W.J. Torrance Kirby

Academic title(s): 

Professor of Ecclesiastical History; Fellow of the Royal Historical Society;

McCord Fellow of the Princeton Centre of Theological Inquiry

(on sabbatical leave in Winter 2022 and Winter 2023)

W.J. Torrance Kirby
Contact Information
Address: 

3520 University Street, Room 206
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 2A7, Canada

Phone: 
514-398-4128
Fax number: 
514-398-6665
Email address: 
torrance.kirby [at] mcgill.ca
Degree(s): 

BA (Dalhousie, King's College), Classics 
MA (Dalhousie), Classics 
DPhil (Oxford, Christ Church), Modern History

Curriculum vitae: 
Biography: 

Torrance Kirby is Professor of Ecclesiastical History and sometime Director of the Centre for Research on Religion at McGill University, Montreal where he has been a member of the Faculty of Religious Studies since 1997. He holds BA and MA degrees in Classics (Greek Philosophy and Literature) and was a Commonwealth Scholar at Christ Church, Oxford University where he received a DPhil degree from the Faculty of Modern History in 1988. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has held Visiting Fellowships at St John’s College, Oxford, New College, University of Edinburgh, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the American Academy in Rome. He is a McCord Fellow of the Princeton Centre of Theological Inquiry and a life member of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He has twice led a seminar at La Sapienza University, Rome. books include Persuasion and Conversion: Religion, Politics and the Public Sphere in Early Modern England (2013), The Zurich Connection and Tudor Political Theology (2007), and Richard Hooker, Reformer and Platonist (2005). He is also the editor of A Companion to Richard Hooker (2008), Richard Hooker and the English Reformation (2003), and co-editor of A Companion to Peter Martyr Vermigli (2009) and Paul’s Cross and the Culture of Persuasion, 1520-1640 (2014). His most recent book is an edition of selected Sermons at Paul’s Cross, 1521-1642 (Oxford, 2017).

Awards, honours, and fellowships: 

Grants and fellowships

In April 2020 SSHRC awarded me a four-year Insight Grant in support of a collaborative research project on "The Reception of German Mysticism in Early Modern England." The chief collaboration in this project is with the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism, directed by Dr Douglas Hedley, Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at Cambridge University and Fellow of Clare College. Since June 2011 I have been collaborating with colleagues Paul Yachnin, Douglas Hedley (Cantab.), Julie Cumming and Angela Van Haelen (McGill), Peter Marshall (Warwick), Mark Vessey (UBC), Bronwen Wilson (UCLA) in a research project funded by SSHRC Insight and Partnership Grants: “Forms of Conversion: Transformation in Europe and its World, 1500-1700". I was the "Conversions Project" Fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge in 2015. In June/July of 2012 I was a Visiting Scholar in residence at the American Academy in Rome. In the summer term 2011 I took up a Visiting Fellowship at New College, University of Edinburgh. During the summer term 2009 I was a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Research in Religious and Theological Studies (CARTS) at the University of Cambridge where I continued my current research project on 'Paul's Cross and the culture of persuasion: Tudor origins of the early-modern public sphere'. This project is funded by a 3-year Standard Research Grant awarded by SSHRC in April 2009. I spent sabbatical terms in 2007 as a Research Associate at St John’s College, Oxford, and in 2005 as a Visiting Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Over the past decade I have received several major research grants: a resident fellowship at the Princeton Centre of Theological Inquiry (1996-97), fellowship of the Folger Shakespeare Library (2001), SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) standard research grant (2003-2006) to conduct research on the links between the Reformations in Zurich and England; SSHRC and FQRSC (Le Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture) fellowships (2004-2006) to study the French Zwinglian publications of Pierre de Vingle of Neuchâtel in the period 1533-35; a SSHRC Workshop Grant (2007) for an international conference on 'The new hermeneutics of Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562): exegesis and theology'; and I am a collaborator with a group of 30 scholars in a Major Collaborative Research Initiative (MCRI) grant (2005-2010) awarded by SSHRC for the study of the early-modern public sphere. Please visit our 'web-public' at http://makingpublics.mcgill.ca. See also http://earlymodernconversions.com and http://earlymodernconversions.com/metaphysics-of-conversion-from-late-an.... For "The Reception of German Mysticism in Early Modern England" see https://www.platonism.divinity.cam.ac.uk/news/grant-success-the-receptio.... He was elected a Visiting Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge University for the Lent and Easter Terms, 2022.

Courses: 

PHWR 301 Philosophy & West. Religions 2 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer


PHWR 401 Honours Thesis Tutorial 1 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer


RELG 322 Church and Empire to 1300 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer


RELG 323 Church and State since 1300 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer


RELG 423 Reformation Thought 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

RELG 583 Hellenistic Religious Texts 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer


RELG 621 Patristic Studies 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer


RELG 622 Medieval Studies 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer


RELG 624 Reformation Studies 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer


RELG 626 Reformation:Secular Dimensions 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer


RELG 645 Methods in Religious Studies 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer


RELG 682 Res: Hist of Christianity 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Current research: 

My recent research focusses on the open-air pulpit situated in the precincts of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, commonly known as ‘Paul’s Cross’, one of the most influential of all public venues in early-modern England. Throughout the 16th century sermons preached at Paul’s Cross addressed critically important hermeneutical and theological as well as political assumptions, and they contributed decisively to the transformation of England’s religious and political identities. The key aim of this 'post-revisionist' investigation is to interweave questions related to 1) the radical reconstruction of ‘religious identity’ in Tudor England; 2) the conspicuous expansion of a popular ‘culture of persuasion’ as the principal means of this reconstruction; and 3) the consequent emergence from this process of an early-modern ‘public sphere’—all considered within the context of public preaching at Paul’s Cross during the decisive period ca. 1520-1620. The research team includes John N. King (Ohio State University), Mary Morrissey (University of Reading), and Paul Stanwood (University of British Columbia). The Paul's Cross project is funded by a 3-year Standard Research Grant awarded by SSHRC in 2009. In July 2010 we presented a panel of papers at meeting of the International Association of University Professors of English in Valletta, Malta. In 2017 Oxford University Press published a volume of "Paul's Cross Sermons, 1521-1642" jointly edited by Paul Stanwood, Mary Morrissey, John King and myself.

Primary research interests

My principal field of research is Reformation thought, especially of Richard Hooker, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Heinrich Bullinger, and other 16th-century Protestant thinkers; my most recent publications examine theological links between England and the continent in the sixteenth century (my work here concentrates on the influence in England of the Italian, Swiss and French reformers). My research also focuses on the history of Christian Platonism, in the Patristic as well as in the late-medieval and early-modern periods. Currently I am investigating the emergence of the public sphere in early-modern England in the context of preaching at the outdoor pulpit at Paul's Cross in the City of London.

Selected publications: 

Recent publications

Sermons at Paul's Cross, 1521-1642 (OUP, 2017) is an edited selection of outdoor sermons preached in the churchyard of St Paul's Cathedral in London. A companion volume of 24 essays Paul's Cross and the Culture of Persuasion in Early Modern England was published in 2014. A monograph Persuasion and Conversion: Religion, Politics, and the Public Sphere in Early Modern England appeared in 2013. A recent monograph titled The Zurich Connection and Tudor Political Theology (2007) is a study of the political thought of Peter Martyr Vermigli and Heinrich Bullinger and its influence on the construction and consolidation of the Elizabethan religious and political settlement. A Companion to Peter Martyr Vermigli (2009), jointly edited with Emidio Campi (Zurich) and Frank James (Boston), comprises 25 essays focussed on the distinctive hermeneutics of this remarkable Florentine scholar and religious reformer. I have published several books on the thought of Richard Hooker, including A Companion to Richard Hooker (2008), Richard Hooker, Reformer and Platonist (2005), Richard Hooker and the English Reformation (2003), as well as articles on various aspects of Reformation thought including pieces on Vermigli, John Calvin, Heinrich Bullinger, Antoine de Marcourt, and English Canon Law in the sixteenth century.

“Negotiating the forum politicum and the forum conscientiae: John Calvin and the religious origins of the modern public sphere.” In Angela Vanhaelen and Joseph Ward, eds. Making Publics in Early Modern Europe: Publics and Spaces. London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

“The grounds and principles of religion, contained in a shorter catechism (according to the advice of the Assembly of Divines, sitting at Westminster) to be used throughout the kingdom of England and dominion of Wales (1647).” In Karl Heinrich Faulenbach, ed., Die Bekenntnisschriften der reformierten Kirchen. Band III: Union, konsequente Reformation, Lehrentscheidungen 1570-1675. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2016.

“Apocalyptics and Apologetics: Richard Helgerson on Elizabethan England’s religious identity and the formation of the public sphere.” In Paul Yachnin, ed. Forms of Association in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Conversation with Richard Helgerson. London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

“Models of redemptive kingship in Vermigli’s Epistle to the Princess Elizabeth.” In Bruce Gordon, Luca Baschera, and Christian Moser, editors. Christian Models in the Zurich Reformation (St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Press, 2012.

“The Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, Now by Authority of Parliament sitting at Westminster, concerning A Larger Catechisme; Presented by them lately to both Houses of Parliament. With the proofs thereof out of the Scriptures (1648).” In Karl Heinrich Faulenbach, ed., Die Bekenntnisschriften der reformierten Kirchen. Band III: Union, konsequente Reformation, Lehrentscheidungen 1570-1675. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2016.

“Richard Hooker (1554-1600).” In Karla Pollmann and Willemien Otten, eds. Oxford Guide to the historical reception of Augustine from 430 to 2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

“The Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, now by authority of Parliament sitting at Westminster, concerning a confession of faith (1647).” In Karl Heinrich Faulenbach, ed., Die Bekenntnisschriften der reformierten Kirchen. Band III: Union, konsequente Reformation, Lehrentscheidungen 1570-1675. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchenen Verlag, 2016.

“John Jewel (1522-1571).” In Karla Pollmann and Willemien Otten, eds. Oxford Guide to the historical reception of Augustine from 430 to 2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

“Nicholas Ridley (1502-1555).” In Karla Pollmann and Willemien Otten, eds. Oxford Guide to the historical reception of Augustine from 430 to 2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

“The Savoy Declaration (1658).” In Karl Heinrich Faulenbach, ed., Die Bekenntnisschriften der reformierten Kirchen. Band III: Union, konsequente Reformation, Lehrentscheidungen 1570-1675. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchenen Verlag, 2016.

“Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599).” In Karla Pollmann and Willemien Otten, eds. Oxford Guide to the historical reception of Augustine from 430 to 2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Articles in refereed journals

“‘Between the throne of God in heaven and his church upon earth here militant’: instruction and prayer in the fifth book of Hooker’s Lawes.” Dionysius 29 (2011): 247-258.
Related Documents
Hooker on Instruction and Prayer [PDF - 727.77 KB]

“Signs and Things Signified: sacramental hermeneutics in John Jewel’s Challenge Sermon and the culture of persuasion at Paul’s Cross.” Reformation and Renaissance Review: Journal of the Society for Reformation Studies 11.1 (2009): 57-89.
Related Documents
Signs and Things Signified [PDF - 225.12 KB]

“Robert Singleton’s sermon at Paul’s Cross in 1535: the 'true church' and the Royal Supremacy.” Reformation and Renaissance Review: Journal of the Society for Reformation Studies 10.3 (2008): 343-368.
Related Documents
Robert Singleton's sermon at Paul's Cross (1535) [PDF - 1.08 MB]

“The Public Sermon: Paul’s Cross and the culture of persuasion in England, 1534-1570.” Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme 31.1 (2008): 3-29.
Related Documents
Paul's Cross and the culture of persuasion [PDF - 807.11 KB]

“Synne and Sedition: Peter Martyr Vermigli’s ‘Sermon concernynge the tyme of rebellion’.” Sixteenth Century Journal 39.2 (2008): 419-440.
Related Documents
Synne and Sedition [PDF - 1.39 MB]

Mary E. Coleman and Torrance Kirby, 'A review and discussion of Richard Hooker, Reformer and Platonist,' Conversations in Religion and Theology 5.1 (2007): 20-30.
Related Documents
Conversations in Religion and Theology [PDF - 112.74 KB]

“Le Boke of Marchauntes d’Antoine de Marcourt et la théologie politique au temps des Tudor.” Imprimés réformés de Pierre de Vingle (Neuchâtel, 1533-55). Littératures 24.2 (2007): 55-94.
Related Documents
Marcourt et la théologie politique [PDF - 731.53 KB]

“Peter Martyr Vermigli’s Epistle to the Princess Elizabeth on her Accession (1558): a panegyric and some pointed advice.” Perichoresis 5.2 (2007): 3-21.
Related Links
Vermigli's epistle to Elizabeth

“Lay Supremacy: reform of the canon law of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I (1529-1571).” Reformation and Renaissance Review 8.3 (2006): 349-370.
Related Documents
Lay Supremacy [PDF - 130.15 KB]

“Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575): Life-Thought-Influence.” A digest of papers presented at the International Kongress held at the University of Zurich, 25-29 August 2004. Zwingliana 32 (2005): 107-117.
Related Documents
Bullinger Life Thought Influence [PDF - 73.47 KB]

“Wholesale or Retail? Antoine de Marcourt’s The Boke of Marchauntes and Tudor political theology,” Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme 28.2 (2004): 37-60.
Related Documents
Marcourt and Tudor Political Theology [PDF - 213.9 KB]

"'Relics of the Amorites' or adiaphora? The authority of Peter Martyr Vermigli in the Elizabethan Vestiarian Controversy of the 1560s." Reformation and Renaissance Review: Journal of the Society for Reformation Studies 6.2 (December, 2005): 313-326.
Related Documents
Relics of the Amorites [PDF - 92.74 KB]

"Stoic and Epicurean? Calvin's Dialectical Account of Providence." International Journal of Systematic Theology 5.3 (November, 2003): 309-322.
Related Documents
Calvin on Providence [PDF - 81.75 KB]

"'The Charge of Religion belongeth unto Princes:' Peter Martyr Vermigli on the Unity of Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction." Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 94 (2003): 161-175.
Related Documents
Vermigli on the union of civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction [PDF - 500.33 KB]

"The Paradigm of Chalcedonian Christology in Richard Hooker's Discourse on Grace and the Church." Churchman 114 (Spring, 2000): 22-39.

"Richard Hooker's Theory of Natural Law in the Context of Reformation Theology." Sixteenth Century Journal 30.3 (1999): 681-703.
Related Documents
Hooker on Natural Law [PDF - 483.16 KB]

"Richard Hooker's Discourse on Natural Law in the Context of the Magisterial Reformation." Animus: A Philosophical Journal for our Time 3 (1998).
Related Links
Animus

"The Neoplatonic Logic of Richard Hooker's generic division of law." Renaissance and Reformation 22.4 (1998): 49-67.
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Neoplatonic Logic of Hooker's generic division of law [PDF - 1.39 MB]

"Praise as the Soul's Overcoming of Time in the Confessions of St. Augustine." Pro Ecclesia: A Journal of Catholic and Evangelical Theology 6.2 (1997): 333-350.
Related Documents
Augustine on Time [PDF - 781.14 KB]

"Supremum Caput: Richard Hooker's Theology of Ecclesiastical Dominion," Dionysius 12 (1988): 69-110.
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Supremum Caput: Hooker's Doctrine of Ecclesiastical Dominion [PDF - 2.33 MB]

Books and monographs

The Zurich Connection and Tudor Political Theology. Leiden and Boston: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2007.
Related Links
Zurich Connection and Tudor Political Theology

Richard Hooker, Reformer and Platonist: a reassessment of his Thought. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Press, 2005.
Related Links
Richard Hooker, Reformer & Platonist

Richard Hooker and the English Reformation , edited by W.J. Torrance Kirby. Studies in Early Modern Religious Reforms, vol. 2. London and Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003.
Related Links
Richard Hooker & the English Reformation

The Theology of Richard Hooker in the Context of the Magisterial Reformation. Studies in Reformed Theology and History, David Willis (gen. ed). New Series, vol. 5. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Seminary Press, 2000.
Related Links
The Theology of Richard Hooker

Richard Hooker's Doctrine of the Royal Supremacy. Studies in the History of Christian Thought, vol. XLIII. Leiden and New York: E.J. Brill, 1990.
Related Links
Richard Hooker's Doctrine of the Royal Supremacy

Articles/chapters in books and monographs

“From 'generall meditations' to 'particular decisions': the Augustinian coherence of Richard Hooker’s political theology,” 43-65. In Robert Sturges, ed. Sovereignty and Law in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011.
Related Documents
Coherence of Hooker's political theology [PDF - 187.76 KB]

“Chiesa d’Inghilterra e anglicanesimo,” 299-309. In Alberto Melloni, ed. Dizionario del sapere storico-religioso del Novecento. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2010.
Related Documents
Chiesa d’Inghilterra e anglicanesimo [PDF - 617.93 KB]

“Law makes the King: Richard Hooker on law and princely rule,” 274-288. In Michael Hattaway, ed. A New Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture. 2nd Edition. Oxford: Blackwell, 2010.
Related Documents
Law makes the King [PDF - 781.27 KB]

“The authority of Peter Martyr Vermigli’s political theology and the Elizabethan Church.” In Patrick Collinson & Polly Ha, eds. The Reception of Continental Reformation in Britain. Proceedings of the British Academy 164. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Related Documents
Vermigli's Political Theology [PDF - 1.12 MB]

“The Articles of Religion of the Church of England (1563/71), commonly called the Thirty-Nine Articles,” 371-410. In Andreas Mühling und Peter Opitz, eds. Reformierte Bekenntnisschriften. Band 2/1: 1559-1563. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchenen Verlag, 2009.
Related Documents
39 Articles of Religion [PDF - 305.82 KB]

“Emerging publics of religious reform in France and England of the 1530s: the Affair of the Placards and the publication of Antoine de Marcourt’s Livre des marchans,” 37-52. In Bronwen Wilson and Paul Yachnin, eds. Making Publics in Early Modern Europe: People, Things, Forms of Knowledge. London and New York: Routledge, 2009.
Related Documents
Emerging Publics of Religious Reform in the 1530s [PDF - 890.01 KB]

“Of musique with psalms: the hermeneutics of Richard Hooker’s defence of the ‘sensible excellencie’ of public worship,” 127-151. Lutheran and Anglican: Essays in Honour of Egil Grislis. Ed. John Stafford. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2009.
Related Documents
The hermeneutics of Hooker's defence of the 'sensible excellencie' of public worship [PDF - 850.63 KB]

“Political Theology: the godly prince,” 401-422. A Companion to Peter Martyr Vermigli. Ed. by Torrance Kirby, Emidio Campi, and Frank A. James III. Leiden and Boston: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2009.
Related Documents
Vermigli on the Godly Prince [PDF - 528.86 KB]

“From Florence to Zurich via Strasbourg and Oxford: The International Career of Peter Martyr Vermigli (1542-1562).” Bewegung und Beharrung: Aspekte des reformierten Protestantismus 1520-1650. Feschrift für Emidio Campi. Leiden and Boston: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2009.
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Vermigli's International Career [PDF - 593.65 KB]

“Introduction,” xxvii-xxxvii. In Torrance Kirby, ed. A Companion to Richard Hooker. Leiden and Boston: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2008.
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Introduction to A Companion to Richard Hooker [PDF - 2.38 MB]

“Reason and Law.” In A Companion to Richard Hooker, ed. W. J. Torrance Kirby. Leiden and New York: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2008.
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Reason and Law [PDF - 649.32 KB]

“Creation and Government: Eternal Law as the fountain of laws in Richard Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity,” 405-423. In Willemien Otten, Walter Hannam, and Michael Treschow, eds., Divine Creation in Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Thought, essays presented to Dr Robert D. Crouse. Studies in Intellectual History, 151. Leiden and Boston: E.J. Brill, 2007.
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Creation and Government [PDF - 548.05 KB]

"The Civil Magistrate and the 'cura religionis': Heinrich Bullinger's prophetical office and the English Reformation," 935-950. In Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575): Leben, Denken, Wirkung. Internationaler Bullingerkongress 2004, ed. Emidio Campi and Peter Opitz. Zürcher Beiträge zur Reformations-geschichte, Bd. 24. Zurich: Theologische Verlag Zurich, 2007.
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Bullinger and Civil Magistrate [PDF - 83.72 KB]

"Henry Hammond." In The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy, ed. Anthony Grayling and Andrew Pyle. Vol. 2. London and New York: Thoemmes Continuum, 2006. Also published in The Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers, Andrew Pyle, gen. ed. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2000.
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Henry Hammond [PDF - 176.36 KB]

"Richard Hooker." In The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy, ed. Anthony Grayling and Andrew Pyle. Vol. 2. London and New York: Thoemmes Continuum, 2006. Also published in The Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers, Andrew Pyle, gen. ed. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2000.
Related Links
The Thoemmes Encyclopedia of the History of Ideas

"William Chillingworth." In The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy, ed. Anthony Grayling and Andrew Pyle. Vol. 2. London and New York: Thoemmes Continuum, 2006. Also published in The Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers, Andrew Pyle, gen. ed. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2000.
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William Chillingworth [PDF - 274.47 KB]

"Peter Martyr Vermigli and Pope Boniface VIII: the difference between civil and ecclesiastical power." In Peter Martyr Vermigli and the European Reformations, ed. Frank A. James III. Leiden and New York: Koninklijke Brill, NV, 2004, 291-304.

"Angels descending and ascending: Richard Hooker's discourse on the 'double motion' of Common Prayer." In Richard Hooker and the English Reformation, ed. W. J. Torrance Kirby. Studies in Early Modern Religious Reforms, vol. 2. London and Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003, 111-130.

"Grace and Hierarchy: Richard Hooker's Two Platonisms." In Richard Hooker and the English Reformation, ed. W. J. Torrance Kirby. Studies in Early Modern Religious Reforms, vol. 2. London and Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003, 25-40.

"Vermilius Absconditus? The Iconography of Peter Martyr Vermigli." In Petrus Martyr Vermigli: Humanismus, Republikanismus, Reformation, Travaux d’Humanisme et Renaissance No. CCCLXV, ed. Emidio Campi. Geneva: Droz, 2002, 295-303.
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The Iconography of Peter Martyr Vermigli [PDF - 278.52 KB]

"John Rainolds." In The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy, ed. Anthony Grayling and Andrew Pyle. Vol. 2. London and New York: Thoemmes Continuum, 2006. Also published in The Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers, Andrew Pyle, gen. ed. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2000.
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John Rainolds [PDF - 148.32 KB]

"William Laud." In The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy, ed. Anthony Grayling and Andrew Pyle. Vol. 2. London and New York: Thoemmes Continuum, 2006. Also published in The Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers, Andrew Pyle, gen. ed. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2000.
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William Laud [PDF - 213.93 KB]

"Political Theology in the Reformation Period." In No Power but of God: Political Theology and the Christian's Relation to the State, ed. Susan Harris. Proceedings of the 18th Atlantic Theological Conference. Charlottetown: St. Peter's Publications, 1998, 61-68.

"Richard Hooker." In The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Third Edition, ed. E.A. Livingstone. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

"Richard Hooker as an Apologist of the Magisterial Reformation in England," 219-233. In Richard Hooker and the Construction of Christian Community, ed. Arthur Stephen McGrade. Tempe, AZ: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, vol. 165, 1997.

Edited volumes (books/journals)

Philosophy and the Abrahamic Religions: scriptural hermeneutics and epistemology, ed. Torrance Kirby, Rahim Acar & Bilal Bas. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2012 [in press].

A Companion to Peter Martyr Vermigli. Torrance Kirby, Emidio Campi, and Frank James III, eds. Leiden and Boston: Koninklijke Brill, 2009.
Related Links
Companion to Peter Martyr Vemigli

A Companion to Richard Hooker, edited by Torrance Kirby with a Foreword by Rowan Williams. Leiden and Boston: Koninklijke Brill, 2008.
Related Links
Companion to Richard Hooker

Joseph C. McLelland, Peter Martyr's Loci Communes: A Literary History, ed. W.J. Torrance Kirby. Montreal: McGill, 2007.

Translations

“The Zurich Agreement : an English translation of the Consensus Tigurinus of 1549,” 256-265. In Emidio Campi and Rudi Reich, eds. Consensus Tigurinus: Die Einigung zwischen Heinrich Bullinger und Johannes Calvin über das Abendmahl: Werden—Wertung—Bedeutung. Zürich: Theologische Verlag Zürich, 2009. [Latin to English]
Related Documents
Consensus Tigurinus [PDF - 532.85 KB]

"The Civil Magistrate: Peter Martyr Vermigli's Commentary on Romans 13." In The Peter Martyr Reader, ed. J.P. Donnelly, Frank James III and Joseph C. McLelland. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 1999, 221-237. [Latin to English translation with notes]
Related Documents
Peter Martyr Vermigli on the Civil Magistrate [PDF - 755 KB]

Reviews

Bourdin, Bernard. The Theological-Political Origins of the Modern State: The Controversy between James I of England and Cardinal Bellarmine. Translated by Susan Pickford. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2010. Reviewed for The American Historical Review 117.1 (2012): 595-596.
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Bourdin on the origins of the Modern State [PDF - 35.96 KB]

Heal, Bridget and Ole Grell, eds. The Impact of the European Reformation: Princes, Clergy and People. St Andrews Studies in Reformation History. Aldershot, UK; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008. Reviewed for Church History and Religious Culture 90 (2010): 430-31.
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Impact of the European Reformation [PDF - 55.2 KB]

Mohamed, Feisal G. The Anteroom of Divinity: the Reformation of the Angels from Colet to Milton. Toronto and London: University of Toronto Press, 2008. Reviewed for Renaissance Quarterly 62.4 (2009): 1390-1391.
Related Documents
Mohamed on the angels [PDF - 77.43 KB]

Eppley, Daniel. Defending royal supremacy and discerning God’s will in Tudor England. Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007. Reviewed for Religious Studies Review 36 (2009): 294.
Related Documents
Review of Eppley on the Royal Supremacy [PDF - 264.73 KB]

Rosendale, Timothy. Liturgy and Literature in the Making of Protestant England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Reviewed for Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses 38.1 (2009): 192-196.
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Review of Rosendale's Liturgy and Literature [PDF - 181.54 KB]

Euler, Carrie. Couriers of the Gospel: England and Zurich, 1531-1558. Zurich: Theologische Verlag Zurich, 2006. Reviewed for Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture 77.3 (2008): 724-726.
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England and Zurich, 1531-1558 [PDF - 63.23 KB]

Brydon, Michael. The Evolving Reputation of Richard Hooker: An Examination of Responses, 1600-1714. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Reviewed for the Journal of Anglican Studies 6.2 (2008): 246-248.
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Brydon on Hooker's Reputation [PDF - 1.73 MB]

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Atkinson, Nigel. Richard Hooker and the Authority of Scripture, Reason and Tradition. Carlisle, England: Paternoster Press, 1997. Reviewed in The Episcopal Evangelical Journal 1.10 (Feb. 1999): 17-18.

Media appearances

“Richard Hooker’s Sapiential Theology: Reformed Platonism?”, Lumen Christi Institute, University of Chicago, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMLvNDuNYZI&t=809s (August 2020)

CREOR Lecture series, Fall Term 2012
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video podcasts
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CREOR lecture series, Fall Term 2010
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video podcasts
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CBC Radio "Ideas"
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Origins of the Modern Public

CREOR lecture series, Fall Term 2009
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Graduate supervision: 

Postdoctoral Fellowships:

James Bryson (CREOR Visiting Fellowship, 2012-2013; SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2013-15), “Nicholas of Cusa’s mystical theology in the iconology of the Renaissance”.

Frederick Tappenden (FRQSC Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2014-2015; SSHRC Partnership Grant RA), “Religion in the text and on the ground: the convergence of historiography and ethnography in Religious Studies”.

Simon Burton (Commonwealth and CREOR Postdoctoral Fellowships, 2012-2013), “Medieval roots of the theological virtues in Protestant scholastic thought, 1550-1675”.

Yazeed Said (CREOR Visiting Fellowship, 2010-2011), “The metaphysical foundations of Al-Ghazali’s Legal and Political Theology”.

René Paquin (FQRSC Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2005-2008), “Édition de la version originale d’un imprimé de Pierre de Vingle accompagnée d’une étude (Neuchâtel, 1533-1535)”.

Successfully completed PhDs supervised:

Bilal Baş (PhD, Religious Studies, 1/10/08), “Ecclesiastical Politics during the Iconoclastic Controversy: the impact of Eusebian imperial theology on the Justification of imperial policies”.

—Dr Baş is Associate Professor of the History of Religions, Marmara University, Istanbul.

—monograph published under the title Eusebius of Caesarea’s ‘Imperial Theology’ and the politics of the Iconoclastic Controversy. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2013.

David Goodin (PhD, Religious Studies, 4/4/.11), “Albert Schweitzer’s Reverence for Life: Its relevance for Contemporary Environmental Philosophy” [nominal co-supervision with Prof. Greg Mikkelson, McGill School of the Environment].

—Dr Goodin is a Lecturer in the McGill School of Religious Studies, monograph published under the title The New Rationalism: Albert Schweitzer’s Philosophy of Reverence for Life. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s, 2013.

Steven Griffin (PhD, Religious Studies, 4/1/11), “Sixteenth-century Spanish Protestant Ecclesiology: the Confessions of Faith of Cassiodoro de Reina (1520-1594) and Antonio del Corro (1527-1591)”.

—Dr Griffin is a Professor of World Christianity at Ryle Seminary, Ottawa Theological College.

Daniel Heide (PhD, Ecclesiastical History, 23/11/22), "The World as Sacrament: the Eucharistic Ontology of Maximos Confessor".

Joshua Hollmann (PhD, Religious Studies, 22/1/14), “The Word of Concordance: Nicholas of Cusa’s De Pace Fidei and the metaphysics of Christian-Muslim dialogue”.

—Dr Hollmann is Associate Professor of Theology at Concordia College, New York and Chair of the Department.

—monograph published: The Religious Concordance: Nicholas of Cusa and Christian-Muslim Dialogue. Studies in the History of Christian Traditions, Vol. 185. Leiden: Brill, 2017; article published under the title “Mediating Religious Unity: Nicholas of Cusa’s shift from Council to Pope.” In Torrance Kirby and Matthew Milner, eds., Mediating Religious Cultures in Early Modern Europe, 15-34. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2013; and “For the Peace on Constantinople: Nicholas of Cusa’s De pace fidei and the polis as nexus in Christian-Muslim Dialogue.” In Torrance Kirby, Rahim Acar, and Bilal Baş, eds. Philosophy and the Abrahamic Religions: Scriptural Interpretation and Epistemology, 297-312. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012. ‘Reading De pace fidei Christologically: Nicholas of Cusa’s Verbum Dialectic of Religious Concordance,’ Nicholas of Cusa and Islam: Polemic and Dialogue in the Late Middle Ages, ed. I.C. Levy, Rita George-Tvrtković, and Donald Duclow. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014. Hollmann is co-editor with Simon Burton and Eric Parker of Nicholas of Cusa and the Making of the Early Modern World. Studies in the History of Christian Traditions, Volume 190. Boston: Brill, 2018.

Barry Howson (PhD, Religious Studies, 13/1/00), “The Thought of the 17th-Century English Calvinistic Baptist Hanserd Knollys, c. 1599-1691”.

—Dr Howson is currently Professor of Biblical Studies and Academic Dean at Heritage College and Seminary in Cambridge, Ontario.

—monograph published under the title Erroneous and Schismatical Opinions: The Question of Orthodoxy Regarding the Theology of Hanserd Knollys (c. 1599-1691). Leiden and New York: E.J. Brill, 2001.

Justin Irwin (PhD, History, June 2016), “Benjamin Keach and Baptist Identity in the Post-Restoration, 1660-1704”. [joint supervision with Prof. Brian Cowan, Department of History].

—“‘Sweet mirth and Musick rare’: Sensual spirituality in the work of Benjamin Keach.” In Torrance Kirby and Matthew Milner, eds. Mediating Religious Cultures in Early Modern Europe, 191-219. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.

Rowshan Nemazee (PhD, Religious Studies, 24/10/07), “The Politics of heaven: a feminist eschatological reading of Augustine’s De civitate Dei” . [joint supervision with Professor Patricia Kirkpatrick, FRS].

—Dr Nemazee is Associate Professor of Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies, Champlain College, Burlington, Vermont.

Colin O’Rourke (PhD, Religious studies, 19/3/03), “God, Saint, and Priest: a comparison of mediatory roles in Roman Catholicism and Śrīvaisnavism with special reference to the Council of Trent and the Yatīndramatadīpikā”. [joint supervision with Professor Katherine Young, FRS].

Jennifer Otto (PhD, Religious Studies, 21/5/14), “Pythagorean, Predecessor, Hebrew: Philo of Alexandria and the construction of Jewishness in early Christian writings” [joint supervision with Prof. Ellen Aitken].

—Dr Otto is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of Lethbridge, Alberta.

monograph Philo of Alexandria and the Construction of Jewishness in Early Christian Writings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. “Paideia in Genesis: interpretating Sarah and Hagar with Philo and Clement of Alexandria.” In Torrance Kirby, Rahim Acar, and Bilal Baş, eds. Philosophy and the Abrahamic Religions: scriptural hermeneutics and epistemology. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012. (SSHRC-funded, Vanier Fellowship, 2010-2013).

Eric Parker (PhD, Religious Studies, 17/5/18)., “The Sun in the sun: Peter Sterry’s contemplative moral theology”.

(Research Assistant funded under SSHRC Insight Development Grant, 2011-2012; Birks Fellowship 2011-2012; Graduate Excellence Fellowship 2012-2013; Keenan Fellow, 2016-2017; RA, SSHRC Partnership Grant).

Paolo de Petris (PhD, Religious Studies, 15/4/08), “Deus Absconditus: Calvin’s theodicy in the sermons on the book of Job”.

—monograph published as Calvin’s Theodicy and the Hiddenness of God: Calvin’s sermons on the Book of Job. Oxford, New York, Bern: Peter Lang, 2012.

Harold Ristau (PhD, Religious Studies, 17/10/07), “Against the Heavenly Prophets in the Matter of Images and Sacraments: Martin Luther’s polemical critique of the ‘demonic’ in radical Protestant soteriology”.

—Dr Ristau is Assistant Professor of Theology at Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary, St Catherine’s, Ont.

—His monograph was published under the title Understanding Martin Luther's Demonological Rhetoric in His Treatise Against the Heavenly Prophets (1525). Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2008.

Michael Storch (PhD, Religious Studies, 14/3/07), “Applied imagination: mechanics of magical images in the thought of Giordano Bruno”.

Cindy Wesley (PhD, Religious Studies, 6/3/01), “The Pietist theology and ethnic mission of the General Conference of German Baptists in North America, 1851-1920”.

—Dr Wesley is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge.

—monograph published under the title The role of piety and ethnicity in the formation of the General Conference of German Baptists, 1851-1920. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2008.

Jason Zuidema (PhD, Religious Studies, 18/9/06), “Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562) and the outward instruments of divine grace”. (funded under SSHRC Standard Research Grant, 2003-2006)

—monograph published under the same title in the series Reformed Historical Theology, Bd. 4. Göttingen: Vandenhoek and Ruprecht, 2008.

Successfully completed MAs supervised:

Kathleen Austin (MA, Religious Studies, 27/8/03), “Aristotle, Aquinas, and the History of Quickening”. [joint supervision with Professor Marguerite Deslauriers, Dept. of Philosophy].

Nader Awad (MA, Religious Studies, 5/1/04), “The trumpet’s blast: the political theology of John Knox”.

Michael Backhouse (MA, Religious Studies, 30/08/03), “Completing the Vision: Søren Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous texts and the Attack upon Christendom”., —monograph published: Kierkegaard’s Critique of Christian Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

John Bellingham (MA, Religious Studies, 23/12/13), “Christ exhibited and the covenant confirmed: the eucharistic theology of John Owen”.

Joshua Collins (MA, Religious Studies, 23/07/06), “The concept of love in Saint Augustine’s Confessiones”. [joint supervision with Professor Gaëlle Fiasse, FRS].

Melissa Davidson (MA, Religious Studies, 23/08/12), “Preaching the Great War: Canadian Anglicans and the War Sermon, 1914-1918” [joint supervision with Dr John Simons] (Kenneth Downes and Graduate Excellence Fellowships).

—chapter published as “The Anglican Church and the Great War,” 151-168. Canadian churches in the First World War, ed. Gordon L. Heath. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock/Pickwick, 2014.

Lisa Gilbert (MA, Religious Studies, 25/07/07), “To have authority over the body: the conjugal debt according to Gratian’s Decretum”. [joint supervision with Professor Ellen Aitken, FRS]

Charles Irish (MA, Religious Studies, 31/7/02), “‘The participation of God Himself:’ law and mediation in the thought of Richard Hooker”.

—chapter published as “‘Participation of God Himselfe:’ law, the mediation of Christ, and sacramental participation in the thought of Richard Hooker.” Richard Hooker and the English Reformation, ed. W.J. Torrance Kirby. Studies in Early Modern Religious Reforms, vol. 2. Dordrecht and London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003, 165-184.

Octavian Lucian Jarnea (MA, Religious Studies, 2/11/06), “Les Faictz de Jesus Christ et du Pape: the polemics of French Reform before Calvin”. (funded under FQRSC Research Grant, 2004-2006)

—chapter of thesis published: “L’utilisation polémique de textes classiques dans Les Faictz de Jesus Christ et du Pape.” Les Imprimés réformés de Pierre de Vingle (Neuchâtel, 1533-35). Littératures 24.1 (2007), 217-236.

Mayyada Kheir (MA, Religious Studies, 28/9/02), “Les (in)tolerances de l’Abbé Gregoire: Jansénisme et la Revolution française”.

Jennifer Otto (MA, Religious Studies, 18/7/09), “Reason, Revelation, and Ridicule: assessing the authority of allegorical interpretation in Philo, Clement and Augustine” [joint supervision with Professor Ellen Aitken]. (SSHRC-funded, 2008-2009).

Naznin Patel (MA, Religious Studies, 14/11/17), “Marsilio Ficino and Avicennian Psychology: on Prophecy and Miracles”.

Geneviève Trudel (MA, Faculté de Théologie et de Sciences Religieuses, Université Laval, 15/3/04), “La Cène comme sacrement chez Zwingli”.

Aleana Young (MA, Religious Studies, 25/11/10), “What has .to do with Rome? The ‘Martyrs of Lyons’ as a second-century exemplar of Christian community in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius”

 

ON-GOING THESIS SUPERVISION

PhD dissertations:

Peter Bullerwell, Title: “Grace Hath Use of Nature”: Reformed Soteriology and Neoplatonic Ontology in the Thought of Richard Hooker (Tomlinson Fellowship, 2014-2017; SSHRC and Keenan Fellowships, 2018-2019).

Michael Barrow, “Unknowing The Cloud of Unknowing: forgetting contemplation in Early Modern England” (Graduate Excellence Fellowship 2011-2015, 2015-2016).

Rebecca Coughlin, “Ficino as a Reader of Dionysius the Areopagite: Dionysian themes in the De Vita and Platonic Theology” (Graduate Excellence Fellowship 2011-2013, 2015-2016; McBurney Fellowship 2014-15; Research Assistant, SSHRC Partnership Grant).

Andrew Fulford, “‘A Sacred and Holy Rule of Well-Doing’: Richard Hooker’s Interpretation of the Old Testament” (two-year FRS Entrance Fellowship; Graduate Excellence Fellowship; Research Assistant funded by SSHRC Partnership Grant).

Christian Finnigan, “On the limits of Temporal Power in establishing religious uniformity: Martin Bucer’s De Regno Christi” (Finlay and McConnell Fellowships).

Daniel Heide, “The World as Sacrament: The Incarnational Ontology of Maximus Confessor” (SSHRC CGS, 2016-2019; St Maurice and Brown Corp. Fellowships, 2018-2019).

Hannah Korell, “Weird Women: Gender and Conversion in Early Modern English Drama.” Comprehensive co-supervison with Paul Yachnin and Maggie Kilgour, Department of English.

Naznin Patel, “Marsilio Ficino and Islamic Neoplatonism” (SSHRC CGS Fellowship, 2020-2023).

Kevin Walker, “Meister Eckhart” (SSHRC CGS Fellowship, 2016-2019; Topping Fellowship, 2018-2019).

MA dissertations:

Rachel Kelleher, “l’Ame Enfranchie: Marguerite Porete, her Mirror of Simple Souls, and the Rejection of Gestural Enclosure in the Middle Ages,” (SSHRC MA Fellowship, 2020-2022), co-supervision with Prof. Margeurite Deslauriers, Department of Philosophy.

Naomi Stanley, “The Medical Ethics of Witchcraft and Mental Illness in Early Modern Europe: a Physician’s Duty and Responsibility,” [MA in the History of Medicine; joint comprehensive supervision with Prof. Faith Wallis, Department of History].

BA theses:

Margaux Cazaban, “Two Medieval Mystics: Clare of Assisi and Julian of Norwich”.

Hosanna Galea, “Nature and the Divine: An analysis of the Feminine in Hildegard of Bingen”.

Projects: 

Collaboration with the University of Zurich

In 2008 the Faculty of Religious Studies and the Centre for Research on Religion negotiated a formal 'Memorandum of Agreement' with the University of Zurich, Institut für Schweizerische Reformations-geschichte, to promote academic cooperation for the following: (A) The development of common research projects; (B) The exchange of scholars and undergraduate and graduate students, where possible and appropriate; (C) The exchange of research publications; (D) The use of university resources (i.e. access to university libraries, computing facilities, etc.) for scholars in residence; (E) The holding of joint academic conferences. Owing to this agreement Prof. Dr. Dr. Emidio Campi, formerly Director of the Institut and Professor of Church History at the University of Zurich, was recently a Visiting Fellow at the McGill Centre for Research on Religion (see below) in the Fall Term 2010. I am currently co-editor with Professor Campi of the Second Series of the Peter Martyr Library. We also collaborated on Die Bekenntnisschriften der Reformierten kirchen. Band 3/2: Union, konsequente Reformation, Lehrentscheidungen 1605-1675, 2 Teil, 1647-1675. Neukirchener-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2016.

Editorial boards

Member of the Editorial Board of the Reformation and Renaissance Review: Journal of the Society for Reformation Studies (UK). Member of the board of editors of Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme: Journal of the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies, Pacific Northwest Renaissance Society, Toronto Renaissance and Reformation Colloquium, and Victoria University Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. Member of the Editorial Advisory Council of Dionysius. This journal of Dalhousie University's Department of Classics publishes articles on the history of ancient philosophy and theology, including Patristic theology, and their nachleben with special emphasis upon the Aristotelian and Neoplatonic traditions. I also serve as one of the general editors of the Peter Martyr Library (Second Series), a 24-volume edition of the Latin works of this influential Florentine reformer in English translation. So far nine volumes have been published. In addition I am a member of the Editorial Board of The Works of Martin Bucer, gen. eds. Amy Burnett and Ian Hazlett and I have advised the editors of the Corpus Christianorum series Concilium Oecumenicorum Generalium Decreta, vol. V (16th century).

Graduate supervision

Since my appointment at McGill I have supervised 27 doctoral and M.A. theses on a variety of topics in ecclesiastical history and Christian intellectual history. 28 of these have successfully passed examination (14 PhDs and 14 MAs) with 3 PhDs and 2 MAs currently in various stages of completion.

Committees and administration

I recently served as Interim Director of the McGill “Philosophy and Western Religions” BA programme in the Faculty of Arts, a joint undertaking of the Islamic Institute, the Philosophy Dept, Jewish Studies Dept, and the Faculty of Religious Studies—see https://www.mcgill.ca/phwr/. On the administrative side I have served as a member of Senate and as a member of various University and Faculty committees including the Vice-Principal's Research Advisory Committee, the Academic Priorities and Planning sub-committee on Teaching and Learning, University Tenure Committee, Committee on Student Affairs, Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee, Graduate Studies Committee, and Bachelor of Theology Committee.

Center for Research on Religion (CREOR)

In November 2008 I was appointed Director of the McGill Centre for Research on Religion (CREOR). Further information concerning the goals and activities of the Centre may be obtained at the Centre's website https://www.mcgill.ca/creor/. The CREOR lecture series for the Fall Term 2012 is titled "Conversion and Modernity." For more details of this and other series, as well as for video podcasts of CREOR lectures please visit https://www.mcgill.ca/creor/events/lecture. The Fall series 2011, co-sponsored by the Montreal Neurological Institute, addressed the theme "Neuro-theology for the 21st Century: Religion and the Brain." As Director of the Centre I co-hosted a conference in Istanbul in December 2010 with colleagues Professors Rahim Acer and Bilal Bas of Marmara University on the theme "Philosophy and the Abrahamic Religions: scriptural authority and theories of knowledge" (https://www.mcgill.ca/creor/events/conferences).

Distinctions

In 2011 I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of the United Kingdom. Smith College, Northampton, Mass., invited me to take up the Ruth and Clarence Kennedy Professorship in Renaissance Studies, a visiting appointment, during the Fall Term of 2013. Since 2019 I have been a McCord Fellow of the Princeton Centre of Theological Inquiry.

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