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Inaugural Lecture by Professor John Wolffe
In this lecture Professor Wolffe will move beyond the truisms of the post-9/11 world, drawing particularly on his own expertise in modern British religious history and developing two central themes. First it will be argued that in order to achieve a balanced understanding of the place of religion in the contemporary world a strong historical perspective is essential. For example, the perceived inexorable decline of ‘traditional’ Christianity and the rise of ‘alternative’ spiritualities reflect very longstanding popular ambivalences towards organized religion. There are also significant parallels between nineteenth-century antagonism to Catholics and early twenty-first century suspicion of Muslims. Second, the question posed by the title will be pursued at a methodological level. It will be argued that while secular historians are often neglectful of religion, and history can be distorted in the service of religious commitment, a constructive critical assimilation between the disciplines of History and Religious Studies has much to contribute to wider academic and religious understanding.
John Wolffe is Professor of Religious History in the Department of Religious Studies and Associate Dean for Research and Postgraduate Study in the Faculty of Arts. He joined the Open University in 1990 as Lecturer in Religious Studies, having previously taught for five years in the
Department of History at the University of York. His publications include The Protestant Crusade in Great Britain 1829-1860 (1991); God and Greater Britain: Religion and National Life in Britain and Ireland 1843-1945 (1994); Great Deaths: Grieving, Religion and Nationhood in Victorian and Edwardian Britain (2000) and The Expansion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Wilberforce, More, Chalmers and Finney (2006).
