Josias ConybeareAn Attempt to Trace the History and to Ascertain the Limits of the Secondary and Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture[13]
1825–1849
1825 – George ChandlerThe Scheme of Divine Revelation Considered
1826 – William VauxThe Benefits Annexed to a Participation in the Two Christian Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper
1827 – Henry Hart MilmanCharacter and Conduct of the Apostles Considered as an Evidence of Christianity
1828 – Thomas HorneThe Religious Necessity of the Reformation
1829 – Edward BurtonInquiry into the Heresies of the Apostolic Age
1830 – Henry SoamesAn inquiry into the doctrines of the Anglo-Saxon church
1841 – Samuel Wilberforce was invited to lecture but withdrew[15] following the death of his wife Emily
1842 – James GarbettChrist, as Prophet, Priest, and King
1843 – Anthony GrantThe Past and Prospective Extension of the Gospel By Missions to the Heathen
1844 – Richard Wiliam JelfAn inquiry into the means of grace, their mutual connection, and combined use, with especial reference to the Church of England
^"Bampton Lectures (Nuttall Encyclopædia)". WOBO. Retrieved 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.
^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.
^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 ...[1]Archived February 15, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
^Published as Root, Howard Eugene; Brewer, Christopher R. (2018). Theological Radicalism and Tradition: 'The Limits of Radicalism' with Appendices. London, New York: Routledge. ISBN978-1-138-09246-4.