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Faculty of Divinity

 

Biography

James is the Academic Director of the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM). James is also Professor of Bible, Society and Politics at MF Oslo and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King's College London. He was previously Professor of Bible and Society at St Mary’s University (2015–2022) and Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, and then Professor of Religion, Culture, and Politics at the University of Sheffield (2005–2015). Before that, James had temporary teaching positions at the University of Exeter (2004) and the University of Nottingham (1999–2004). His undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Theology with English Studies, Religious Studies, and New Testament are all from the University of Nottingham (1995–2002).

Research Interests

James’s work currently focuses on apocalypticism and politics. These interests can be put into two broad subcategories: historical Jesus studies and Christian origins in the first century; religion and reception history of the Bible in England and English political discourse. James's monograph, Spectres of John Ball (2022), for instance, is about the most famous priest of the English uprisings of 1381—John Ball—and how he and his apocalyptic thinking have been interpreted from the fourteenth century to the present. James's most recent monograph (A. L. Morton and the Radical Tradition, 2025) is on the life of A. L. Morton. Morton was (among many things) a pioneering thinker in the critical study of apocalyptic and millenarian movements and English radical history, as well as influencing some of the major historians of the twentieth century, such as Eric Hobsbawm, Christopher Hill, Rodney Hilton, and Dorothy and E. P. Thompson. James is now working on a history of the English radical tradition.

He has also continued his long-standing interest in the historical Jesus through an edited volume (with Chris Keith) on the Next Quest for the Historical Jesus (2024).

James and Alastair Lockhart co-edit the online, open-access Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements for CenSAMM and funded by the Panacea Charitable Trust.

Publications

Key publications: 

Key publication details can be found here.

Academic Director of the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM)

Contact Details

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Affiliations

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