Steven M Foster

PhD in Medieval and Early Modern Religious and Political History: Funded by AHRC Doctoral Studentship (Awarded 2018).

Contact: [email protected]

BA (Hons) History: First Class (2012).
Specialist Subject: Heresy and Religious Revolution in the Central Middle Ages
Dissertation Title: Usurpation of the Apostolic Office: The Poor of Lyons, 1170-1215. Supervisor Dr. Julian Haseldine.

MA Early Modern History: Distinction (2013).
Dissertation Title: Reformation Hull: The Religious Composition of the Hull Corporation, 1550-1650. Supervisor Dr. David Bagchi.

PhD (2018)

My thesis traced the different ways the participants of the English Reformation interpreted the meaning of Romans 13:1-7 and how these interpretations made sense of the present during a period of seismic change.  The Pauline proof text ‘Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God’ (Rom.13:1), has been a neglected crux in the evolution of political theology and was central in the early modern debates which concerned politico-religious allegiance.

My research demonstrated how the exegesis of Romans 13 shaped religious and political thought during the Reformation period. This text is the most important passage within the Bible on the theme of political obligation (viz. Luther), and it stated that rulers are ‘minister[s] of God’ and those who oppose their power ‘resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation’. Moreover, the voices of the participants are heard not only be through their contributions to the meaning of Scripture in their present but also in the momentous and lasting political concepts they forged.

My thesis was externally examined by Prof Alec Ryrie

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Supervisors: Stephen Alford
Address: Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, United Kingdom