Matthew Andersen

Research Topic

'A Middle Way Between Pessimism and Utopia: A Genealogy of Christian Realism c1933 - 1968'. 

Supervisor: Professor Uta Balbier

I am interested in the relationship between political thought and religious ideas in the mid-twentieth century, particularly within the debates concerning social, political and international thought in the Anglophone world. My project can broadly be understood as an intervention in the intellectual history of postwar Anglo-American liberalism. I am working on a genealogy of the idea known as 'Christian realism' which has often been attributed to the American theologian and political philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr and the British historian Herbert Butterfield, but also a broader cast of figures as diverse as George Kennan, T.S Eliot, C.S Lewis and Ursula Niebuhr. My work seeks to place Christian realist discourse within its broader context of the re-invention of Anglo-American liberalism from the interwar years to the early Cold War. 

Academic Background 

• 2018 - 2021: BA in History, Christ Church, Oxford. (First Class) 
• 2021 - 2022: MSt in Intellectual History, Christ Church Oxford.
• 2022 - 2025: DPhil in History, Brasenose College, Oxford.

Academic Honours 

• 2019 - Christ Church, Academic Scholarship
• 2021 - Christ Church, Final Honours School Book Prize
• 2021 - Wylie Thesis Prize for best Undergraduate Dissertation in American History
• 2021 - Dixon Scholarship for continued study at Christ Church

Research Interests:

• Intellectual History 
• Modern Political History 
• Theology and Religion