September 17, 2025
Douglas Sweeney, dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University and author of The American Evangelical Story and numerous works on revivalist Jonathan Edwards, will be the keynote speaker at B.H. Carroll Theological Seminary’s Frank and Pauline Patterson Fall Lecture Series, Nov. 17-18, 2025, in Arlington.
“Dr. Sweeney is one of the world’s leading experts on Jonathan Edwards and the First Great Awakening, as well as the emergence and continued transformation of what has come to be known as Evangelicalism,” Carroll Dean and Professor of New Testament Gene Wilkes said. “Since this segment of the Christian faith in our country finds itself at a crossroad of sorts, I cannot think of a more relevant figure to speak to us about important aspects of American religion.”
The Patterson Lecture Series, in conjunction with Carroll Seminary’s Colloquy, is a biannual gathering of doctoral students for instruction from noted scholars in the fields of Biblical Studies, Theology, Christian History, Counseling, and other fields. The Patterson Lecture Series is open to all seminary students, local university faculty and students, and guests from area churches. Sweeney, who has taught at Aquinas College, the University of Heidelberg, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Yale Divinity School, will speak on the “Evangelical Supernatural.”
The event is offered free of charge and will be held at First Baptist Church in Arlington. While in-person attendance is encouraged, the lecture series will also be available online. Registration may be completed online at www.ETBU.edu/colloquy through Oct. 31, 2025 (for in-person attendance) and Nov. 14, 2025 (for online attendance).
Sweeney is the author or editor of more than 20 books on the history of Christian doctrine, early modern Protestant history, American church history, Christology, and global evangelicalism. His latest book is called The Substance of Our Faith: Foundations for the History of Christian Doctrine (Baker Academic). It is the first of two volumes on the global history of doctrine, or the history of the teaching of the Christian faith in churches all around the world since the time of the apostles.
For more information about B. H. Carroll Theological Seminary at East Texas Baptist University, go to www.ETBU.edu/bhcarroll.