Don't forget to register by 12 April to attend Speech/less in the Early Modern World. Free event! All welcome!

During this bi-weekly ceremonies, Charles touched between 200 to 600 people. By the end of his reign in 1685, he touched some 96,000 people. Interesting how Charles and his predecessors used it to secure their regime, as their “healing power” came from God! Kyrie, eléison. 2/2

It’s interesting that when people commented on the U.S. President’s recent AI image, no one mentioned the practice of the “royal touch,” which was an imitation of Christ’s healing. Shortly after Charles II’s restoration, he held public services of touching the sick in London. 1/2

Preaching & Preachers: John Ryland, Jr.'s (1753–1825) "Text Book" Northamptonshire was a stronghold of nonconformity.

open.substack.com/pub/bandrews...

B.A. Song | Substack PhD, FRAS, Associate Fellow of RHS. Historian of Christianity studying 18th-century nonconformity, Baptist history, and Chinese Christianities. Treaty 13, Toronto. Click to read B.A. Song on Substack....

Here is my new Substack channel, where I will share thoughts, ideas, & anecdotes from archival research. Please subscribe and it's free of any charge.

bandrewsong.substack.com

Voices from the Margins - CALL FOR PAPERS - RHS Voices from the Margins - 22 June, The John Rylands Library, Manchester Call for papers deadline - 25 May Narratives of British Nonconformity in the Long Eighteenth Century often centre on key charact...

CFP

royalhistsoc.org/calendar/voi...

I remember when AGO announced its acquisition during COVID. It’s absolutely beautiful and I’m glad now her identity is finally revealed. Great job!

Meet Eleonora Susette The previously unknown sitter of Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom has been identified

readfoyer.com/article/meet...

She is newly identified!

✨Speech/less in the Early Modern World✨
Research Workshop, 23-24 April 2026
Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Places limited. Please register as an attendee by 12 April: forms.gle/k9Xnz4gVFhe2Syez9

Thank you event sponsors! @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social @camhistory.bsky.social @socialhistsoc.bsky.social

Conference Poster, “Voices for the Margins,” a day conference of the British Nonconformity in the long 18th century work group. Conference will be held at the John Rylands Library in Manchester on June 22, 2026.

Call for papers. Narratives of British Nonconformity in the Long Eighteenth Century often centre on key characters, further amplifying the voices which are already the loudest. This conference seeks to give attention to those who are situated on the peripheries of these narratives.This will include family members and colleagues of more established figures, enslaved peoples, non-Western perspectives, the heterodox and heretical, the radical, and those engulfed in scandal. This conference aims to consider a diverse range of social, economic, racial, and theological perspectives, giving attention to those who were either marginalised in their own lifetimes, or have been marginalised by subsequent historiographies. We invite proposals for papers on any subject pertainting to this theme, which may include: The poor • Women • Family and friends of famous figures • Overlooked figures • Enslaved peoples • Non-Western lives and perspectives • Heterodox and heretical figures or views • Radicals • Scandalous figures The conference is hosted by the British Nonconformity in the Long Eighteenth Century, co-convened by Drs Baiyu Andrew Song and Daniel Johnson, under the auspices of the American Society for Church History. Please submit an abstract of 250 words and a brief biography by May 25, 2026 to c18.nonconformity@gmail.com.

Excited to announce that Dr @danjohnsonhymns.bsky.social and I will co-host our 4th annual conference this year at the John Rylands Library in Manchester. Call for papers is now alive. Please help us to spread the news. Grateful for the support of ASCH and AFCBS.

Why did clergymen marry? What did a wife offer them in serving their parishes? Why on earth would Charlotte Lucas marry Mr Collins? Answers to these questions, & much more, at this talk using the @thejohnrylands.bsky.social collections with curator Paul Carlyle. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/clerical-c...

Thrilled to announce that Palgrave Macmillan has offered a contract to publish my monograph, Joseph Kinghorn and English Baptist Communion Controversies. This work will also be included in the “Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World” series.

Sure it only a scratch of a vast ocean.

Canadian churches need to collectively pray when our Supreme Court hold hearings over QC’s unconstitutional Bill 21 (March 23-7). This is a case that matters to all Canadians (w/ misuse of the “notwithstanding” clause) & esp concerns religion in the public sphere.

So clever

Super excited

Always Donne over Herbert!

Reading Fr Gerald O’Collins and George Grant side by side is an intellectual treat!

The registration is open now at Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies website. Please help to spread the words! Excited about this research trip.

revealed by the incarnated God through the Holy Spirit in the scriptures?

BSECS Annual Conference BSECS Annual Conference: the annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe's largest and most prestigious annual conference

Looking forward to attend @bsecs.bsky.social this week at Pembroke College! I will present a paper on Andrew Fuller’s portraits on Thursday. Excited to meet colleagues and friends.

www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

A Significant Milestone The Social History Society was founded at Lancaster University in 1976 and held a conference that year on the theme of ‘Elites in Society’. The SHS was the brainchild of Harold Perkin (the first Professor of Social History in Britain), who quietly promoted a form of social history that looked beyond class based analyses. Alongside a regular newsletter, the society’s conference was the glue that bound together its increasingly diverse membership. As the SHS’s conferences grew, they moved from a focus on a single theme to a programme that incorporated different strands of social history. The SHS conference is now one of the largest gatherings of social historians in Britain, and incorporates work that spans time, space and various historical approaches. There are few conferences that are as diverse or as open to new ideas. From the outset, the SHS has sought to offer a constructive space for postgraduate historians to present and gain feedback on their work. The society still prides itself on giving postgraduates the same platform as more established colleagues. Thankfully, however, some things have changed. The first SHS conferences were held in the depths of winter (according to late founder member Eric Evans, this was because no other conference was foolhardy enough to organise events at that time of year so they could guarantee and audience). Since 2018, the conference has adopted a summer timetable, allowing outdoor events including walking tours and an unforgettable night at the Black Country Living Museum’s 1950s fairground. We are delighted to be returning to our roots at Lancaster to celebrate our 50th anniversary.

The @socialhistsoc.bsky.social conference will be at Lancaster in July. Call for papers just released. I'll put putting together a proposal, so hope to see some of you there! #EarlyModern 🗃️

Details here: socialhistory.org.uk/events/confe...

Submit a proposal! cts-stc.ca/2025/11/14/2...

Hahha. This is what I got …

Been reading a lot of & about the fathers this semester. Really regret that at seminary, I wasted too much money on contemporary books rather than buying primary sources. My advice is to buy critical editions of primary sources and only use library copies for secondary sources!

The Nicene-Constantinopletan Creed is not just a historical creed, but a living confession—essential to Christian formation, worship, hermeneutics, theology, and spirituality. Any opposition to it is either premodern heresy or modern nonsense.

There will always be folks who are younger than us, old man! Hahah

Sad to learn Prof Paul A Cohen passed away. I’m so indebted to his works though I’ve never had the privilege to meet him. May he rest in peace!

If we follow Leonardo Bruni’s argument, the end of the “Middle Ages” and beginning of the “modern” age is the revival of city life in the late 11th cen and early 12th cen. People back then began to complain the changes in “modern” life.

True light in the centre of Canada!