Cunningham Lectures

Webster was a surgeon in the East India Company who, after returning to Edinburgh, was one of the great benefactors of the Free Church. Along with the lectures, he provided Cunningham Fellowships to assist ‘poor but pious’ students at New College, the New College Library, and for Free Church home missions. Through the Cunningham Lectures, Webster was ‘desirous of advancing the Theological Literature of Scotland’, and modelled them after similar lectureships in England. To this end, when they were first established, the lecturer was to deliver at least six lectures and to print and to publish ‘at his own risk’ 750 copies of the lectures, within a year of their delivery.

The lectures were to cover the range of theological topics, including home and foreign missions. Many of the earliest lecturers were ministers of the Free Church such as Robert Candlish and Robert Rainy, two New College principals who succeeded Cunningham, whereas more recent lecturers have included Allan Boesak, Miroslav Volf, Peter Phan, and Shawn Copeland.

Past lectures