Biography
Gwilym Tudur is a PhD candidate in the History of Christianity at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. He is a member of Clare Hall and holds the Lewis and Gibson Scholarship at Westminster College.
His research explores the intellectual history of Protestant Nonconformity in England and Wales, particularly its theological engagement with the Enlightenment and Evangelicalism in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His doctoral thesis, supervised by the Revd Dr Robert Pope, examines the theology of the Welsh Congregationalist George Lewis (1763–1822), situating it within the broader context of transatlantic developments in Protestant thought. A detailed study of Lewis’s writings shows that Calvinist Nonconformists in Wales both reacted to and helped shape the key intellectual, cultural, and religious currents of the modern North Atlantic world. His PhD is funded by the James Pantyfedwen Foundation and the Lewis and Gibson Scholarship.
Gwilym holds a BA in Welsh and Welsh History from Aberystwyth University, and both an MA and MPhil in Theology from the University of Oxford. His master’s research, supervised by the Revd Professor Andrew Atherstone, focused on doctrinal developments among nineteenth-century Welsh Nonconformists.
Before beginning his doctoral studies, he trained for ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and served as minister of two Congregational churches in Ceredigion, Wales. He currently serves as Academic Administrator for the Cambridge Theological Federation alongside his research.
Research
- Post-Reformation developments in Reformed theology
- Protestant Dissent and Nonconformity in modern Wales
- Theology and influence of Welsh Nonconformist George Lewis (1763–1822)
- Transatlantic evangelical correspondence and networks, c.1730–1830
- Nonconformist engagement with Enlightenment thought in the eighteenth century
Publications
Review of D. Densil Morgan, Gras, Gobaith a Gogoniant: Crefydd ac Ysbrydolrwydd yng Ngwaith Emrys ap Iwan (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2024), in Llên Cymru 48 (2025). Forthcoming.
‘The Theology of the Great Awakening in North America and Wales: Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) and Edward Williams (1750–1813)’, in International Congregational Journal 17 (2018): 59–79.
Other Professional Activities
Presentations:
'Calvinism in Crisis: Richard Baxter’s Legacy and the Emergence of Rational Dissent in Wales, c. 1690–1740.' Crisis and Change Conference, Christianity and History Forum, All Nations Christian College, Easneye Ware, 2 September 2025 (forthcoming).
'More Calvinistic than Calvinists? Hyper-Calvinism and George Lewis’s Doctrine of Election.' Daniel Rowland Centre Conference, Union School of Theology, Bridgend, Wales, 6 September 2024 (delivered in Welsh).
'George Lewis’s Pastoral Theology.' Welsh Ministers’ Annual Conference, Bryn y Groes Centre, Bala, Wales, 11 October 2022 (delivered in Welsh).
'Mawl o enau plant bychain: George Lewis’s hymnody.' Hymn Society of Wales Summer School, Virtual Conference, 21 May 2022 (delivered in Welsh).
'George Lewis (1763–1822) and eighteenth-century Welsh Calvinism.' University of Oxford Ecclesiastical History Workshop, Keeble College, Oxford, 7 February 2019.
'The Theology of the Great Awakening in North America and Wales: Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) and Edward Williams (1750–1813).' Awakenings Congregational Symposium, First Congregational Church, Marshalltown, Iowa, USA, 12 October 2018.
