Introducing Bebbington

I have a teddy bear that I have owned probably since 2002. Someone from church gave him to me and I tried to name him, but no name stuck. Well, since I have moved to Chicago, this bear has found a special place in my life and now lives on my bed.

I was talking to one of my roommates about him and his namelessness. She suggested that I pick some type of name that has to do with Grad school. I looked over at the bear, patted him on the head and jokingly said “Hello little Bebbington.” While laughing at this, my roommate and I looked at each other with surprise. The name fits! It sounds kind of close to Paddington Bear. So, introducing Bebbington.

Where did the name Bebbington come from? One of the world’s foremost scholars on Evangelicals is David Bebbington. He is credited with the generally recognized four-part definition of Evangelical. The Bebbington Quadrilateral (as it is referred to) is conversionism, activism, Biblicism, and crucicentrism. I first heard of D. Bebbington in my first year at NABC. This last few weeks, he has come up in several of my assigned readings, and over the last week, I even read one of his books Titled “Patterns in History: A Christian Perspective on Historical Thought.”

In addition to this, my program advisor had D. Bebbington as his PhD advisor so Dr. Larsen teaches in a manner that has been greatly impacted by D. Bebbington. And I LOVE the way Dr. Larsen combines the scholarly world with practical Christian application along with his obvious pastoral heart.

So there you go. The following is a picture of Bebbington holding a book written by his namesake.