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Southeastern Ph.D. students receive SBC research grants


WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)–Two Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary doctoral students have received research grants from the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives.

The $500 competitive grants will help the students — James Hilton and Thomas White — travel to Nashville and complete work at the library. It is a rare feat for two students from the same school to receive grants in the same year, said Keith Harper, a professor of church history at Southeastern.

Bill Sumners, the library’s director and archivist, noted, “There have been years when we have received no applications from Southern Baptist seminaries, so to have two Ph.D. students from the same institution apply for grants and receive them in the same year is pretty amazing.”

Harper said the grants are open to any scholar. Researchers from institutions like Yale University and the University of California at Berkeley have received grants in the past.

White is doing research on 19th-century pastor and theologian J.M. Pendleton while Hilton is studying Robert Boyte Crawford Howell, one of the first presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“I consider it an honor to have the opportunity to study and retell the story of one of our great Baptist forefathers,” White said. “I am further honored that I have been given a grant to help me accomplish this task. The Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives serves a great purpose by ensuring that our Baptist legacy is not forgotten and by encouraging people like me to research our hallowed past.”
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  • Jason Hall