Revd Dr Simon Woodman

Minister of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church and Baptist Chaplain of King’s College London

Simon Woodman is the Minister of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in London’s West End, and the Baptist Chaplain of King’s College London. Formerly a lecturer in biblical studies at Cardiff University and at Cardiff Baptist College, he is a dynamic and innovative speaker, leader, academic, and Baptist minister.

Simon is committed to excellence in education, empowering others, and widening inclusion. He is not afraid to push boundaries and champion radical values, while collaborating and engaging widely to bring about transformation.

Simon is often asked to speak about the Book of Revelation, and has a reputation for opening up this often opaque and difficult text in ways that are both accessible and relevant. He also has an interest in Baptist history and hermeneutics. His approach is both scholarly and contemporary, and he likes to help people to think.

For further information and additional publications, please visit Simon’s online profile.

Virtual lectures

Simon is available to deliver his lectures online, via Zoom. Please ask about this option when making your booking.

Publications

The Book of Revelation: Currents in British Research on the Apocalypse, ed. with Garrick V. Allen and Ian Paul, (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015)

The ‘plainly revealed’ Word of God: Baptist Hermeneutics in Theory and Practice, ed. with Helen Dare, (Macon GA: Mercer University Press, 2011)

Prayers of the People, ed. with Karen E. Smith, (Oxford: Centre for Baptist History and Heritage, 2011)

The Book of Revelation, SCM Core Text, (London: SCM Press, 2008)

Lecture titles

Building a Vision for the Common Good: the church as light and water to a dark and thirsty world
There is an important question to be asked, when it comes to considering a properly Christian response to the common good, and it is this: What, in the world, are we here for? This lecture unpacks an understanding that the church is here to be good news to those who live beyond its own community – to the lost, the lonely, and the least – and to be good news to those who are not like ‘us’. The church (universal and local) is here, in this world, to build a vision for the common good.
Can the Book of Revelation be a Gospel for the Environment?
The ‘good news’ of the book of Revelation is often understood as ‘bad news’ for the environment. This lecture explores how Revelation’s scenes of environmental destruction might be understood as ‘images of warning’, designed to provoke repentance on the part of the nations. The prophetic call for the church is thus heard as the call to enact a faithful witness to a non-exploitative view of humanity and the earth.
It’s the End of the World as we Know it: everything you ever wanted to know about the Book of Revelation in an hour
There have always been people who have sought to predict the date of the end of the world – and yet here we still are and the world is still turning. In this talk Simon Woodman addresses what it might mean to think of the ‘end times’ differently, and offers a way of reading Revelation which is both scholarly and relevant to contemporary readers. Addressing topics including 666, the rapture, the millennium, and the renewal of all things, this is a fascinating introduction to this often little-read book from the end of the Bible.
Stoned in the Pulpit: the provocative preaching of Hanserd Knollys
On St Valentine’s Day 1645, at the height of the English Civil War, a Baptist preacher named Hanserd Knollys began to preach a sermon at the village of Debenham in Suffolk. However, it is uncertain how far through his notes he was able to get before he was interrupted by an act of civil disturbance. This lecture explores the nature of preaching as a contextually-related activity. Although Baptists such as Knollys were quick to declaim the authority of the text, it may be it is more the preacher and context which write the text, than it is the text which shapes its reception.
Turn or Burn! A nonviolent reading of fire and burning in the Book of Revelation
Revelation can seem to depict an unambiguously fiery end to those who will not turn to God. This lecture explores how an alternative reading emerges when the text is approached from the perspective of a nonviolent hermeneutic. To this end, the tradition of Anabaptist nonviolence is used as a hermeneutical key to engage the imagery of fire and burning in the book of Revelation.