Undergraduate Jonny Woods at the University of St Andrews was given the task by senior lecturer in Systematic Theology, Dr Stephen Holmes, of trying to crack a series of sermon notes using one document which existed in both shorthand and longhand.
The theoligian Andrew Fuller lived in the late 18th and early 19th century and became a leader of the British Baptist denomination.
Despite minimal schooling, Fuller published the hugely influential text, The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, which changed the history of the Baptists.
The work brought the baptists into the evangelival revival and Fuller also founded the Baptist Mission Society alongside William Carey, with Fuller staying in the UK encouraging people to financially and prayerfully support mission abroad.
Dr Stephen Holmes from St Andrews told Premier Christian Radio about the time he first thought the theological musings could be read: “These pages of shorthand sermon notes were in an archive at Bristol Baptist College – they kindly allowed me to come and look at them…everybody had said ‘you can’t read them, nobody knows how to read the shorthand, it’s impenetrable’ but I thought I ought to go and look”.
Dr Holmes took a day to sit with the books and initially agreed that they were too difficult but noticed that the titles were written normally. He then found a ‘Confession of Faith’ from 1782, of which…
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