John Ericson discusses the recent Symposium at Jamestown Settlement entitled: Ways of Being; Evolving Religion and America with Dr. Travis Harris, Visiting Assistant Professor at Norfolk State University.

The Reformation raised doubts about centuries-old church doctrines. Did this contribute to the emergence of atheism in the modern world? Or was it the violence of religious wars and the oppression stemming from the marriage of religion and government? St Luke's Education Coordinator John Ericson takes a look in this episode at Atheism in the 17th century.

In this episode, we interview Dr. Naomi Pullin, a Professor at Warwick University in the UK, about the Quaker story on both sides of the Atlantic. The Society of Friends was persecuted for their beliefs but held fast to their ethics of equality and nonviolence in one of the most violent centuries in Western history. Join us as we discuss this fascinating story of perseverance and the Quakers' important role in the history of religious freedom.

Naomi Pullin is an Associate Professor of Early Modern British History at the University of Warwick. She is the author of Female Friends and the Making of Transatlantic Quakerism, 1650-1750 (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and editor of Negotiating Exclusion in Early Modern England, 1550-1800 (Routledge, 2021). She has also published a number of other chapters and articles on different aspects of early Quaker culture and facets of women’s identities and experiences, including forthcoming articles in the English Historical Review and Journal of Early Modern History. She is currently working on a new monograph entitled A Social History of Solitude in Early Modern Britain, which was funded by a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship.

Today we often talk about the impact of social media on forming public opinion, its effect on elections, and how it fuels division. In 17th century England, the printing press and the proliferation of pamphlets were doing similar things. In this Episode, we speak with public historian and historic book binder, Hunter Willis, on the Pamphlet Wars.

Hunter Willis is an amateur historian and has been researching and practicing the art of bookbinding for a decade. He has conducted extensive research and delivered historical lectures on various topics, including bookbinding, printing, and literary history. In addition to bookbinding, Hunter has over two decades of experience as a historical interpreter of 19th, 18th, and 17th century history. His full-time career is in cloud Product Marketing for IBM.

In this episode St Luke's Education Coordinator John Ericson interviews the Curator of The Cromwell Museum in Huntingdon UK, Stuart Orme. Cromwell is a figure steeped in a great deal of myth and clouded by his brutality towards the Irish. Is he a hero or a villain? Stuart Orme gives us a balance portrait of the most complicated figure of the 17th century.

In this episode St Luke's Education Coordinator John Ericson discusses the recent trip to the UK and the many great people who are empowering our documentary and other educational material.

Our upcoming documentary, entitled "Born from Conflict: Cavaliers and Puritans of Newport Parish," is based on the 17th century conflicts in the United Kingdom and in the English Colonial Possessions in North America. Most notably we are focusing on the English Civil Wars, also known as the War of the Three Kingdoms. The spark was a religious conflict between King Charles I and the Scottish ":Kirk" (Church) over the imposition of the English Prayer Book in Scotland. This launched a riot in the streets of Edinburgh and eventually the "Bishop's Wars." St Luke's Historic Church & Museum's Education Coordinator John Ericson will offer a brief description of these conflicts on the eve of our trip to the UK beginning March 5.

In this episode we interview Professor Alec Ryrie of Durham University in the UK on the topic of the English Reformation. England was the most diverse in its reforming efforts and the conflicts that arose in the 16th and 17th centuries would have enduring implications for Great Britain and for their Colonial possessions in North America. Professor Ryrie helps us examine this tumultuous period and its influence on our Anglo-American history.

Professor Ryrie has degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities in History and Theology. The focus of his research is in the English Reformation and Protestantism more widely. He is currently a Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University, UK and has been a featured lecturer for the Gresham College Series.