Copeland, David A.

About the author: David A. Copeland is Associate Professor of Mass Communications at Emory & Henry college. He earned his doctorate from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina and his master of theology degree in church history from Southeastern Baptists Theological Seminary. He has written extensively on the colonial press and on media and religion, including Colonial American Newspapers: Character and Content and Debating the Issues in Colonial Newspapers. He is currently president of the American Journalism Historians Association, and was named 1998 Virginia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation.

Benjamin Keach and the Development of Baptist Traditions in Seventeenth-Century England

2001 0-7734-7566-4
This study traces one of the major groups of English religious dissenters by studying the life and controversies surrounding one of the group’s principal figures. As the acknowledged leader of Baptists from around 1675 to his death in 1704, Keach helped establish many of the theological positions of Baptists. His greatest accomplishment was the reintroduction of congregational hymn singing among English Protestants. This look at Baptists and dissenters of 17th century England is based in Keach’s thirty-five books and pamphlets as well as the writings of those who opposed him.