糖心原创

Department of Theology and Religious Studies

If you wish to get in touch with our administrative staff, please see the admin staff contact page.

Image of Frances Knight

Frances Knight

Emeritus Professor of the History of Christianity,

Contact

Biography

After leaving school in St Albans, I went to King's College London to read for the BD in Theology, during which I discovered that the history of Christianity was the part of the syllabus that interested me most. This was followed by a part-time Master's degree at King's, which I combined with book selling, copy-editing, and various freelance jobs.

I moved to the University of Cambridge Divinity Faculty, to work on a PhD under the supervision of David Thompson. This thesis, on what was then the enormous diocese of Lincoln in the second quarter of the nineteenth-century, became the starting point for my first book (see Past Research). After a brief spell on the staff at Lambeth Palace Library, I returned to Cambridge as a British Academy Post-doctoral Fellow, and fellow of Selwyn College Cambridge, from 1991 to 1994. During this time I also began to develop my interest in distance learning, working for the Open University on two of their Victorian religion courses, in the Eastern region and later on a short-term contract at Milton Keynes.

In 1995, I moved to West Wales, to take up a lectureship in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Wales, Lampeter. I began to research and write about the Welsh Church (see Past Research) and became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1997. I taught modern church history to theologians, Christianity modules to religious studies students and Victorian studies within an interdisciplinary degree programme. I undertook a variety of tasks within the University, including a six-year stint as Head of Department, and developing distance learning post-graduate provision in Church History.

In 2009 I moved to the 糖心原创, and was Head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies from August 2015 until July 2017, and again from January - August 2018. I was Director of the MA in Church History from 2009 to 2020, and performed a number of other roles within the Department, including Assessment Officer and Director of Postgraduate Studies.

I left Nottingham in 2020 and became Professor Emeritus in the History of Christianity. I'm now a freelance historian and academic consultant, and divide my time between research (see Current Research) and other activities. I am currently Co-Director of Samaritans of Aberystwyth and Mid Wales.

I was President of the Ecclesiastical History Society in 2021-22. My theme for the year was 'The Churches and Rites of Passage'. A selection of the papers delivered at the associated conferences are published as The Churches and Rites of Passage: Studies in Church History 59 (Cambridge, 2023).

https://ecclesiasticalhistorysociety.com/

ORCID ID:

Expertise Summary

My academic expertise is in the history of Christianity in the West in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with a particular focus on England and Wales.

I am a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Religious History and the Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture.

I am a trustee of the Lincoln Theological Institute for the 糖心原创 of Religion and Society, which is based at the University of Manchester, and also a member of its academic advisory board.

I am a member of the Academic Board of the Lambeth Research Degrees in Theology programme.

I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) in 1997.

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and have extensive experience in theological education, PhD supervision and examination, and related areas. I have acted as a consultant on the development of higher education provision in Theology in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia.

In 2022 I was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (FLSW).

I have supervised 12 doctoral students to successful completion of their PhD theses:

Barry L. Craig, 'Bishop John Medley: Missionary and Reformer' (2001); published as Apostle to the Wilderness: Bishop John Medley and the Evolution of the Anglican Church (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2006)

Ross N. Hebb, 'The Church of England in Loyalist New Brunswick' (2002); published as The Church of England in Loyalist New Brunswick, 1783-1825 (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2006)

David Easton, 'Gathered into One: the Reunion of British Methodism 1860-1960, with particular reference to Cornwall' (2007)

Paula Yates, 'The Established Church and Rural Elementary Schooling: the Welsh Dioceses, 1780-1830' (2008)

Nicholas Henderson, 'Towards a Lay Anglican Ecclesiology' (2009)

Lester Mason, 'Communities in Mourning: Commemoration and Memorial Construction in West Wales following the Great War' (2009)

Margaret Kidger, 'Colliers and Christianity: Religion in the Coalmining Communities of South Wales and the East Midlands c.1860-1930' (2011)

Margaret Turnham, 'Roman Catholic Revivalism: A 糖心原创 of the Diocese of Middlesbrough, 1779-1992' (2012); published as Catholic Faith and Practice in England 1779-1992: The Role of Revivalism and Renewal (Boydell, 2015)

Paul Hamlet, 'The Revd Hugh James Rose: Old High Churchman and Pre-Tractarian' (2012)

Sara Slinn, 'Roads to Ordination': the Educational Backgrounds of the Non-graduate Clergy in late Georgian England and Wales'. (2014) published as The Education of the Anglican Clergy, 1780 - 1839 (Boydell, 2017)

Christine Pocock, 'The Origins, Development and Significance of the Circuit in Wesleyan and Primitive Methodism' (2014)

Terry Root, 'Alan Richardson: Reappraising the life of a twentieth-century Christian theologian, cleric and educator' (2020).

Teaching Summary

I am not currently teaching, but my most recent modules, all taught at Nottingham until 2020, were: Faith and Identity: Religion in Nineteenth-century Britain (levels 2/3); Culture and Change:… read more

Research Summary

There are four main areas in the history of Christianity in which I research and publish. The first is the history of the Church of England from the late-eighteenth century to the present. I have… read more

Recent Publications

  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2025. Holman Hunt's Religious and Historical Context. In: MARKUS BOCKMEUHL, ed., Holman Hunt and The Light of the World in Oxford Routledge. 14-28
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2025. Connop Thirlwall ac Alfred Ollivant: Cenhedlaeth Newydd o Esgobion. In: A CYNFAEL LAKE & D. DENSIL MORGAN, ed., Gofal ein Gwinllan: Ysgrifau ar gyfraniad Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru i'n llen a'n hanes a'n diwylliant 3. Y Lolfa. 37-51
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2024. Henry Scott Holland and Social Christianity in the English fin de siecle. In: ANDREW KLOES AND LAURA MAIR, ed., Modern Social Christianity in Scottish and Comparative Perspective: Essays in Honour of Stewart J. Brown Edinburgh University Press. 169-186
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2024. Audiences, anxieties and oralities: preaching in twentieth-century British Protestantism. In: ROBERT ELLISON AND KEITH A. FRANCIS, ed., The Brill Companion to Preaching and the Sermon, 1890-2010 Brill. (In Press.)

I am not currently teaching, but my most recent modules, all taught at Nottingham until 2020, were: Faith and Identity: Religion in Nineteenth-century Britain (levels 2/3); Culture and Change: Religion in Twentieth-century Britain (levels 2/3); Revivalism and Reform in Britain and America, 1730-1850 (level 4); The Church and the Social Question in Britain, 1815-1900 (level 4); Christianity in Twentieth-century Britain (level 4); MA in Church History Research Methods and Resources (level 4).

I also made annual contributions to the following co-taught modules, all at level 1: Atheism; The Bible, Music, Art and Literature; Christ and Culture; Roads to Modernity (a History Department module).

Current Research

There are four main areas in the history of Christianity in which I research and publish. The first is the history of the Church of England from the late-eighteenth century to the present. I have been active in this field for thirty years, having published The Nineteenth-Century Church and English Society back in 1995.

The second is the interactions between religion and culture as the Victorian period gave way to the early twentieth century (the fin de si猫cle). This is discussed in my book Victorian Christianity at the Fin de Si猫cle: English Religion in a Decadent Age (2015). My most recent work in this area is 'Henry Scott Holland and the English fin de si猫cle (2024) in which I argue that he was an early exponent of urban theology.

The third is the relationship between Christianity and the rites of passage, which was explored during my Ecclesiastical History Society presidential year, resulting in the edited volume The Churches and Rites of Passage (2023). My article on the recent history of cremation: 'Cremation and Christianity: English Anglican and Roman Catholic attitudes to cremation since 1885' can be accessed on line in Mortality.

My fourth and most recent interest is the culture of English Protestantism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is a theme in my most recent book Ebenezer Howard: Inventor of the Garden City (Oxford, 2023). It's a biography of Howard, with a particular focus on the religious influences that shaped him and the early Garden City movement, and was commissioned by OUP as part of their Spiritual Lives series.

I would summarize my current interests as:

The Church of England from the late eighteenth century to the present

Conformity and Dissent

Preaching and sermons from the eighteenth century to the present

Christianity at the fin de si猫cle

Christian social thought and town planning

The Churches and rites of passage

Oral history in religious history

The Welsh Church in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Past Research

I wrote my doctoral thesis on what was then the largest of the English dioceses, the diocese of Lincoln from 1827 to 1853. This research was subsequently revised and expanded to become The Nineteenth-Century Church and English Society (Cambridge University Press, 1995). This book was the first study to consider the meaning of Anglicanism for ordinary people in nineteenth-century England, and in it I explored many of the topics which interest me still, such as denominational identity, personal piety, the role of clergy, rites of passage, the Church-State relationship and the nature of Christian communities.

From the late 1990s, I extended my research interests to Wales, and to comparative work on the English and Welsh Churches. My most significant publication on the Welsh Church was The Welsh Church from Reformation to Disestablishment 1603-1920 (University of Wales Press, 2007) which I co-wrote with William Jacob and the late Sir Glanmor Williams and the late Nigel Yates.

I am also interested in understanding nineteenth-century Christianity in a European and in a global perspective. This was reflected in my book The Church in the Nineteenth Century (2008), which is volume six in the IB Tauris History of the Christian Church series, and in my participation in various international research projects, including one co-ordinated from the Netherlands on The Dynamics of Religious Reform in Church, State and Society in Northern Europe 1780 -1920. The project brought together a team of religious historians from Scandinavia, Germany, the Low Countries and the UK, resulting in six volumes of essays published by Leuven University Press. I contributed to vol. 2 The Churches (2010) and to vol 4 Charity and Social Welfare (2017).

Moving to Nottingham in 2009, my next major project was Victorian Christianity at the Fin de Si猫cle: English Religion in a Decadent Age (I.B. Tauris, 2015). In this and in some subsequent publications, I have tried to give substance to the term fin de si猫cle as a meaningful concept in British religious history.

My most recent book is Ebenezer Howard: Inventor of the Garden City which brings the fin de si猫cle theme of building utopian new communities into conversation with the early-twentieth century garden movement. It reclaims the hitherto largely neglected religious dimensions of Ebenezer Howard, a man whose plan for tackling the housing crisis was influenced by Congregationalism, Spiritualism and Theosophy.

I have recently published a chapter on Holman Hunt for a book about his famous painting The Light of the World for Routledge, and another chapter on preaching in twentieth-century British Protestantism, for Brill.

Future Research

After an interval of more than a decade, I have returned to researching the Church in Wales. I am currently working on Connop Thirwall, Bishop of St Davids 1840-1874, historian and liberal churchman. Thirlwall is a very interesting, and significantly under explored figure in Victorian Britain. I am currently writing a chapter on 'Religion and Secularisation' chapter for the Oxford Handbook of Modern British History edited by Alana Harris and William Whyte.

  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2025. Holman Hunt's Religious and Historical Context. In: MARKUS BOCKMEUHL, ed., Holman Hunt and The Light of the World in Oxford Routledge. 14-28
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2025. Connop Thirlwall ac Alfred Ollivant: Cenhedlaeth Newydd o Esgobion. In: A CYNFAEL LAKE & D. DENSIL MORGAN, ed., Gofal ein Gwinllan: Ysgrifau ar gyfraniad Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru i'n llen a'n hanes a'n diwylliant 3. Y Lolfa. 37-51
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2024. Henry Scott Holland and Social Christianity in the English fin de siecle. In: ANDREW KLOES AND LAURA MAIR, ed., Modern Social Christianity in Scottish and Comparative Perspective: Essays in Honour of Stewart J. Brown Edinburgh University Press. 169-186
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2024. Audiences, anxieties and oralities: preaching in twentieth-century British Protestantism. In: ROBERT ELLISON AND KEITH A. FRANCIS, ed., The Brill Companion to Preaching and the Sermon, 1890-2010 Brill. (In Press.)
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2023. Oxford University Press.
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2023. Modern Believing. 64, 4(Autumn 2023), 367-373
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2023. Studies in Church History: The Churches and Rites of Passage. 59, 1-7
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2023. Studies in Church History: The Churches and Rites of Passage. 332-358
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2022. What did a bishop think he was doing? Episcopal oversight in practice in England's age of reform (c.1830-1850). In: MARK CHAPMAN, MATTHIAS GREBE, FRIEDERIKE NUSSEL AND FRANK-DIETER FISCHBACH, ed., Towards Interchangeability: Reflections on Episcopacy in Theory and Practice Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig. 41-49
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2021. Urban History. 48(1), 37-53
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2021. Christianity: Established Churches. In: JEFFREY BARBEAU, ed., The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism and Religion Cambridge University Press. 13-30
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2019. Sermon Studies. 3(1), 2
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2018. Mortality. 23(4), 301-319
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2017. Anglicanism. In: JOEL RASMUSSEN, ed., The Oxford Handbook of 19th Century Christian Thought Oxford University Press. 524-539
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2017. Social Welfare and the Churches in England, Scotland and Wales. In: LEEN VAN MOLLE, ed., Charity and Social Welfare: The Dynamics of Religious Reform in Northern Europe 1780 - 1920 IV. Leuven University Press. 41 - 70
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2015. Victorian Christianity at the Fin de Siecle: The Culture of English Religion in a Decadent Age IB Tauris.
  • KNIGHT, F., 2013. Recreation or renunciation? Episcopal interventions in the drink question in the 1890s. In: BROWN, S.J., KNIGHT, F. and MORGAN-GUY, J., eds., Religion, identity and conflict in Britain: from the Restoration to the twentieth century: essays in honour of Keith Robbins Ashgate. 157-173
  • FRANCES KNIGHT, 2013. 'Vom Wettbewerb zur Kooperation: wechselnde Ansatze der Kirchen bei der Armenfursorge im Grossbritannien des 19. Jahrhunderts'. In: BERNHARD SCHNEIDER, ed., Konfessionen in den west- und mitteleuropaischen Sozialsystemen im langen 19. Jahrhundert Lit Verlag. 283-302
  • KNIGHT, F., 2012. Parish preaching in the Victorian era: the village sermon. In: FRANCIS, K.A. and GIBSON, W., eds., The Oxford handbook of the British sermon 1689-1901 Oxford University Press. 63-78
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2010. 'Internal Church Reform 1850 - 1920: An Age of Innovation in Ecclesiastical Reform'. In: VAN EIJNATTEN, JORIS and YATES, PAULA, eds., The Churches: The Dynamics of Religious Reform in Northern Europe 1780-1920 Leuven University Press. 67-94
  • KNIGHT, F., 2010. Bishops of Ely, 1864 -1957. In: MEADOWS, P., ed., Ely: bishops and diocese, 1109 - 2009 Boydell. 259-286
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2009. Professor Nigel Yates, 1944-2009 The Welsh Journal of Religious History. 4, 1-5
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2008. 'Authority in contemporary Anglicanism: historic roots and contemporary dilemmas. In: YATES, NIGEL, ed., Anglicanism: Essays in History, Belief and Practice Trivium Publications. 143-152
  • KNIGHT, F., 2008. The church in the nineteenth century I.B. Tauris.
  • WILLIAMS, GLANMOR, JACOB, W.M., YATES, NIGEL and KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2007. The Welsh Church from Reformation to Disestablishment 1603-1920 University of Wales Press.
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2007. ' "A Church without discipline is no Church at all": discipline and diversity in nineteenth and twentieth century Anglicanism'. In: COOPER, K and GREGORY, J, eds., Studies in Church History 43: Discipline and Diversity Boydell & Brewer. 399-418
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2006. 'The education of Welsh ordinands in the Rowland Williams era and beyond' The Welsh Journal of Religious History. 1, 14-26
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2006. 'The Oxford Movement in Wales: A Catholic Revival in a Protestant Land'. In: LITZENBERGER, CAROLINE and GROTH LYON, EILEEN, eds., The Human Tradition in Modern Britain Rowman and Littlefield. 81-94
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2004. 'English Christianity 1750 -1940'. In: HOULDEN, LESLIE, ed., Jesus in History, Thought and Culture: An Encyclopedia ABC Clio. 230-235
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2004. 'The Pastoral Ministry in the Anglican Church in England and Wales c.1840-1950' Dutch Review of Church History: The Pastor Bonus. 83, 409-423
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2003. 'The Cultural Aspirations of the Welsh Clergy'. In: BEBBINGTON, DAVID and LARSEN, TIMOTHY, eds., Modern Christianity and Cultural Aspirations Sheffield Academic Press. 124-138
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2003. 'Life at the Cathedral, 1836 - 1980'. In: MEADOWS, PETER and RAMSEY, NIGEL, eds., A History of Ely Cathedral Boydell. 281-304
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2001. 'Welsh Nationalism and Anglo-Catholicism: the politics and religion of J. Arthur Price'. In: POPE, ROBERT, ed., Religion and National Identity: Scotland and Wales c.1700-2000 University of Wales Press. 103-122
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 2001. 'Did anti-clericalism exist in the English countryside in the early nineteenth century?'. In: ASTON, NIGEL and CRAGOE, MATTHEW, eds., Anticlericalism in Britain c.1500-1914 Sutton Publishing. 159-178
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, WITH BURNS, ARTHUR & MORRIS, JEREMY, 2000. 'When one Revival Led to Another'. In: CHADWICK, HENRY, ed., Not Angels, but Anglicans: A History of Christianity in the British Isles Canterbury Press. 195-201
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 1999. 'Anglican Worship in late nineteenth-century Wales: A Montgomeryshire case study'. In: SWANSON, R.N., ed., Continuity and Change in Christian Worship: Studies in Church History 35 Boydell & Brewer. 408-418
  • GUY, JOHN R., JENKINS, KATHRYN and KNIGHT, FRANCES, eds., 1999. Wales, Women and Religion in Historical Perspective Welsh Religious History Society.
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 1999. 'Conversion in nineteenth-century Britain, and the phenomenon of double allegiance in Anglicanism and Methodism'. In: GORMAN, ULF, ed., Towards a New Understanding of Conversion Lund University Press. 116-124
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 1997. 'Male and Female He Created Them: men, women and the question of gender in Victorian Britain'. In: WOLFFE, JOHN, ed., Religion in Victorian Britain: Culture and Empire Manchester University Press. 23-57
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 1996. 'The influence of the Oxford Movement in the Parishes c.1833-1860: A re-assessment'. In: VAISS, PAUL, ed., Newman: From Oxford to the People Gracewing. 127-140
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 1996. 'From Diversity to Sectarianism: the definition of Anglican identity in nineteenth-century England'. In: SWANSON, R.N., ed., Unity and Diversity in the Church: Studies in Church History 32 Blackwell. 377-386
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 1995. The Nineteenth-century Church and English Society Cambridge University Press.
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 1993. 'The Hanoverian Church in Transition: some recent perspectives' The Historical Journal. 36(3), 745-752
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 1992. 'The Bishops and the Jews 1828-1858'. In: WOOD, DIANA, ed., Christianity and Judaism: Studies in Church History 29 Blackwell. 387-398
  • KNIGHT, FRANCES, 1989. 'Ministering to the ministers: the discipline of recalcitrant clergy in the diocese of Lincoln 1830-1845'. In: SHEILS, W.J. & WOOD, DIANA, ed., The Ministry: Clerical and Lay: Studies in Church History 26 Blackwell. 357-366

Department of Theology and Religious Studies

糖心原创
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

Contact details