The secularisation of future expectations in practice: An empirical study of divine appeals in Early Modern English letters In the wake of Reinhart Koselleck’s seminal work on temporality (1979), historians studying past futures in Western Europe have argued that our current understanding of the future dates back to the period between 1500 and 1800. The medieval, Christian conception of time was largely cyclical in nature; the future was, above all, in the hands of God. By 1800 however, the future had become open, uncertain and constructible; people were left with the feeling that time had not only been accelerating, it had also become secularised. As recent studies have emphasised the gradual nature of this shift, this paper zooms in on the pluritemporal mindscape of early modern societies by charting secular and religious types of future thought in a large body of English letters written between 1450 and 1700. Did fifteenth century people appeal to God more often than seventeenth century people did? In which domains of their lives was religious future thinking the strongest? Did the secularisation of time proceed at the same pace across all communities, despite their differences in religious practice? We address these questions by querying nearly 5000 early modern letters for divine appeals and systematically annotating them for variables like human and divine agency, temporal orientation and domain of life. Our results indicate that while the more formulaic divine appeals found in the opening and closing sections of letters were growing less popular over time, the ones in the letter bodies fluctuated in particular with the religious denominations of the letter writers. The observed rise in mentions of divine entities in the first half of the seventeenth century is mainly caused by a small group of puritan letter writers whose involvement in the civil wars throughout the 1640 made their lives particularly perilous. The other letter writers in the corpus, by contrast, displayed progressively lower rates of divine appeals as time went by, a finding that is in line with previous research that saw the early modern period as one characterised by the increasing secularisation of future thought as well as a shift from religious practice to religious faith.

Early modern letters are full of phrases like “God willing” or “By God’s grace.” Sara Budts’ analysis of 5,000 letters shows these weren’t clichés but ways to navigate faith, agency, and uncertainty. From 1450–1700, people balanced divine will with human action in shifting ways.

A McDonald’s where the sign has been reduced to McDo.

There is no McTry.

all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant

To be fair, I'd probably have given up too...

Konf: Kulturgeschichte als Globalgeschichte: Perspektiven der Forschung

https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-161519

München, 10.06.2026-12.06.2026, Ulinka Rublack, Historisches Kolleg Kulturgeschichte als Globalgeschichte: Perspektiven der Forschung

📢 CFA - 3 Postdoctoral Researchers in Early Modern History (35 months) within the project ‘Travellers’ interactions in early modern Italy’ at the Italian-German Historical Institute in Trento. Deadline: 8 May 2026. jobs.fbk.eu/Annunci/Jobs...

Please circulate widely!

2 people consulting a printed volume on a book cushion

📢Job alert! We’re looking for 3 new full-time graduate trainee Archives & Special Collections Assistants to join our innovative, user-focused engagement team.

See more details and apply: www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/archives...

🗓️Closing date: 16 April 2026

📣 Call for Papers – Summer Conference

The Ecclesiastical History Society invites 20-minute paper proposals on the theme 'The Church and Race'.

We welcome contributions from scholars at all career stages.

🗓 Submission deadline: 15 April 2026

#CFP #ChurchHistory #Skystorians

Historical Association Conference 2026 in Newcastle

If you have alwaya you wanted to visit Lindisfarne but the logistics have defeated you them come with the HA -we are putting on a special trip for conference this year. @englishheritage.bsky.social www.history.org.uk/aboutus/categories/151/news/4495/historical-association-conference-2026-in-newcastl

Even in hard times, teaching staff are vital assets, not costs to be shed When teaching staff are casualised and cut while delivering the core business of universities, something is broken, say Katharine Hubbard and Damien Page

'Sector-wide, teaching-related income represents 52 per cent of income, compared with 25 per cent for research.

At post-92 institutions specifically, teaching accounts for 73 per cent of income, and research only 13 per cent.'

Hear ye, hear ye!

My book is in production!

www.routledge.com/Unconventual...

How far back in time can you understand English? An experiment in language change

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle.

It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get.

www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

We've now created a starter pack for those whose work/interests include early modern religious radicalism:

go.bsky.app/ArYba4T

Let me know if you'd like to be added!

#EarlyModern

Tfw you didn't study much medieval history at school

Yes please (if work on radical catechisms counts) 😃

Still time to register for the 2026 Calvin Studies Society Colloquium, exactly one month from now in Birmingham, AL. Hope to see you there! #earlymodern #Reformation #CalvinStudies

www.calvinstudiessociety.org/colloquium

I'm surprised you haven't invested in a dinghy given how much rain you have had!

About to embark on the long journey to #RenSA26 and San Francisco.

I'll be there as @rsaorg.bsky.social Religion Discipline Rep and as co-editor of the Transactions of @royalhistsoc.org.

If you have ideas for an article or just want to talk about submissions, please send me a DM!

#earlymodern

a cat is sitting on the floor against a wall . ALT: a cat is sitting on the floor against a wall .

I'm at the point where I hate every part of my book. I hope this is a normal feeling and not a sign that my book is, in fact, a complete mess...

#earlymodern #amwriting #skystorians #sendchocolate

Leicester Cathedral reveals sign language wedding held in 1576 Cathedral bosses believe the signed service could have been one of the first in England.

Well this is a very touching local news story.

Only 2 weeks left to submit your proposal for this year's Medieval Germany Workshop in cooperation with German History Society! 📯

📅 29 May 2026
📍German Historical Institute London
⏰ Deadline: 15 February 2026
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Digital Tools for Manuscript Studies

If you have graduate students working with medieval manuscripts this free online training might be useful 👇
www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

A reader‘s letter in the times which reads as follows: Old adversaries Sir, Your obituary (Jan 19) of Mr Justice Blofeld rightly referred to his fine sense of humour. When he first sat in Winchester a barrister called Richard Bond stood up to open the first case. Mr Justice Blofeld began to stroke the white ermine on the sleeve of his High Court judge's robes as if stroking a cat. He then said with a smile: "We meet at last, Mr Bond." Sir John Royce Clifton, Bristol

This was posted by @mambarlife.bsky.social in the Other Place and it’s too good not to share it.

Postdoc Position: Early Christian Studies | Radboud University Do you want to work as a Postdoctoral Researcher: Early Christian Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies? Check our vacancy!

Please share widely! 3-year Postdoc in Early Christian Studies. Deadline: 8 March. Let me know if you have any questions or want to nominate a colleague.

There have been some fantastic proposals so far! The CFP is open until 13th Feb so there is still time to submit a proposal 😁

Blog post image on 'Joining the Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society: a brief guide if you’re considering an application'. Full abstract: "Fellowship is one of several ways to join and belong to the Royal Historical Society. Fellows are elected to this position by the Society in recognition of their work for the historical discipline and profession. There are many different routes to Fellowship, just as there are different kinds of contributions and careers within the discipline of history. Today’s RHS Fellows are history practitioners from a range of backgrounds (within and beyond higher education) who have contributed to historical understanding and knowledge through a body of work. These contributions take many forms, from academic publications of different formats, to editorial and curatorial work, history programming and public history. This post addresses common questions asked by those considering applying to join the Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society. If you are interested in making an application, we hope this helps."

How do you become a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society? What kinds of activity lead to Fellowship?

RHS Fellows are elected for their 'original contribution to historical scholarship'. We've a new guide to the many ways Fellows achieve and demonstrate this bit.ly/48mpcJa

#Skystorians 1/2

The countdown is on for our Winter Meeting 2026!

You can check out the speaker lineup on our website: ecclesiasticalhistorysociety.com/26-winter-me...

#HistoryConference #EHSWinter26

Grants Previous grant recipients If you would like to help us support early career scholars in bibliography, please email our Treasurer (treasurer@oxbibsoc.org.uk) to discuss how you can help. Any donatio…

Grants!

We are offering small grants (maximum £500 each) to support projects in book history & bibliography. We particularly encourage early-career applicants and projects that use Oxford collections.

Application is brief; deadline is 27th February 2026.

Details at oxbibsoc.org.uk/grants/

Calls for research funding from the Royal Historical Society: current programmes - RHS The Society currently invites applications for the following six schemes — open to historians across a range of career stages and backgrounds — with closing dates from 23 January to 6 March 2026. For ...

The Society invites applications for the following three funding programmes, with deadlines 23 to 31 January 2026 bit.ly/3LbxDQb

> RHS Workshop Grants
> Applied History Fellowships, in association with @ihr.bsky.social
> Fellowships, for completion of a History PhD, also with the IHR

#Skystorians