Yesterday evening, I went to the village of Bradbourne, to talk about ‘what the Reformation ever did for Bradbourne’ as part of the 500 Reformations project. It was my first visit to the village, and I’d like to go back: Apart from anything else, I arrived and left in the hours of darkness and have yet to see the wall painting which provided the local jumping off point to my talk. Also, my co-speaker and I had a warm reception from an audience of 38 people and a dog. That’s about a third of Bradbourne’s population.* It was a full house. Continue reading “500 Reformations of Bradbourne”
Calling speakers, calling hosts
Did Luther really change the world? What was reformation? How are the effects felt today?
Kicking off in October, researchers at the University of Sheffield are putting ourselves on the menu for public consumption. In part a response to the question, “What did Martin Luther ever do for Sheffield?” (asked in the run-up to my 2 minutes on BBC Radio Sheffield this Spring), 500 Reformations volunteers are talking about different aspects of Luther and reformation impact. Continue reading “Calling speakers, calling hosts”
Watching Luther: a prequel to three public talks
On Halloween, 1517, nearly 500 years ago, Luther posted up his debate text on the doors of the Wittenberg Castle Church. Was Luther’s text inflammatory? Composed in Latin, its direct capacity to inflame was limited to his literate peer group. Continue reading “Watching Luther: a prequel to three public talks”
From Luther to Lambeth Palace
The reception of strangers
in European Bibles
Paper to be presented to the Sheffield Institute of Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies (SIIBS) research seminar, 24 April 2017. Continue reading “From Luther to Lambeth Palace”