A bonanza of books from St John’s History tutors
First to be
published, on 21 October, is Unlocking the Church: The lost secrets of
Victorian sacred space, by Reverend Professor William
Whyte (OUP, £18.99). Using a wide range of sources and deploying the latest
research, it explores a forgotten revolution in social and architectural
history and the history of the Church, and offers new ways of thinking about
church buildings – as theological texts and as engines of emotion. Taking the
story up to the present day, it poses the question of how we should treat these
buildings now.
The second publication, released on 26 October, is Thomas Aquinas on
Bodily Identity, by Dr Antonia Fitzpatrick (OUP, £60). This study fundamentally revises
the generally accepted notion of Aquinas's philosophy of human nature, and
restores the significance of the physical body, as opposed to the soul, for the
individuality and identity of a person. It illuminates the philosophical
debates central to late thirteenth and early fourteenth-century thought, and
highlights their ongoing interest to modern thinkers. Furthermore, it brings
central ideas in medieval thought into contact with theologians' polemic with
heresy, and the institutional histories of the medieval university and
religious orders.
Finally, 30 November sees the publication of Legalism:
Property and Ownership, edited by Dr Georgy Kantor and Professor
Hannah Skoda of St John’s, and Dr Tom Lambert of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge (OUP, £65). This study brings
together anthropologists and historians to examine how property and ownership
operate and have been understood across broad historical and geographical contexts.
It offers a truly cross-cultural perspective, and makes specialist case studies
visible and accessible to non-specialists.
Professor William Whyte
Dr Antonia Fitzpatrick
Professor Hannah Skoda
Dr Georgy Kantor