Dr Iain Provan visits Laidlaw College

Laidlaw College recently had the great privilege of welcoming visiting scholar Dr Iain Provan, Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies at Regent College to its campuses in Christchurch and Auckland.

During his visit Dr Provan delivered two public lectures. The first lecture in Christchurch on Tuesday 5 July was divided into two parts – How the Christian Story Was Lost from Western Culture (1648-2011) and What Are We To Do About It? – and was enthusiastically received by the 80 people who attended.

The lecture in Auckland on Monday 1 August was on The Way We (Really) Were: History and Faith where Dr Provan traced the history of epistemology (how we know) and the influences of archaeology and philosophy on the formation of ideas. An audio recording of this lecture will be available on our website until the end of September.

Dr Provan also spent time in conversation with our academic staff on both campuses, preached an excellent message at our weekly community gathering on Psalm 23 and met with a number of the student leaders on the Auckland campus. Opportunities to engage with international scholars of Dr Provan’s calibre are rare, and Laidlaw College would like to thank Dr Provan for making the time to be with us, and the members of Sydney’s Gospel Conversations Group for sponsoring his visit and enabling him to incorporate New Zealand as a stopover en-route.

Iain Provan received his MA at Glasgow University in Mediaeval History and Archaeology in 1977; his BA from London Bible College in Theology in 1980; and his PhD from Cambridge in 1987. His thesis focused on the books of Kings.