History of Christianity

Mondays, 4:10pm, in the Martin Hall unless otherwise stated

All welcome. For enquiries, please contact Dr Felicity Loughlin: f.loughlin@ed.ac.uk

Semester 2: Spring 2026

Date	Speaker/event	Topic
12 January	Professor Scott Spurlock (University of Glasgow)	‘Protestant Scotland’s Cardinal Sin’, with opening remarks by Professor Emeritus Stewart J. Brown (University of Edinburgh). Inaugural Cheyne Memorial Lecture – Launch of the Network for the Study of the Long Reformation. Register
26 January	Caroline Collins (PhD Candidate in Religion and Literature, University of Edinburgh)	“To Make Gods of Men, The Emancipator of Worlds: The Devil and the Death of the Tsar in The Brothers Karamazov” Joint Event with the Scottish Network for Religion and Literature.
9 February	Dr Jonathan Birch (University of Glasgow)	“Christianity and Myth in the Age of Enlightenment: At the Origins of Modern Ambivalence'.
16 March	Professor Emeritus Stewart J. Brown (University of Edinburgh)	‘The Roman Catholic Revival in Nineteenth-Century Ireland’.
30 March		Book Launch: Gudrun Warren, Christine-Love Rodger and Hannie Riley (eds), ‘Theological Libraries in the UK & Ireland’ (American Theological Library Association Press, 2026) Joint Event with the Scottish Network for Religion and Literature

Semester 1: Autumn 2025

Date	Speaker/event	Topic
22 September		Kennedy-Wright Panel Discussion: ‘Women and the Reception of the Council of Nicaea’ with Dr Sara Parvis, Professor Rachel Muers and Dr Belinda Washington. Chaired by Professor Lucy Grig. Sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Christian Origins
6 October	Dr James Cook	‘Re-evaluating the “Carver Choirbook”: New contexts for sixteenth-century sacred song in Scotland'.
Tuesday 14 October		Joint PhD Seminar with Centre for Study of World Christianity Alison Zilversmit, ‘Navigating “Tight Corners” of Christian Mission in Colonial Zimbabwe: Charles Mzingeli and the 1945 Land Apportionment Amendment’ and Fr Kevin Douglas, 'Herbert McCabe (1926-2001), Language and the Eucharist'.
3 November	Rev Dr Matt Baines	‘The History and Future of Theological Aesthetics’
17 November	Dr Simon Burton	‘Realising the Heavenly Church Upon Earth: Mysticism and Apocalypticism in Basel Conciliarism’

This article was published on 2024-03-19