Bill J. Leonard Papers (MS 539), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Colelctions and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
The materials were donated by Dean Bill J. Leonard in the fall of 2010 and processed in the fall of 2011. MS539
The collection is primarily open, though certain files may be closed.
Bill J. Leonard was the founding dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity. After his retirement from this position in 2010, he remained on the faculty roster as a Professor of Church History and in 2011 was named the James and Marilyn Dunn Professor of Baptist Studies. He was educated at Texas Wesleyan University (BA); Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MDiv); Boston University (PhD); and Franklin College (DD)
Bill J. Leonard holds appointments in both the Wake Forest University Divinity School and the Department of Religion. From May, 1996 until June, 2010 he served as founding dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity. From 1975-1992 he was Professor of Church History at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. He then served as chair of the department of religion and philosophy, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, from 1992-1996. A Baptist minister and native Texan, Leonard served as interim pastor of over 25 congregations in Kentucky, Indiana, Connecticut, Alabama and North Carolina. During the 1988-1989 school year, he was visiting professor at the Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka, Japan. In 1980-81 he was a visiting scholar at Yale Divinity School.
Recognized for his work in American, Southern and Baptist religious studies, Leonard is the author or editor of some seventeen books including The Nature of the Church (Broadman Press, 1986); Becoming Christian: Dimensions of Spiritual Formation (Westminster/John Knox, 1990); God’s Last and Only Hope: The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention (Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990), Christianity in Appalachia: Profiles in Regional Pluralism (University of Tennessee Press, 1999 ); Baptist Ways: A History ( Judson Press, 2003); Baptists in America (Columbia University Press, 2005); and The Challenge of Being Baptist (Baylor University Press, 2010). He has published over 400 articles in such journals and periodicals at Church History; Christian Century; Review and Expositor; Religion and American Culture; The Baptist Times (London); Hebrew Studies; Perspectives on Religious Studies; and The Journal of Religion, Disability and Health.
Leonard has received or participated in grants from groups or foundations such as Lilly Endowment Inc., Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Jesse Ball DuPont Fund, and the Louisville Institute. Leonard is a frequent commentator on American religion in periodicals such as the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor; Christianity Today; the Boston Globe and the Charlotte Observer. He is married to Candyce Crew Leonard, a professor of communication at Wake Forest. With their daughter, Stephanie, they are members of First Baptist Church, Highland Avenue, the oldest African American Baptist congregation in Winston-Salem.
The materials are arranged primarily as the creator arranged them. Some items, however, were located in several boxes so the processor incorporated them into the creator's arrangement. Later arrangement attempted to reduce the number of series and subseries in the collection.
Copyright for materials resides with the creators of the items in question or their descendents, unless otherwise designated. Users of this collection are responsible for using the materials in conformance with U.S. Copyright laws.
Additional accruals are expected.