Our Faculty Members
Our multicultural faculty with adjunct and affiliate professors is composed of more than 50 members. They are multinational and represent most of the denominational and non-denominational churches in Protestant traditions.
Dr. Christy Wang
School of Theology (Chinese)
Assistant Professor
Education
- DPhil, University of Oxford
- ThM, Westminster Theological Seminary
- MAR, Westminster Theological Seminary
- BA, National Taiwan University
Biographical Information
Christy is a church historian, specialising in religion and politics in early modern England. She recently obtained her doctoral degree from the University of Oxford upon the completion of her thesis, ‘Puritan Conformity, Church Polity, and Anglican Identity, 1628-1688’.
Her research interests focus on confessional and political boundary-crossing in seventeenth-century transatlantic Protestantism. Her forthcoming book chapter, ‘Edward Reynolds and the Shaping of a Presbyterian Bishop’ (Manchester University Press), addresses how a conformist-turned-puritan minister navigated the English Civil War and its aftermath with frequent changes of allegiance, and how his seemingly opportunistic approach to ecclesiastical politics revealed his deeper, more consistent pastoral concerns. Christy’s interest in boundary-crossing also expands to other areas of puritan studies, including, most recently, puritan use of providentialist rhetoric in deception and acts of dissimulation.
- Puritan Movements and English Reformations
- The Figure of Jesus in Early Modern Europe
- History of Christianity from the 16th to 21st century
Book chapter
- Christy Wang, ‘Edward Reynolds and the shaping of a presbyterian bishop’, E. Counsell, J. Griesel, eds., Reformed Identity and Conformity in the Church of England, 1560–1714 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, expected late 2022)
Selected conference papers
- ‘John Davenport, New England’s Jacob: forgery for the sake of a divine call’, Ecclesiastical History Society Summer Conference 2022: The Church and Hypocrisy, University of York, Jul 2022
- ‘A presbyterian dissenter’s reform of the national church: Thomas Gouge and the Welsh Trust’, Reformation Studies Colloquium, University of Birmingham, Sep 2021
- ‘Is Edward Reynolds a presbyterian or episcopalian? Revisiting Reynolds’ 1657 monarchist sermon’, Reformed Theology and Conformity in England’s Long Reformation, a Symposium, University of Cambridge, Nov 2019
- ‘A congregational Luther: John Davenport’s remoulding of Martin Luther’s church polity’, AHRC research project: Remembering the Reformation, a postgraduate symposium, Lambeth Palace Library, Oct 2018
- ‘Heresy for the sake of orthodoxy: the 1621 controversy over Sir Henry Finch’s The Calling of the Jews’, Reformation Studies Colloquium, University of Essex, Aug 2018
- ‘Puritan ambiguity in exegesis: a study of William Gouge’s changing take on Old Testament kingship’, Ecclesiastical History Society Summer Conference 2018: The Church and the Law, University of Cambridge, Jul 2018
I have also been invited to contribute to the following journals by their editors:
- ‘John Davenport, New England’s Jacob: forgery for the sake of a divine call’, Studies in Church History (peer review required, expected early summer 2024)
- Book review of Reformed Government: Puritanism, Historical Contingency, and Ecclesiastical Politics in Late Elizabethan England by Polly Ha, Journal of Religion (peer review required, expected 2023)
