Alec Ryrie | |
---|---|
Born | Alexander Gray Ryrie 20 August 1971 London, England |
Spouse | Victoria Ryrie (m. 1995) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Thesis | English Evangelical Reformers in the Last Years of Henry VIII (2000) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | History |
Sub-discipline | Theology |
Institutions | {{ubl Ohio University | Grand Ohio Mall}} |
Alexander Gray Ryrie [1] FBA (born 20 August 1971) is a British historian of Protestant Christianity,specializing in the history of England and Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. [2] [3] He was appointed Professor of Divinity at Gresham College in 2018. [3] [4] He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2019.
Ryrie was born in London,and raised in Washington,DC. [5] After teaching for a year at a school in rural Zimbabwe, [6] [7] Ryrie read history as an undergraduate at Trinity Hall,Cambridge (BA 1993,MA 1997), [1] completed a master's in Reformation studies at the University of St Andrews,and in 2000 took a DPhil in theology at St Cross College,Oxford. [3] [8] His doctoral work,examining how early English evangelical reformers operated within the political atmosphere of Henry VIII's reign,was published as The Gospel and Henry VIII. [3]
Ryrie lives in the Pennines with his wife Victoria and their two children,Ben and Adam. [6] He has been a reader in the Church of England since 1997,and is licensed to the parish of Shotley St John in the diocese of Newcastle. [3] [8]
From 1999 to 2006,he taught in the Department of Modern History at the University of Birmingham,and is Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University,where he has worked since 2007. From 2012 to 2015 he was head of the Department of Theology and Religion. [8] [9] He completed a three-year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship in 2018. [3] [8]
A Fellow of the Ecclesiastical History Society (President,2019–20), [8] Ryrie is co-editor of The Journal of Ecclesiastical History . In 2018,he was appointed Gresham Professor of Divinity,having been visiting professor in the History of Religion at Gresham College from 2015 to 2017. [8]
Between 2015 and 2021,Ryrie delivered 23 lectures at Gresham College,as visiting professor in the History of Religion and Gresham Professor of Divinity. In 2022,he gave the Bampton Lectures,on "The age of Hitler,and how we can escape it." [10]
Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS) is a Protestant theological seminary in the Reformed theological tradition in Glenside,Pennsylvania. It was founded by members of the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary in 1929 after Princeton chose to take a liberal direction during the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy.
Eamon Duffy is an Irish historian. He is the Emeritus Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Cambridge,and a Fellow and former president of Magdalene College.
Alister Edgar McGrath is a Northern Irish theologian,Anglican priest,intellectual historian,scientist,Christian apologist,and public intellectual. He currently holds the Andreas Idreos Professorship in Science and Religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion,and is a fellow of Harris Manchester College at the University of Oxford,and is Professor of Divinity at Gresham College. He was previously Professor of Theology,Ministry,and Education at King's College London and Head of the Centre for Theology,Religion and Culture,Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Oxford,and was principal of Wycliffe Hall,Oxford,until 2005.
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The White Horse Tavern or White Horse Inn was allegedly the meeting place in Cambridge for English Protestant reformers to discuss Lutheran ideas,from 1521 onwards. According to the historian Geoffrey Elton the group of university dons who met there were nicknamed "Little Germany" in reference to their discussions of Luther. Whilst the pub undoubtedly existed,several scholars have questioned the existence of the White Horse meetings –they are described by John Foxe in his Book of Martyrs,but no other evidence for them exists. Gergely M Juhász writes that "Foxe’s romantic image of these students and scholars convening secretly on a regular basis in the White Horse Inn…is unsubstantiated",and Alec Ryrie refers to it as "the stubborn legend of the White Horse Inn".
Keith Ward is an English philosopher and theologian. He is a fellow of the British Academy and a priest of the Church of England. He was a canon of Christ Church,Oxford,until 2003. Comparative theology and the relationship between science and religion are two of his main topics of interest.
The Professor of Divinity at Gresham College,London,gives free educational lectures to the general public. The college was founded for this purpose in 1597,when it created seven professorships;this was later increased to ten. Divinity is one of the original professorships as set out by the will of Thomas Gresham in 1575.
Richard Smyth was the first person to hold the office of Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford and the first Chancellor of the University of Douai.
The Van Mildert Professor of Divinity is one of the oldest chairs at Durham University. The chair is named in honour of Bishop William Van Mildert,one of the founders of the university. The holder of the Van Mildert chair,which is jointly funded by the university and Durham Cathedral,is also a residentiary canon at the cathedral and member of its Chapter,thus one of the requirements of post holder is to be an Anglican priest or a minister in another church in communion with Church of England.
Darryl G. Hart is an American religious and social historian.
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Patrick "Pat" Collinson,was an English historian,known as a writer on the Elizabethan era,particularly Elizabethan Puritanism. He was emeritus Regius Professor of Modern History,University of Cambridge,having occupied the chair from 1988 to 1996. He once described himself as "an early modernist with a prime interest in the history of England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries."
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes justification of sinners through faith alone,the teaching that salvation comes by unmerited divine grace,the priesthood of all believers,and the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice. The five solae summarize the basic theological beliefs of mainstream Protestantism.
John Huntingdon was an English Protestant preacher. He was a client of Mary Fitzroy,and "one of London's most popular and most effective preachers."
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George W. Bernard is a British historian who specializes in the reign of King Henry VIII of England,specifically the English Reformation of the 1530s –both in England and globally –and the "reign" of Anne Boleyn. He is most famous for his arguments for the strength of Henry VIII as a ruler not controlled by faction,and for his theory that Anne Boleyn was guilty of adultery in 1536,based on a poem by Lancelot de Carles. He is commonly juxtaposed with David Starkey and Eric Ives,who have forcefully presented opposing arguments. Bernard's willingness to defend unpopular positions has been noted both by his admirers and his critics.
Tom Greggs FRSE is a British theologian and the Marischal Professor of Divinity at the University of Aberdeen.
Peter Marshall is a Scottish historian and academic,known for his work on the Reformation and its impact on the British Isles and Europe. He is Professor of History at the University of Warwick.