Gabriel Stelian Manea is a Lecturer (Ph.D.) at the Faculty of History and Political Science, “Ovidius” University of Constanța, who earned his doctorate in History in 2013 with a dissertation on Romania’s image in the United States from 1964 to 1971. His research focuses on the history of communism in Romania, church–state relations under communist…
Secrets in Paint and Sculpture: How the Spanish Inquisition played the Visual Game
Eduardo Benítez-Inglott y Ballesteros has just completed a DPhil (PhD) in History at the University of Oxford, where he currently tutors medieval history. His thesis explored the origins of inquisition in fifteenth-century Spain, with special focus on the experiences of the Jewish and Muslim minorities. His current interests focus on the interplay between art and…
The Gospel of Gain: William Laud’s Economic Vision in His Policy toward the Stranger Churches
Yaling Peng is a PhD student in History at Durham University. Her research explores William Laud’s economic and social policies in seventeenth-century England. In 1630s England, faith and interest often spoke the same political language. William Laud’s campaign for religious conformity took shape in a world where belief and trade were inseparable. When Laud turned…
A Revolution in Time: The Dissolution of the Monasteries and English History
Dr Harriet Lyon is the J. H. Plumb College Lecturer in History at Christ’s College, University of Cambridge. Her first book examined how the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England and Wales (1536–40) was remembered and reinvented across the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. You can hear her talk about this project on the New Books…
Sexual Violence and Race in the Life of Saint Andrew the Fool (10th Century)
Isabella Lewis is a PhD candidate at the University of Leeds. In October 2024, she began her PhD at the Institute for Medieval Studies specialising in Byzantine Studies which is funded by the AHRC through the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH). Andrew the Fool is a tenth-century Byzantine saint whose Life is rife…
Faith and Freedom: Christianity in Caribbean Slave Rebellions
Emilee Dale is a PhD student in History at the University of Leeds, researching religion and rebellion in the Caribbean. Her work explores how Christianity, oral tradition, and African cultural memory shaped the politics of slave resistance. Christianity as a Language of Resistance What does it mean when the biggest slave rebellion in the British…
The ‘Most Melancholy’ Sect: Anti-Quaker Propaganda in the 1650s
Dr Emily Betz is the EHS Communications Officer. She currently teaches history at the Mary Ward Centre in London. Her research interests focus on early modern medicine, particularly conceptions of mental illness in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britain. In the spring of 1653, John Gilpin experienced a harrowing struggle with his religious identity when he converted…
EHS Summer Conference Report: ‘Creeds, Councils and Canons’
From 15–17 July 2025, the Ecclesiastical History Society held its annual summer conference at the John McIntyre Conference Centre, University of Edinburgh, under the timely theme ‘Creeds, Councils and Canons’. Marking the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea (325 CE), this year’s conference invited scholars to reflect on the enduring influence of early conciliar…
Was Formative Christianity Mediterranean Religion?
Stanley Stowers is Professor of Religious Studies Emeritus at Brown University. He has authored A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews and Gentiles (Yale University Press, 1994), Letter Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Westminster, 1986), Christian Beginnings: A Study in Ancient Mediterranean Religion (Edinburgh University Press, 2023) and more than thirty articles in books and peer reviewed journals. He has served on…
Guidelines for Surviving the Onset of the Crusades
James Wilson is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Zukunftskolleg of the University of Konstanz, Germany. To learn more about the matters discussed in this post, see his book: Medieval Syria and the Onset of the Crusades (now available for £ 24.99). In the autumn of 1097, the armies of the First Crusade, or the Franks,…
Picturing Evangelism: The Impact of Technological Developments on the Photographic Practices of Two Zenana Missions in British India, 1880–1950
Aayushi Gupta is a PhD student in History at the University of Cambridge researching the visual practices of British women’s missionary societies in colonial India. When we think about technological developments transforming religious practice, photography might not be the first thing that comes to mind. Yet, for British women’s missionary societies working in colonial India,…
Alexander Hetherwick: A Scottish Missionary’s Complicated Legacy in Malawi
Kenneth R. Ross is Professor of Theology and Dean of Postgraduate Studies at Zomba Theological University. He has been teaching and researching Malawi church history since he first arrived in Zomba in 1988. He is also Series Editor of the recently completed 10-volume Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity (Edinburgh University Press). This blog post is based…
Ecclesiastical History Society 