Dr Matthew Grimley

Dr Matthew Grimley
Associate Professor of Modern History
Merton College
01865 (2)76343
matthew.grimley@merton.ox.ac.uk

My research and teaching focus on the history of twentieth-century Britain. Although my primary area of expertise is religion, my teaching and research both aim to integrate it with other aspects of British history. I teach courses on diverse areas, including British films, British politics and society in the 1970s, and the history of political thought. Other areas of interest include national identity, multiculturalism, and political ideologies in 20th century Britain.   

 

Research Interests

  • Religion and social reconstruction in Britain, 1939-1951
  • Changing ideas of the state in modern Britain
  • Twentieth-century British and English national identity

My research is on the intersection between politics, religion and intellectual life in 20th century Britain. I began by looking at the inter-war period in my monograph, Citizenship, Community and the Church of England, but have more recently worked on the post-war period, producing a series of articles on race relations, nuclear weapons, the permissive reforms of the 1960s, and anti-permissiveness and Thatcherism. I am now working on a book on religion and social reconstruction in Britain during and after the Second World War. In all my work to date, I have explored the ways in which, in spite of declining religious observance, religious perspectives continued to inform debates about political and social questions in twentieth-century Britain.

See page on Merton College website

Teaching

I would like to hear from potential DPhil students regarding: c20 British political, religious and intellectual history

I currently teach:

Prelims

 FHS
History of the British Isles VI (1815-1924) History of the British Isles VI (1815-1924)
History of the British Isles VII (1900-) History of the British Isles VII (1900-)
Approaches to History Britain at the Movies Further Subject

Theories of the State

 Britain in the Seventies Special Subject
  Disciplines of History

Publications

  • Church and State: The Church of England and Politics in the Twentieth Century

    January 2020
    |
    c-book

  • The State, Nationalism and National Identities

    February 2017
    |
    Chapter
    |
    The Oxford History of Anglicanism, Volume IV Global Western Anglicanism, C. 1910-Present
    The series forms an invaluable reference for both scholars and interested non-specialists. Volume four of The Oxford History of Anglicanism explores Anglicanism from 1910 to present day.

  • Anglican Evangelicals and Anti-Permissiveness: The Nationwide Festival of Light 1971-1983

    January 2014
    |
    Chapter
    |
    Evangelicalism and the Church of England in the Twentieth Century Reform, Resistance and Renewal
    An important contribution to the understanding of twentieth-century Anglicanism and evangelicalism
    Religion

  • The Church of England, Race and Multiculturalism 1962-2012

    January 2013
    |
    Chapter
    |
    Rescripting Religion in the City: Migration and Religious Identity in the Modern Metropolis
    Rescripting Religion in the City explores the role of faith and religious practices as strategies for understanding and negotiating the migratory experience. Leading international scholars draw on case studies of urban settings in the global north and south. Presenting a nuanced understanding of the religious identities of migrants within the 'modern metropolis' this book makes a significant contribution to fields as diverse as twentieth-century immigration history, the sociology of religion and migration studies, as well as historical and urban geography and practical theology.

  • The Fall and Rise of Church and State? Religious History, Politics and the State in Britain 1961-2011

    January 2013
    |
    Journal article
    |
    Studies in Church History -London-
    In trying to trace the development of church-state relations in Britain since 1961, one encounters the difficulty that conceptions of both ‘church’ and ‘state’ have changed radically in the half-century since then. This is most obviously true of the state. The British state in 1961 was (outside Stormont-governed Northern Ireland) a unitary state governed from London. It still had colonies, and substantial overseas military commitments. One of its Houses of Parliament had until three years before been (a few bishops and law-lords apart) completely hereditary. The Prime Minister controlled all senior appointments in the established Church of England, and Parliament had the final say on its worship and doctrine. The criminal law still embodied Christian teaching on issues of personal morality.
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