You are here

  1. Home
  2. Dr John Maiden

Dr John Maiden

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
  • School of Social Sciences & Global Studies
  • Religious Studies
  • john.maiden

Professional biography

I am Head of Religious Studies and Senior Lecturer at the Open University. My teaching and research expertise is modern religious history. In additional to my role at the OU, I am also a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, Co-convenor of the Institute of Historical Research Modern Religious History seminar and Facilitator of the American Society of Church History Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Histories working group.  I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the Ecclesiastical History Society and American Society of Church History.

Research interests

I am the author of Age of the Spirit: Charismatic Renewal, the Anglo-World and Global Christianity, 1945-1980 (Oxford University Press 2023), which was a finalist in the 2024 Christianity Today Book Awards. I  was also co-editor of Transatlantic Charismatic Renewal, 1950-2000 (Brill) and Evangelicalism and the Church of England in the Twentieth Century: Reform, Resistance and Renewal. I have been involved in research projects funded by Horizon 2020; Arts and Humanities Research Council; Santander Universities; and The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church.

My main research and supervision interests are: 

  • Global evangelical, pentecostal and charismatic Christianities
  • Religious toleration and reconciliation in historical and contemporary contexts
  • Christianity, 'race' and anti-racism
  • Protestant anti-Catholicism

Previous and existing PhD supervision topics include:

Philanthropy and Secularisation: the funding of Anglican religious voluntary organisations, 1856 to 1914

"Bash camp" and the leadership of the English evangelical movement, 1930-90

Exploring Visual (Digital) Culture in Global Pentecostalism

 

Publications

'Introduction' and 'Conclusion'. In David Bebbington, The Gospel and the Past: Essays in Evangelical Historiography. (Baylor University Press, Forthcoming).

‘Today it is not the Great Saint who is Thundering Forth’: the Laity and Catholic Charismatic Renewal in England. In: Power, Maria and Bush, Jonathan eds. Lay Catholic Societies in Twentieth Century Britain. (Catholic Record Society, Forthcoming).

Age of the Spirit: Charismatic Renewal, the Anglo-world and Global Christianity, 1945-1980. (Oxford University Press, 2023)

Charisma, Gender and "Glocality": Catholic Charismatic Women in the 1970s. Journal of Modern and Contemporary Christianity, 2(1), 2023, pp. 91–114.

With Galián, Laura; Sinclair, Stefanie and Welker, Arpad (2022). Refugees and the Politics of Memory: Political discourses of religious toleration and peace. In: Altnurme, Riho; Arigita, Elena and Pasture, Patrick eds. Religious Diversity in Europe: Mediating the Past to the Young (Bloomsbury, 2022)

"Totalitarianism in Religion": Roman Catholicism, Religious Liberty, and the British Evangelical Imagination before Vatican II. In: Bebbington, David ed. The Gospel and Religious Freedom: Historical Studies in Evangelicalism and Political Engagement. (Baylor University Press, 2023)

With Sinclair, Stefanie; Salmesvuori, Païvi; van Nieuwenhuyse, Karel and Wolffe, John. Views of the Young: Reflections on the Basis of European Pilot Studies. In: Alturme, Riho; Arigita, Elena and Pasture, Patrick eds. Religious Diversity in Europe: Mediating the Past to the Young,  pp. 33–49 (Bloomsbury, 2022)

With Atherstone, Andrew and Hutchinson, Mark eds. Transatlantic Charismatic Renewal, c.1950-2000. Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies,, 41. (Brill, 2021)

'A New Nonconformity: Ethnicity, Evangelicalism and Ecumenism, c. 1952-1985' in David Bebbington and David Ceri Jones, eds., Evangelicalism and Dissent in Modern England and Wales. (Routledge, 2020).

'City, Portal and Hub: Brisbane and Catholic Charismatic Renewal' in Cristina Rocha, Mark Hutchinson and Kathleen Openshaw, eds., Australian Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements: Arguments from the Margins. (Brill, 2020).

'The emergence of Catholic Charismatic Renewal ‘in a country’: Australia and transnational Catholic Charismatic Renewal'. Studies in World Christianity. Volume 25 Issue 3, Page 274-296,

‘"Race", black majority churches and the rise of ecumenical multiculturalism in the 1970s.' Twentieth Century British History.Volume 30, Issue 4, December 2019, Pages 531–556.

'Evangelicals and Rome' in Andrew Atherstone and David Ceri Jones eds., Ashgate Research Companion to Evangelicalism (London, 2018).

'Renewing the body of Christ: Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA) USA and transnational charismatic Anglicanism, 1978-1998', Journal of American Studies (special edition 'Exploring the Global History of American Evangelicalism'), November 2017 , pp. 1243-1266

‘The Prayer Book Controversy’ in P. Nockles et al, The Oxford Handbook to the Oxford Movement (Oxford, forthcoming, 2017).

'Integrating Historical Research and Contemporary Religion: the Building on History projects' in Linda Woodhead (ed.), Innovative Methods in the Study of Religion: Research in Practice (Oxford, forthcoming).

'"What could be more Christian than to allow the Sikhs to use it?" Church Redundancy and Minority Religion in Bedford, 1977-78', Christians and Religious Plurality, Studies in Church History Vol 51 (Woodbridge, 2015).

(Co-edited with Andrew Atherstone) Anglican Evangelicals in the Church of England in the Twentieth Century, Studies in Modern British Religious History (Woodbridge, 2014).

‘Fundamentalism and Anti-Catholicism in Interwar English Evangelicalism’ in David Bebbington and David Ceri Jones (eds.), Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism: The Experience of the United Kingdom during the Twentieth Century (Oxford, 2013).

'Watson, David Christopher Knight (1933-1984), Church of England clergyman, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, January 2013. 

‘Parliament, the Church of England and the last gasp of political Protestantism, 1963-64’, Parliamentary History, 32/1 (2013), pp. 361-377.

'Confronting Rome: Martin Lloyd-Jones, British Evangelicalism and Catholicism' in David Ceri Jones and Andrew Atherstone (eds.), Martin Lloyd-Jones: Life and Legacy (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2011).

National Religion and the Prayer Book Controversy, 1927-28 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2009).

‘English Evangelicals, Protestant National Identity and Anglican Prayer Book Revision, 1927-28’, Journal of Religious History, 34/4 (2010), pp. 430-445.

‘Discipline and Comprehensiveness: Anglican Prayer Book Revision in the 1920s’, Studies in Church History, Vol. 43 (2007), pp. 377-87.

See also Open Research Online for further details of my research publications.

Teaching interests

I am currently on the Module Team for A113: Revolutions and the Modern Production Team for DA332: Religion and Global Challenges.

I was previously Module Production Chair for A227 (Exploring Religion: Places, Practices, Texts and Experiences), which will have its first presentation in October 2017. I am also on the team producing Level 1 Arts  and Social Sciences modules. I have previously taught on:

AA307 Religion in History: Conflict, Conversion and Co-existence 

AA100 The Arts Past and Present

A217 From Enlightenment to Romanticism, c 1780-1830

A332 Why is Religion Controversial?

Impact and engagement

I have worked alongside a range of religious organisations and institutions (including various Church of England dioceses, the New Testament Church of God and London Boroughs Faiths Network) and schools on historical projects.

I am currently involved in two work packages for the Horizon 2020 project RETOPEA (Religious, Toleration and Peace) http://retopea.eu/s/start/page/home

I was Co-I for the pioneering AHRC-funded 'Building on History: Religion in London' project (2012-2014). Before this I was research associate for 'Building on History: Religion in London'.

Download the project report on the earlier Building on History: Church in London project [PDF, 11.4 MB]

External collaborations

I am a member of the Religious Archives Group and Advisory Group chair for the ReSource Charismatic History Project.

Externally funded projects

Transnational charismatic renewal and the Anglican Communion, c. 1960-1978
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Lead01 Aug 201531 Jul 2016THSEC The Historical Society of The Episcopal Church

Grants from both Santander Universities and The Historical Society of The Episcopal Church have supported research on the history of the charismatic ‘renewal’ from a transnational perspective. This movement had from its early stages networks, practices and experiences which transcended national boundaries. The project will eventually result in a research monograph which assesses charismatic renewal from a transnational perspective; examining its sense of global consciousness and its various multi-directional and ‘cosmopolitan’ linkages and flows of leaderships, ideas, key texts, resources, materiality and music. Funds from THSEC have facilitated an archival research visit to the David Allan Hubbard Library, Fuller Theological Seminary, California.

Publications

Creative Shared Religious Education with Film-Making and History (2024-11-01)
Wolffe, John; Maiden, John; Sinclair, Stefanie and Teller, Katelin
Religions, 15, Article 1337(11)

From Archives to the Classroom: Using Religious Archives to Promote Religious Literacy and Toleration amongst European Young People (2024-09)
Maiden, John
Journal of Religious History, 48(3) (pp. 343-351)

Charisma, Gender and "Glocality": Catholic Charismatic Women in the 1970s (2023-05-16)
Maiden, John
Journal of Modern and Contemporary Christianity, 2(1) (pp. 91-114)

Take a picture of religion: Engaging students in the multisensory study of lived religion (2020-12)
Sinclair, Stefanie and Maiden, John
JBASR (Journal of the British Association for the Study of Religions), 22 (pp. 122-137)

Book Review: Christian Radicalism in the Church of England and the Invention of the British Sixties, 1957–70: The Hope of a World Transformed, by Sam Brewitt-Taylor (2020-11-13)
Maiden, John
The English Historical Review, 135(576) (pp. 1379-1380)

‘Race’, black majority churches and the rise of ecumenical multiculturalism in the 1970s (2019-12)
Maiden, John
Twentieth Century British History, 30(4) (pp. 531-556)

The emergence of Catholic Charismatic Renewal ‘in a country’: Australia and transnational Catholic Charismatic Renewal (2019)
Maiden, John
Studies in World Christianity, 25(3) (pp. 274-296)

Renewing the body of Christ: Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA) USA and transnational charismatic Anglicanism, 1978-1998 (2017-11-30)
Maiden, John
Journal of American Studies, 51(4) (pp. 1243-1266)

Parliament, the Church of England and the last gasp of political protestantism, 1963-4 (2013-06-03)
Maiden, John and Webster, Peter
Parliamentary History, 32(2) (pp. 361-377)

English evangelicals, protestant national identity, and Anglican Prayer Book revision, 1927–1928 (2010-12)
Maiden, John G.
Journal of Religious History, 34(4) (pp. 430-445)

Age of the Spirit: Charismatic Renewal, the Anglo-world and Global Christianity, 1945-1980 (2023)
Maiden, John
ISBN : 978–0–19–884749–6 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford

National religion and the Prayer Book controversy, 1927-28 (2009-11-19)
Maiden, John
Studies in Modern British Religious History
ISBN : 9781843835219 | Publisher : The Boydell Press | Published : Woodbridge, UK

‘Today it is not the Great Saint who is Thundering Forth’: the Laity and Catholic Charismatic Renewal in England (2025)
Maiden, John
In: Power, Maria and Bush, Jonathan eds. Lay Catholic Societies in Twentieth Century Britain
Publisher : Catholic Record Society (In Press) | Published : Cardiff

Fundamentalism and Charismatic Renewal (2023-11-16)
Maiden, John
In: Atherstone, Andrew and Jones, David Ceri eds. The Oxford Handbook of Christian Fundamentalism. Oxford Handbooks (pp. 164-179)
ISBN : 9780191880148 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford, UK

"Totalitarianism in Religion": Roman Catholicism, Religious Liberty, and the British Evangelical Imagination before Vatican II (2023)
Maiden, John
In: Bebbington, David ed. The Gospel and Religious Freedom: Historical Studies in Evangelicalism and Political Engagement
ISBN : 978-1481319300 | Publisher : Baylor University Press | Published : Waco, Texas

Refugees and the Politics of Memory: Political discourses of religious toleration and peace (2022-04-07)
Galián, Laura; Maiden, John; Sinclair, Stefanie and Welker, Arpad
In: Altnurme, Riho; Arigita, Elena and Pasture, Patrick eds. Religious Diversity in Europe: Mediating the Past to the Young (pp. 113-158)
ISBN : 978-1-3501-9858-6 | Publisher : Bloomsbury | Published : London

Views of the Young: Reflections on the Basis of European Pilot Studies (2022-03-10)
Maiden, John; Sinclair, Stefanie; Salmesvuori, Païvi; van Nieuwenhuyse, Karel and Wolffe, John
In: Alturme, Riho; Arigita, Elena and Pasture, Patrick eds. Religious Diversity in Europe: Mediating the Past to the Young (pp. 33-49)
ISBN : 9781350198609 | Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing | Published : London

Introduction The Evidence of Things Unseen: The Transatlantic Charismatic Movement in the Postwar Period (2021-06-10)
Hutchinson, Mark; Atherstone, Andrew and Maiden, John
In: Atherstone, Andrew; Hutchinson, Mark and Maiden, John eds. Transatlantic Charismatic Renewal, c.1950-2000. Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies (pp. 1-18)
ISBN : 978-90-04-44583-3 | Publisher : Brill | Published : Leiden

Mediating Renewal: Logos International Fellowship and Charismatic Renewal in the United States and Beyond (2021-06-10)
Maiden, John
In: Atherstone, Andrew; Hutchinson, Mark and Maiden, John eds. Transatlantic Charismatic Renewal, c.1950-2000. Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies (pp. 61-80)
ISBN : 978-90-04-44583-3 | Publisher : Brill | Published : Leiden

City, Portal and Hub: Brisbane and Catholic Charismatic Renewal (2020-05-01)
Maiden, John
In: Rocha, Cristina; Hutchinson, Mark and Openshaw, Kathleen eds. Australian Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements: Arguments from the Margins. Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies (pp. 69-87)
ISBN : 978-90-04-42578-1 | Publisher : Brill | Published : Leiden

Evangelicals and Rome (2018-06-20)
Maiden, John
In: Atherstone, Andrew and Ceri Jones, David eds. The Routledge Research Companion to the History of Evangelicalism. Studies in Evangelicalism (pp. 93-109)
Publisher : Routledge | Published : London

The Prayer Book Controversy (2017-06-08)
Maiden, John
In: Brown, Stewart J.; Nockles, Peter B. and Pereiro, James eds. The Oxford Handbook of the Oxford Movement (pp. 530-541)
ISBN : 9780199580187 | Publisher : Oxford University Press

Anglican Evangelicalism in the Twentieth Century: Identities and Contexts (2014-09)
Atherstone, Andrew and Maiden, John
In: Atherstone, Andrew and Maiden, John eds. Evangelicals and the Church of England in the Twentieth Century: Reform, Resistance and Renewal. Studies in Modern British Religious History (pp. 1-47)
ISBN : 9781843839118 | Publisher : The Boydell Press

Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic Relations, 1928-1983 (2014-09)
Maiden, John
In: Atherstone, Andrew and Maiden, John eds. Evangelicals and the Church of England in the Twentieth Century: Reform, Resistance and Renewal. Studies in Modern British Religious History (pp. 136-161)
ISBN : 9781843839118 | Publisher : The Boydell Press

Fundamentalism and Anti-Catholicism in Inter-War English Evangelicalism (2013-10-03)
Maiden, John
In: Bebbington, David and Jones, David Ceri eds. Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism in the United Kingdom during the Twentieth Century (pp. 151-170)
ISBN : 9780199664832 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford

Strange encounters? Integrating historical research and contemporary religion. The Building on History: the Church in London project (2013)
Maiden, John
In: Woodhead, Linda ed. Innovative Methods in the Study of Religion ((In Press))
Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford

Lloyd-Jones and Roman Catholicism (2011)
Maiden, John
In: Atherstone, Andrew and John, David Ceri eds. Engaging with Martin Lloyd-Jones (pp. 232-260)
ISBN : 9781844745531 | Publisher : Apollos | Published : Leicester

Discipline and Comprehensiveness: the Church of England and Prayer Book Revision in the 1920s (2007-07-19)
Maiden, John G.
In: Cooper, Kate and Gregory, Jeremy eds. Discipline and Diversity. Studies in Church History (43) (pp. 377-387)
ISBN : 9780954680930 | Publisher : Boydell and Brewer | Published : Woodbridge

Transatlantic Charismatic Renewal, c.1950-2000 (2021-06-10)
Maiden, John; Atherstone, Andrew and Hutchinson, Mark eds.
Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies,
ISBN : 978-90-04-44583-3 | Publisher : Brill | Published : Leiden

Evangelicals and the Church of England in the Twentieth Century: Reform, Resistance and Renewal (2014-09-18)
Maiden, John and Atherstone, Andrew eds.
ISBN : 9781843839118 | Publisher : Boydell Press | Published : Woodbridge

Personalised and multi-sensory approaches to engaging students at a distance: a case study from religious studies (2018)
Maiden, John and Sinclair, Stefanie
In : 10th EDEN Research Workshop (24-26 Oct 2018, Barcelona, Spain) (pp. 261-269)

'What could be more Christian than to allow the Sikhs to use it?' Church Redundancy and Minority Religion in Bedford, 1977-8 (2015-05-21)
Maiden, John
In : Ecclesiastical History Society Summer Conference (17-20 Jul 2013, Chichester University)

Building on History: the Church in London online resource guide (2010-07)
Maiden, John; Wolffe, John; Burns, Arthur; Evans, Neil and Kelly, Declan
Web resource