Podcast appearances and mentions of Diarmaid MacCulloch

Diarmaid MacCulloch is an English academic and historian, specialising in ecclesiastical history and the history of Christianity. Since 1995, he has been a fellow of St Cross College, Oxford; he was formerly the senior tutor. Buy Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textPLEASE NOTE: EDITING ERRORS HAVE BEEN REPAIRED. This week on Beach Talk with Betsey Newenhuyse, we're reflecting on Memorial Day from Betsey's visit to Ft. Sheridan Cemetery—where memory and meaning converge. We'll share personal thoughts about our dads and how sensational politics and shallow discourse often diminish this solemn day.Betsey brings us a notable message from Pete Buttigieg that cuts through the noise. We dive into the bizarre age obsession—“Biden's old!”—while so many political leaders are aging out. We'll also head down a rabbit trail: Young Earth creationism, QAnon, and my latest Substack post on the Scopes Trial. Anti-science. Anti-expertise. Anti-intellect. The Ark Encounter. The clergy survey. The 1960 film, Inherit the Wind. When faith becomes a box-checking exercise—what's left?I'll touch on Diarmaid MacCulloch's brilliant insights in his history of Christianity and sex. I'll talk about my professor's lecture on the difference between astrology and astronomy—it tells us a lot about Christian Nationalism's current dogma.Finally, we'll confront the attack on universities (hello, Harvard), Jemar Tisby's Roadmap to Ruin, Project 2025, and what it all means for the Church—and for our democracy. Support the showBecome a Patron - Click on the link to learn how you can become a Patron of the show. Thank you! Ken's Substack Page The Podcast Official Site: TheBeachedWhiteMale.com

Over the course of our conversation, Prof. MacCulloch explains the impetus behind his book as unsettling many “settled facts” about the Christian history of sexuality. We talk about differing views on sex before the Fall, sex in the eschaton, modern approaches to sexuality like purity culture, when weddings began to be held in churches, and some of the terrifying legends about homosexuality perpetuated by Christians. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Adishian and Dr. John Anthony Dunne. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For much of Christian history, the Church had little involvement in marriage, which was primarily a contract between families. It wasn’t until the fourth century that church weddings emerged, and even then, they were mostly reserved for the elite. Fast forward to the High Middle Ages, and marriage became a sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church. Since then, the church has been seen as inseparable with matrimony. What changed over the centuries? To explore this dynamic is today’s guest, historian Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of “Lower Than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity.” We explore how Christianity’s views on sex, marriage, and gender evolved over time; that early Christian marriage was not a universal sacrament but a social institution governed by authority figures. He highlights how for much of history, the Church was more concerned with celibacy than marital sexuality. The Reformation reshaped these ideas, introducing new roles for women in religious life, from pastor’s wives to Quaker preachers. We uncover how Christianity’s past can inform its present and future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Celibacy barely merits a mention in the Bible. Yet, by the early Middle Ages, it was being celebrated as a shortcut to a seat next to God. In this Long Read written by Diarmaid MacCulloch, we explore Christianity's long love affair with sexual abstinence. HistoryExtra Long Reads brings you the best articles from BBC History Magazine, direct to your ears. Today's feature originally appeared in the Christmas 2024 issue, and has been voiced in partnership with the RNIB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SHOW NOTES We talk about the confirmation hearings, the release of the special counsels report and the vote in Chicago to help protect immigrants.  https://news.wttw.com/2025/01/15/chicago-city-council-votes-39-11-reject-push-scale-back-protections-undocumented https://apnews.com/article/pete-hegseth-background-defense-secretary-confirmation-hearing-e160e10c86385a8beff110d9190fb34e https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-announces-israel-hamas-ceasefire-deal-2025-01-15/  https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/14/politics/takeaways-jack-smith-report-donald-trump/index.html For more information on Pete Hegseth's connection to the Crusades, see Dr. Susan Thistlethwaite's Substack, “Hegseth; The Tatooed Crusader.”  https://susanthistlethwaitewaite.substack.com/p/hegseth-the-tatooed-crusader?publication_id=1360431&post_id=154832528&isFreemail=true&r=4pgnh9&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email  See also, Ben Samuels, “Trump's Defense Secretary Pick Supports Israel 'Killing Every Last Member of Hamas',” https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2025-01-14/ty-article/.premium/trumps-defense-secretary-pick-supports-israel-killing-every-last-member-of-hamas/00000194-65d5-db9d-a1b5-7fd7b4b20000  The quote from Diarmaid MacCulloch on the Crusades came from his book, Christianity, The First Three Thousand Years, (N.Y., Viking, 2010), p. 387.  In addition to his criticism of the Crusades and the Knights Templar (p. 386), see also, Justo L. González, The Story of Christianity, The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, Vol. I of, (N.Y., Harper One, 2010), pp. 345-56) For information on his support of soldiers alleged to have committed war crimes, see:  Nik Popli, Pete Hegseth's Role in Trump's Controversial Pardons of Men Accused of War Crimes.” https://time.com/7176342/pete-hegseth-donald-trump-pardon-war-crimes-military/    ACTION STEPS Please support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and seek to end the Knesset's ban on its humanitarian activities:  https://www.unrwausa.org/hands-off-unrwa Please immediately contact your Senators to vote no on the Laken-Riley Act.  The vote may come as early as Saturday, January 18.  For more information on the Act, see the National Immigration Law Center's five points against the Act.  https://www.nilc.org/articles/nilc-opposes-the-h-r-29-the-laken-riley-act/  Detention Watch Network asks you to call or email your Senator and ask them to vote no.  https://actionnetwork.org/letters/no-to-s5-laken-riley  You can call the Capitol Switchboard at: 202-224-3121.  They suggest the following call script: "Hello, I am a constituent, and I urge the Senator to vote NO on the Laken Riley Act.”

Thomas Cromwell's final six months were a Greek tragedy of hubris and political venom – all presided over by a tyrannical king. This Long Read, written by Diarmaid MacCulloch, charts Cromwell's rapid descent from the very pinnacle of power to the executioner's block. HistoryExtra Long Reads brings you the best articles from BBC History Magazine, direct to your ears. Today's feature originally appeared in the December 2024 issue, and has been voiced in partnership with the RNIB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the spring of 1540 Thomas Cromwell was at the height of his power, but just a few months later he found himself at the scaffold on Tower Hill preparing to be executed for treason and heresy. What had gone so badly wrong for Henry VIII's right-hand man? As the BBC drama Wolf Hall returns for a second series, Rob Attar speaks to Cromwell biographer Diarmaid MacCulloch about the precipitous downfall of a man who seemed to have it all. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sex has become one of the most controversial topics in the history of the Church. But the historian Diarmaid MacCulloch shows in his book, Lower Than the Angels, that in the last 2,500 years Christianity has encompassed a much greater diversity of beliefs, including on homosexuality and the role of women. He argues that far from there being a single Christian theology of sex, there have always been a wide range of readings and attitudes.In one of the foundational stories of the Bible, in Genesis, Eve is created as an afterthought, from one of Adam's ribs, to be his companion. The classicist Helen King puts the female body at the centre of her book, Immaculate Forms, and examines the ways in which religion, and medicine, have played a gatekeeping role over women's bodies.The prize-winning poet, Ruth Padel, re-imagines the Christian story of the Virgin Mary – a girl in a Primark t-shirt facing a life shaped by divine will. Her new collection, Girl, unravels the myths and icons surrounding girlhood, and also paints a portrait of the Cretan ‘snake goddess' as she's unearthed and reshaped at the hands of a male archaeologist.Presenter: Amanda Vickery is Professor in Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of LondonProducer: Katy Hickman

Few matters produce more public interest or division than sex and religion. Revolutions in attitudes in the last generations have brought liberation to some, fear and fury to others. Diarmaid MacCulloch, Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford, will seek to calm fears and encourage understanding by telling a 3,000-year-long tale of Christians encountering sex, gender and family, from the Bible to the present day. Diarmaid MacCulloch is Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University and one of the UK's leading historians. His books include the magisterial A History of Christianity and the definitive biography of Thomas Cromwell, which won the Whitbread Biography Prize. His latest book is Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity.

This episode contains frequent references to sex. Dan Jones is joined by Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of Lower than the Angels, for a look at the long and complicated relationship between the Church and our love lives. Who was Pope Gregory VII and why did he want to stop clergy from having sex? How have views on same-sex love changed over time? And why were bishops in charge of London's first brothels? Image Credit - Barry Jones A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Hosted by Dan Jones and Diarmaid MacCulloch Producer - Georgia Mills Executive Producer - Louisa Field Production Manager - Eric Ryan and Jen Mistri Marketing - Kieran Lancini Mixing - Gulliver Lawrence-Tickell and Joshua Gibbs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Academic, author, broadcaster and ordained deacon Diarmaid MacCulloch is Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University, and Fellow of St Cross College and of Campion Hall. His latest book is Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity, which explores how Christianity or historically Christian societies have witnessed one of the most extraordinary about-turns in attitudes to sex and gender in human history across the centuries and in recent years. Joining him to talk about it is Helen Carr, the writer, historian and broadcaster specialising in medieval history and public history. Let us know your thoughts! Take a moment to fill in our Intelligence Squared Audience Survey and be in with the chance of winning a £50 Amazon gift card. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. ... Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For a special run of episodes, Dan Jones is joined by world-class historians and authors. Find out about the sordid history of the Catholic Church, and the erotic musings of mystics with Diarmaid MacCulloch. Hear about the bloody Plantagenet rivalry to end all others with Dan's old University supervisor, Helen Castor. Plus, in our first ever live show: what kind of man was Goeffrey Chaucer, and what on earth is he wearing? A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Written and hosted by Dan Jones Producer - Georgia Mills Executive Producer - Louisa Field Production Manager - Eric Ryan Marketing - Kieran Lancini Sound Design and Mixing - Gulliver Lawrence-Tickell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the podcast this week, Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch is interviewed by Paul Handley about his new book Lower Than the Angels: A history of sex and Christianity. In a review of the book in this week's Church Times, Penelope Cowell Doe writes that “one of his main concerns . . . is to show that the Church has never been univocal in speaking about sex, and that there is not one unbroken line in its approach to marriage and celibacy. He writes: ‘there is no such thing as a single Christian theology of sex. There is a plethora of Christian theologies of sex.'” Lower Than the Angels is published by Allen Lane at £35 (Church Times Bookshop special price £28). https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780241400937/lower-than-the-angels?vc=CT220 Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

In this episode, we speak to Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch on everything from the importance of church history to how he chooses the subjects for his books, his thoughts on Tudor mania, and even how he really feels about Thomas Cromwell. Dairmaid MacCulloch is Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University. He is a prize-winning author, with such book as History of Christianity: the first three thousand years (2010) , which won the Cundill Prize; Silence: A Christian History (2013); All Things New: Writings on the Reformation (2016); and Thomas Cromwell: A Life (2018). He was knighted in the UK New Year's Honours List of 2012 and was awarded the Historical Association's Medlicott Medal in 2023. 

I have just finished reading Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read, comprehensive, and engagingly written. It is also a great doorstopper of a book, so large a hardbound tome that unless one has hands like those of the Incredible Hulk one finds it hard to hold the book in one hand while drinking coffee with the other. The title (“the first three thousand years”) refers to the fact that the author begins his tale in 1000 B.C. to take account of Greek culture and Hebrew history. Such a comprehensive sweep takes many pages: 1016 to be exact, not counting notes, bibliography, and index.

A leading expert on the history of the Reformation joins us to explain the very different stories of England and Scotland in the 16th century.

It's midwinter, we're midway through our sixth season and we thought it was time to revisit a favourite old episode. Today we have for you a recording made at Buxton Literary Festival in 2019. It is with the Oxford professor and prize-winning historian Diarmaid MacCulloch. Our destination is the year 1536 and our subject is one of the most complex and fascinating in English political history: Thomas Cromwell. == Thomas Cromwell, a self-described “ruffian”, was King Henry VIII's chief minister in the 1530s. He was clever, driven and ruthless, qualities that have captivated novelists and historians for generations as they have attempted to capture his mysterious essence. The year 1536 saw Cromwell at the peak of his career. As chief administrator of the realm he had vast and wide-ranging powers, but he also had enemies. Prominent among these, as we hear in this episode, was the King's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Thomas Cromwell: A Life by Thomas Cromwell by Diarmaid MacCulloch is now available in paperback from Penguin. Show notes Scene One: 24 May 1536. Ambassador Eustache Chapuys and Thomas Cromwell debriefing after the execution of Anne Boleyn. Scene Two: Around 3 October 1536 when King Henry VIII was told of the Lincolnshire Rising. Scene Three: 22 December 1536. Thomas Cromwell sits in his house at the Rolls listening to the sounds of the magnificent procession of the King from Whitehall to Greenwich down Fleet Street. Memento: The keyboard that Mark Smeaton played for Anne Boleyn People Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch Recording/Live Mix: Hannah Griffiths Post production: Maria Nolan

Part 6 All Change Under Constantine! Last time we looked briefly at two main enemies from within the church: systemic disorganization and chaos within leadership and structure of churches and false and heretical teaching which was creeping in surreptitiously. We move on today to a landmark period in the life of the church. Remember that one of the main persecutors of the Church was the Roman Empire. Now we come to the Emperor Constantine. This period is described by Diarmaid MacCulloch as “crucial for the Christian Church” (A History of Christianity). Constantine was pronounced as Emperor by the Army in 306AD following the death of his father, Constantius 1. Under the rule of Diocletian, the Empire had been reorganized into a team of 4 emperors under his leadership. However civil war soon re-commenced. During this time at the battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 AD, Constantine overthrew his rival, Maxentius, and became the Emperor of the Western Empire. He had been a worshipper of the 'Unconquered Sun', but before this battle he saw a vision of the cross of Christ and had a dream commanding his soldiers to fight under the name of Jesus Christ. He made his soldiers shields with a monogram of Christ, the first 2 letters of Christ's name in Greek. Constantine went on to restore property to the church in his domain which had been confiscated by previous Roman emperors. Then in 313AD Constantine and his ally, Licinius, made a proclamation whereby those identified as Christians would be treated equally with those who were not Christians. This proclamation also declared a new policy of toleration for all religions throughout all the Roman Empire. FF Bruce writes in The Spreading Flame “This led to Christians once banished to return from exile. Their property was restored; their demolished church edifices rebuilt. The last round between Christianity and Roman paganism had been the most desperate of all; but it ended with the acknowledgement that Christianity had won.” Constantine, according to Shelley in his book "Church History in Plain Language", also made many changes in his private life. This including raising his family as a Christian family. He was baptized by Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia. After his Baptist, he refused to wear the imperial purple again and chose to wear his baptismal robes. He died shortly after in 337AD but not before establishing Constantinople as a new capital of the Roman world. A quick look at the historical writing of Eusebius sees Constantine epitomised as an superlative Christian leader and almost envisages a new age of salvation! Here are some of the ways Eusebius describes Constantine from his writings. “Constantine, the mightiest victor, adorned with every virtue of piety…” “For Constantine, like an all-gracious emperor, giving him evidences of true favour…” “God was the friend, protector, and guardian of Constantine, and bringing the plots which had been formed in secrecy and darkness to the light, he foiled them.” Constantine was “the protector of the virtuous, mingling hatred for evil with love for good, went forth with his son Crispus, a most beneficent prince, and extended a saving right hand to all that were perishing.” Constantine brought both significant advantages and disadvantages for Christianity. These include: Advantages for Christianity. Religious tolerance and freedom Restoration of church property - a major church building program by the Emperor e.g. St. Peters Basilica in Rome. Christianity became the favoured religion in the Empire, since Constantine was at the very least nominally Christian. In 312 AD he declared Sunday a holiday. Disadvantages for Christianity. Christianity became nominal, and it was fashionable to be called a Christian. Many pagan ideas were intermingled with Christianity - incense, images, candles, vestments, veneration of saints & martyrs, and Mary idolised like a goddess. The emperor exercised his authority in the church as head of the Roman religion, Pontifus Maximus. This set an unfortunate precedent for involvement of government in Christianity which we will see later causes great trouble for the church and Christianity. While Constantine did not enforce others to join Christianity, that didn't last long. After Constantine's death, belief in Christianity was made a matter of imperial command under the regime of the emperor Theodosius. He had new church buildings designed in order to stress the new hierarchy of Jesus Christ and the Roman emperor. There were also heavy penalties enforced upon those who were not Christians and from other religions. Theodosius enforced the thinking that the there was a close connection between the will of God, his own will and a connection with the Roman empire. How does the church itself react to all this? How was the thinking and theology of the church growing and/or adapting? Well for the answer to that, you will have to wait until the next Podcast! Tap or lick here to save this as an audio mp3 file

While Christianity may strive to sing in a single voice, no one modern denomination ought to claim a monopoly on the truth. The region's history is in fact far more eclectic. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Welcome to the series on Popes across History, starting with us looking at Pope Urban VI. In this series we will look at the lives of these Popes, where they came from, what they did, and of they were good Popes. To buy 'The Popes A History' by John Jules Norwich: https://amzn.to/2OKyCJL To Buy 'A History of Christianity' by Diarmaid MacCulloch: https://amzn.to/3gaVCgi To catch up on everything to do with History with Jackson head to www.HistorywithJackson.co.uk If you wish to support us and our work please head to our 'Buy me a Coffee' profile: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/HistorywJackson Follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/HistorywithJ...... Follow us on Instagram at: @HistorywithJackson Follow us on Twitter at: @HistorywJackson --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/history-with-jackson/message

Welcome to the new series on Popes across History, starting with us looking at Pope Innocent III. In this series we will look at the lives of these Popes, where they came from, what they did, and of they were good Popes. To catch up and learn about the Albigensian Crusade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCEefp11yIo&t=1s To buy 'The Popes A History' by John Jules Norwich: https://amzn.to/2OKyCJL To Buy 'A History of Christianity' by Diarmaid MacCulloch: https://amzn.to/3gaVCgi To catch up on everything to do with History with Jackson head to www.HistorywithJackson.co.uk If you wish to support us and our work please head to our 'Buy me a Coffee' profile: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/HistorywJackson Follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/HistorywithJ...... Follow us on Instagram at: @HistorywithJackson Follow us on Twitter at: @HistorywJackson --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/history-with-jackson/message

Welcome to the new series on Popes across History, this week we are looking at Pope Alexander VI. In this series we will look at the lives of these Popes, where they came from, what they did, and of they were good Popes. To buy 'The Popes A History' by John Jules Norwich: https://amzn.to/2OKyCJL To Buy 'A History of Christianity' by Diarmaid MacCulloch: https://amzn.to/3gaVCgi To catch up on everything to do with History with Jackson head to www.HistorywithJackson.co.uk If you wish to support us and our work please head to our 'Buy me a Coffee' profile: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/HistorywJackson Follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/HistorywithJ...... Follow us on Instagram at: @HistorywithJackson Follow us on Twitter at: @HistorywJackson --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/history-with-jackson/message

Welcome to the final episode of The Pope Series. Today we are looking at Pope Adrian IV. In this series we will look at the lives of these Popes, where they came from, what they did, and of they were good Popes. To buy 'The Popes A History' by John Jules Norwich: https://amzn.to/2OKyCJL To Buy 'A History of Christianity' by Diarmaid MacCulloch: https://amzn.to/3gaVCgi To catch up on everything to do with History with Jackson head to www.HistorywithJackson.co.uk If you wish to support us and our work please head to our 'Buy me a Coffee' profile: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/HistorywJackson Follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/HistorywithJ...... Follow us on Instagram at: @HistorywithJackson Follow us on Twitter at: @HistorywJackson --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/history-with-jackson/message

Welcome to the series on Popes across History, starting with us looking at Pope Gregory I. In this series we will look at the lives of these Popes, where they came from, what they did, and of they were good Popes. To buy 'The Popes A History' by John Jules Norwich: https://amzn.to/2OKyCJL To Buy 'A History of Christianity' by Diarmaid MacCulloch: https://amzn.to/3gaVCgi To catch up on everything to do with History with Jackson head to www.HistorywithJackson.co.uk If you wish to support us and our work please head to our 'Buy me a Coffee' profile: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/HistorywJackson Follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/HistorywithJ...... Follow us on Instagram at: @HistorywithJackson Follow us on Twitter at: @HistorywJackson --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/history-with-jackson/message

Welcome to the new series on Popes across History, this week we are looking at Pope John Paul II. In this series we will look at the lives of these Popes, where they came from, what they did, and of they were good Popes. To buy 'The Popes A History' by John Jules Norwich: https://amzn.to/2OKyCJL To Buy 'A History of Christianity' by Diarmaid MacCulloch: https://amzn.to/3gaVCgi To catch up on everything to do with History with Jackson head to www.HistorywithJackson.co.uk If you wish to support us and our work please head to our 'Buy me a Coffee' profile: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/HistorywJackson Follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/HistorywithJ...... Follow us on Instagram at: @HistorywithJackson Follow us on Twitter at: @HistorywJackson --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/history-with-jackson/message

Diarmaid MacCulloch in conversation with William Dalrymple. This episode is part of the Voices of Faith series for JLF Brave New World, presented by the Kamini and Vindi Banga Family Trust.

Diarmaid MacCulloch, Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Cross College, introduces his ground-breaking biography of Thomas Cromwell, the self-made statesman who married his son to King Henry VIII’s sister-in-law, re-shaped Tudor England and Ireland, and sent the kingdom on a Protestant course for centuries. […]

As part of the 'Spaces of Solitude' series, Hetta Howes presents a conversation between Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University, and the most Revd Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury. Discussion ranges from personal experiences of solitude and silence, to ‘thin-places’ and speaking in tongues. Presented by Hetta Howes Produced by Natalie Steed

Revd Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch Kt FBA talks about how to understand Thomas Cromwell, even though so many of his own letters have vanished from his vast surviving archive.Speaker: Revd Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch Kt FBA, Professor of the History of the Church, University of Oxford; Fellow, St Cross College, OxfordThe world's leading professors explain the latest thinking in the humanities and social sciences in just 10 minutes. Image: © Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex by Hans Holbein the Younger / CC National Portrait Gallery, LondonTranscript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-making-the-real-thomas-cromwell-stand-up/ 

The Mirror and the Light, the conclusion to Dame Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy, was published in March, and has since been nominated for both the Booker Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction. It was reviewed by Alec Ryrie in the Church Times here. On this week's podcast — taken from our archive — Dame Hilary and Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch reflect on the life of Thomas Cromwell and his place in the Reformation. They were speaking in July 2019 at an event to mark the 900th anniversary of Launde Abbey, which Cromwell was fond of visiting. In part one, we hear presentations from each of them about how, as a novelist and historian respectively, they approached the Putney boy who became Henry VIII's chief minister. You can listen to the second half of their discussion here, and an edited record of the full conversation is available here. Both The Mirror and the Light and Diarmaid MacCulloch's Thomas Cromwell: A life can be purchased from the Church House Bookshop website. Get the Church Times delivered for 10 weeks for just £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/10-weeks

In this episode we sit down with historian Bryan Kozik, PhD to talk about his work on Reformation era Central Europe and how he is shifting the conversation in his field. With a focus on bishops and changes happening at the local level, he gives us a better sense of this momentous epoch in world history. His fresh perspective shows how we can start to better understand the changing definitions of Europe and how religion should remain a key factor when assessing history. Bryan Kozik's reading suggestions: For a terrific, accessible illustration of the heterogeneity of pre-Reformation Western Christianity:Richard Wunderli, Peasant Fires: The Drummer of Niklashausen (1992)For scholarly but accessible surveys to the Reformations era:Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History (2005)Carlos Eire, Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650 (2016)For introductions to more varied, specialized topics in Reformations history:Andrew Pettegree, ed. The Reformation World (2002)R. Po-chia Hsia, ed., A Companion to the Reformation World (2004)Howard Louthan and Graeme Murdock, eds., A Companion to the Reformation in Central Europe (2015)Music by Adam Pisarkiewiczhttps://www.zacharymazur.com/

Natalie Grueninger speaks with Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch about Thomas Cromwell and his involvement in Anne Boleyn's downfall. Learn more about your host at On the Tudor Trail. Join our Talking Tudors Podcast Facebook group for all the behind-the-scenes news and updates. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all my wonderful patrons! If you love Talking Tudors and would like to show your appreciation, and support the work I do, I invite you to become a part of the Talking Tudors family and become my patron! Music break by singer/songwriter Karliene.  (Photo credit: Barry Jones)

Cranmer's reputation has run from dishonest, ambitious politician to gentle, moderate Anglican. Prof. Diarmaid MacCulloch shed light on the life and motivations of the man central to the English Reformation. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Diarmaid MacCulloch brings wonderful scholarship, wit and humanity with a delightfully fresh biography of Thomas Cromwell, shot through with new insights. And I got to meet him! Here is what we talked about. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Henry VIII he is not! Diarmaid MacCulloch discusses the genius who masterminded Henry VIII's bloody revolution in 16th century England in his book, “Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite ranking among the most influential people in English history, Thomas Cromwell has long eluded biographers and historians. In Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life (Viking, 2018), though, Diarmaid MacCulloch provides readers with the definitive study of this key figure in the English Reformation. Drawing upon the full range of the available archival material and his own deep understanding of the era, MacCulloch shows how Cromwell's views and achievements often belie the historical reputation that has formed around him. The son of a yeoman, Cromwell emerged by dint of his abilities and language skills to become a trusted servant of the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, in the 1520s. When Wolsey lost favor because of his failure to obtain for Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Cromwell survived and established himself as a trusted adviser to the king. By 1534 he cemented his position as Henry's chief minister, becoming the political architect of England's break with the Catholic Church and the English Reformation that followed. As MacCulloch demonstrates, Cromwell's skills as a Parliamentary manager and his experience with Church affairs were key to his role in the events of the 1530s, though in the end his formidable skills proved insufficient when Cromwell fell out of Henry's favor by the end of the decade and was executed without trial in 1540. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite ranking among the most influential people in English history, Thomas Cromwell has long eluded biographers and historians. In Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life (Viking, 2018), though, Diarmaid MacCulloch provides readers with the definitive study of this key figure in the English Reformation. Drawing upon the full range of the available archival material and his own deep understanding of the era, MacCulloch shows how Cromwell's views and achievements often belie the historical reputation that has formed around him. The son of a yeoman, Cromwell emerged by dint of his abilities and language skills to become a trusted servant of the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, in the 1520s. When Wolsey lost favor because of his failure to obtain for Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Cromwell survived and established himself as a trusted adviser to the king. By 1534 he cemented his position as Henry's chief minister, becoming the political architect of England's break with the Catholic Church and the English Reformation that followed. As MacCulloch demonstrates, Cromwell's skills as a Parliamentary manager and his experience with Church affairs were key to his role in the events of the 1530s, though in the end his formidable skills proved insufficient when Cromwell fell out of Henry's favor by the end of the decade and was executed without trial in 1540. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Stanford, Ulinka Rublack and Diarmaid MacCulloch join Anne McElvoy to explore the question Martin Luther - Fundamentalist, Reactionary or Enlightened Creator of the Modern World? The discussion was recorded in front of an audience at theLiterary Festival for Radio 3's Breaking Free series of programmes exploring Martin Luther's Revolution. 500 years ago Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation when he nailed a sheet of paper to the door of a church in a small university town in Germany. That sheet and the incendiary ideas it contained flared up into religious persecution and war, eventually burning a huge hole through 16th century Christendom. And yet the man who sparked this revolution has somehow been lost in the glare of events. Peter Stanford is the author of a new biography of Luther Ulinka Rublack is the author of Reformation Europe Diarmaid MacCulloch's most recent book is All Things Made New - Writings on the Reformation Producer Zahid Warley.

Its 500 years since the German friar, Martin Luther, challenged the authority of the Pope and sparked the Reformation. The violent upheavals that followed have tended to obscure his character, his beliefs and his legacy. Nowadays when we think of him we usually conjure up the image of a jowly zealot. To uncover a truer likeness Anne McElvoy was joined at the London School of Economics by Luther's latest biographer, Peter Stanford and the historians, Diarmaid MacCulloch and Ulinka Rublack -- was he a fundamentalist reactionary or the enlightened creator of our modern world.Producer: Zahid Warley

Church Historian Diarmaid Macculloch joins Anne McElvoy to discuss the role that silence has played in the development of Christianity. David Dewing, director of The Geffrye Museum, argues that the museum sector neglects a focus on the middle classes; historian Selina Todd joins him to debate this idea. Actor Edward Petheridge and gerontologist Raymond Tallis discuss the neurological impact of the two strokes Petheridge suffered whilst rehearsing for the role of King Lear, which is the subject of a new play My Perfect Mind. And film critic Ian Christie remembers the novelist and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

Matthew Sweet talks to Jenny Saville about her work on display at The Museum of Modern Art in Oxford. Diarmaid MacCulloch and Nick Spencer discuss whether the disestablishment of the Church of England would be good or bad for the church and for society as a whole. New Generation Thinker, Matthew Smith looks at the cultural history of the diagnosis and medical treatment of ADHD. And Dr Ellen Adams explains about the importance of the language known as Linear B.

Lecture 5: Getting behind noise in Christian historySo far, the story has largely been about overt history: the positive utterances and actions of public Christianity. We turn now to further and more complex varieties of silence: first the phenomenon of ‘Nicodemism', simultaneously audible to those with ears to hear, and not to be heard by others. New politic silences were caused by the fissuring of Western Christianity, through efforts to sidestep the consequent violence and persecution; a rediscovery of classical discussion of silence took place on the eve of the Reformation in the writings of Italian civic humanists, and this tradition fused with the debate about Nicodemism and the place of quiet versus overt toleration. Over the centuries, particular groups who represented the ‘Other', some Christian, some not, have made themselves invisible simply in order to survive: crypto-Judaism and its effect on Christianity are discussed, together with examples of Christian Nicodemism, notably the Reformation ‘Family of Love' and the growth of a distinctive gay sub-culture within nineteenth- and twentieth-century Anglo-Catholicism. We move to those things best left unsaid in order to build identity in Christian organisations and newly-evangelised regions, and the way in which themes and dogmatic position once considered vital and central for the Christian life have been quietly abandoned without much acknowledgement of their one-time importance. We scrutinise Christian problems in dealing honestly with sexuality, with a specific example. Finally we turn to the confused reaction of Churches to shame over past sin, the example being complicity in the slave trade.Recorded Tuesday 1 May 2012 at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh.Audio version.

Lecture 4: Silence transformed: the third Reformation 1500-1700The noisiness of Protestantism, particularly exacerbated by the end of monasticism, unsuccessfully countered in the Church of Zürich but transcended first among radical Reformers (especially Caspar Schwenckfeld and Sebastian Franck) and a century later by the Society of Friends. The difficulties of contemplatives in the Counter-Reformation, where activism was the characteristic of the new foundations of Jesuits and Ursulines, and the problems faced by such revivals as the Discalced Carmelites. The troubles of Madame Guyon and Quietists. Recorded 30 April 2012 at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh. Audio version.

Lecture 3: Silence through schism and two Reformations: 451-1500The significance of the threeway split in Christianity after the Council of Chalcedon (451). The purposeful Chalcedonian forgetting of Evagrius Ponticus and the contribution of an anonymous theologian who took the name Dionysius the Areopagite. The role of Augustine in the Western Church: a theologian of words, not silence. The transformation in the use of silence and its function after the Carolingian expansion of Benedictine monastic life (together with the West's discovery of pseudo-Dionysius), and the further development through the great years of Cluny Abbey. Counter-currents on silence in the medieval West, and the significance of the Iconoclastic controversy, and later hesychasm, in the Byzantine world. Tensions between clerical and lay spirituality in the late medieval West.Recorded 26 April 2012 at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh. Audio version.

Lecture 6: Silence in modern and future Christianities We consider the democratisation of the quest for silence in industrial society: the tangling of a secular society with the silences provided by Christian tradition, through for instance the popularity of retreats, or the observance of silence in remembrance. We see the importance of ‘whistle-blowing' to modern Christianity, and its use of the historical discipline. We ponder the relation of agnosticism to silence; the role of music in silence and Christian understanding; the relationship between Word and Spirit in the future of Christian life. Recorded Thursday 3 May 2012 at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh.Audio version.Listen to podcast

Lecture 2: Catholic Christianity and the arrival of ascetism, 100-400 Counter-strands to silence in the early Church, encouraged by its congregational worship and cult of martyrdom, and the effect of gnostic Christianities in shaping what the emerging Catholic Church decided to emphasise or ignore.The emergence of new positive theologies of silence: negative theology and its sources in the Platonic tradition; the development of asceticism in the mainstream Church in Syria from the second century, and its possible sources: the place of silence in the development of monasticism and eremetical life in Christianity.The importance of the remaking of monasticism in Egypt; the vital role of a forgotten theologian, Evagrius Ponticus.Recorded 24 April 2012 at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh. Audio version.

Silence in Christian History: the witness of Holmes' DogLecture 1: Introduction. Voices and silence in Tanakh and Christian New Testament. Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch presents his introductory lecture in our 2012 Gifford lecture series. He discusses a change in emphasis between the Hebrew Scripture (the Tanakh) and what Christians made of what is arguably a minority positive strand in Judaic thinking on silence; we survey the growth of a consciousness of silence, particularly in the cosmos, in Jewish religion.We seek the voice of Jesus to be heard behind the text of the New Testament, with his distinctive use of silence and silences; the place of silence in the first Christian attempts to understand the significance of Jesus Christ, and its relationship to the formation of the Church. Recorded Monday 23 April 2012 at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh. Audio version.

Melvyn Bragg and guests Justin Champion, Susan Hardman Moore and Diarmaid MacCulloch discuss the ideas of the religious reformer John Calvin - the theology known as Calvinism, or Reformed Protestantism - and its impact. John Calvin, a Frenchman exiled to Geneva, became a towering figure of the 16th century Reformation of the Christian Church. He achieved this not through charismatic oratory, but through the relentless rigour of his analysis of the Bible. In Geneva, he oversaw an austere, theocratic and sometimes brutal regime. Nonetheless, the explosion of printing made his theology highly mobile. The zeal he instilled in his followers, and the persecution which dogged them, rapidly spread the faith across Europe, and on to the New World in America. One of Calvin's most striking tenets was 'predestination': the idea that, even before the world began, God had already decided which human beings would be damned, and which saved. The hope of being one of the saved gave Calvinists a driving energy which has made their faith a galvanic force in the world, from business to politics. Anxiety about salvation, meanwhile, led to a constant introspection which has left its mark on literature.Justin Champion is Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London; Susan Hardman Moore is Senior Lecturer in Divinity at the University of Edinburgh; Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford.

Melvyn Bragg and guests Diarmaid MacCulloch, Lucy Wooding and Charlotte Methuen discuss the Siege of Munster in 1534-35.In the early 16th century, the Protestant Reformation revolutionised Christian belief. But one radical group of believers stood out. The Anabaptists rejected infant baptism and formal clergy, and believed that all goods should be held in common. They were also convinced that the Second Coming was imminent.In 1534, in the north-western German city of Munster, a group of Anabaptists attempted to establish the 'New Jerusalem', ready for the Last Days before the coming Apocalypse. But the city was besieged by its ousted Prince-Bishop, and under the reign of its self-appointed King, a 25-year-old Dutchman called Jan van Leyden, it descended into tyranny. Books were burned, dissenters were executed and women were forced to marry. As starvation spread, King Jan lived in luxury with his 16 wives. The horrors of Munster have resonated through the European memory ever since. Diarmaid MacCulloch is Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford; Charlotte Methuen is University Research Lecturer in Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford and Lecturer in Church History and Liturgy at Ripon College Cuddesdon; Lucy Wooding is Lecturer in Early Modern History at King's College, London.