The Annual Patrides Lecture: World History and God’s Grand Design: the historical imagination in the Middle Ages and Reformation

Pre-modern historians in the Christian tradition were convinced that the hand of God could be seen in the rise and fall of empires, even (or especially) those empires that did not acknowledge the God of ancient Israel and the Christian tradition. History could be interpreted through the words of the Hebrew prophets, who had (it was believed) foretold in detail the destinies of the warring kingdoms of the Eastern Mediterranean. That conviction helped the people of the Reformation to believe that God was in control of the Church even when the Church was so badly astray as to be unrecognizable. In the era of the Protestant Reformation, reforming historians had to demonstrate both that the “true” church had never failed, and that it was quite consistent with God’s oversight of the human community for the Church to deviate disastrously from its proper path.

This lecture will endeavor to sketch out a provisional arc for the evolving theology of history as it developed through the Middle Ages and the Reformation period.

The talk will be followed by a reception and an opportunity to meet Professor Cameron and you are warmly invited to join us. 

This is a public event and all are welcome.  Please register via Eventbrite for your free ticket.