Anthony Clarke and Paul Fiddes, Dissenting Spirit: A History of Regent's Park College, 1752-2017 (Oxford: Centre for Baptist History and Heritage, 2017)
I spent three years of my life at Regent's Park College, Oxford, and I remain still a semi-regular visitor. My links to the College also continue as I edit Regent's Reviews. It was interesting then to read this brand new history of the College by Anthony Clarke and Paul Fiddes. Published in the year that the college celebrates 60 years as a PPH of the University Oxford and 90 years since first arriving in Oxford. The College's first home was in Stepney in 1810, then a move to Regent's Park, where it gets its name, in 1856, before a third home in 1927, where it remains in the centre of Oxford. Clarke and Fiddes trace how the College has grown and changed in relation to the preparation of Baptist ministers, broader education and its relation to the churches. Regent's is unique amongst the Baptist Colleges and probably lots of centres for ordination training. It's faced many challenges, including, not unexpectedly financial ones.
I was especially interested in the College's most recent history from the time of the Principal Barrie White (he became principal in 1972) to the present. Fiddes has been associated with the college from this point and Clarke from the early 1990s. At times this probably means they are too close to the events, (both are still college Fellows), but they seek not to shy away from trying to tell the story truthfully and making critical observations. This of course is harder with regard to the nearly the two decades Fiddes himself was Principal (1989-2007). The title Dissenting Spirit of course references that the college always been a Baptist, and thus, dissenting institution and although that sense of dissent as it was historically understood has largely disappear, the title might suggest, at least in the eyes of Clarke and Fiddes, that it seeks to retain a dissenting spirit. Here dissent not being what the college stands against, but what it stands for, an institution that values community and the cultivation of a Christian mind, not just of the bible and theology, but all subjects. The College continues, in not always an easy climate, to be a witness of thinking in community for the sake of the wider community.
It's future, especially with regard to the ongoing training and formation of Baptist ministers, will remain an interesting one. No doubt the story sixty years on will see many more changes.
For those interested in reading the history, copies will be available via the College's website.
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