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Our research interests centre on aspects of “Roman” religion, from ancient Roman civic religion via early and medieval Christianity to modern Roman Catholicism. Members are interested in both the deep continuities between pagan and Christian Rome – St Augustine’s famous Two Cities – as well as the ruptures and conflicts between them.

Our cluster is organised around four – interconnected and interlocking – strands:

Encounters with the sacred as sites of knowledge-making and community-building

  • what role do such encounters play in the construction of orthodoxies and heterodoxies?
  • how do communities authenticate holy persons (saints)?
  • what makes texts divinely inspired or apocryphal?
  • how can cults and sanctuaries foster and shape religious communities?
  • how does the sacred traverse the official versus popular religion divide?

Embodying the sacred

  • how are sites ‘sanctified’?
  • what role do material objects, such as votive objects, play in connecting humans to the sacred?
  • how do people perceive and approach holy persons, and even holy dead bodies (relics)?
  • what role do temporalities, such as festivals, play?

Demarcating the sacred from the profane

  • how can the sacred sanctify the profane?
  • to what (politically) subversive uses can the sacred be put?

(Classical) reception

  • how are cults revived and reshaped over time?
  • how does Catholicism’s ‘Roman’ heritage complicate its conceptions of the sacred?

Meet the team

Lead researcher

Picture of Jan Machielsen

Dr Jan Machielsen

Reader in Early Modern History, Director of Research

Email
MachielsenJ@cardiff.ac.uk

Academic staff

Picture of Guy Bradley

Professor Guy Bradley

Professor of Roman and Early Italian History, Director of International

Telephone
+44 29208 76283
Email
BradleyGJ@cardiff.ac.uk
Picture of Fay Glinister

Dr Fay Glinister

Lecturer in Roman History

Telephone
+44 29225 14581
Email
GlinisterF@cardiff.ac.uk
Picture of Mary Heimann

Professor Mary Heimann

Professor of Modern History

Telephone
+44 29208 75157
Email
HeimannM@cardiff.ac.uk
Picture of Richard Madgwick

Professor Richard Madgwick

Professor of Archaeological Science

Telephone
+44 29208 74239
Email
MadgwickRD3@cardiff.ac.uk
Picture of David Roberts

Dr David Roberts

Senior Lecturer in Roman Archaeology and History

Telephone
+44 29225 11828
Email
RobertsD30@cardiff.ac.uk
Picture of Ashley Walsh

Dr Ashley Walsh

Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History

Telephone
+44 29208 79731
Email
WalshA6@cardiff.ac.uk
Picture of Paul Webster

Dr Paul Webster

Senior Lecturer in Medieval History

Telephone
+44 29208 75610
Email
WebsterP@cardiff.ac.uk

Postgraduate students

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