Malibu : Pepperdine Receives $94,000

A $94,000 grant has been awarded to Pepperdine University to help a professor develop a history of the Churches of Christ and to help finance a conference on Christian primitivism at the Malibu campus next year, a university spokesman said.

Most of the grant awarded by the Pew Charitable Trusts will be used to support the work of Richard Hughes, a professor of religion, who is writing a book tracing the history of the Churches of Christ. The book is to be included in the “Denominations of America” series, to be published by Greenwood Press, university spokesman Jeff Bliss said.

Pepperdine has maintained a close relationship with the Churches of Christ since the university was founded in 1937 by George Pepperdine, a lifelong member of the denomination.

The conference, titled “Christian Primitivism and Modernism: Coming to Terms with Our Age,” is expected to bring together scholars and leaders of primitivist Christian groups from all over the United States, Bliss said.