Christopher P . Gillett

Union Theological Seminary, Historical Studies, Faculty Member

Brown University, History, Visiting Assistant Professor

The University of Scranton, History, Faculty Member

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Christopher P. Gillett is Assistant Professor of History at Union Theological Seminary. He is a specialist on seventeenth-century religious and political history in the British world.

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Sheryl A Kujawa-Holbrook, EdD, PhD

Claremont School of Theology

Alejandra B Osorio

Wellesley College

Gregory Hanlon

Dalhousie University

Cristiana Facchini

Università di Bologna

Marc Champagne

Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Florin Curta

University of Florida

Daniel Woolf

Queen's University at Kingston

Luc Duerloo

University of Antwerp

Michaela Valente

Università degli Studi "La Sapienza" di Roma

Scott Spurlock

University of Glasgow

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Publications by Christopher P . Gillett

"Political Theology"

The Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism

forthcoming

"Probabilism, Pluralism, and Papalism: Jesuit Allegiance Politics in the British Atlantic and Continental Europe, 1644–1650"

in James E. Kelly and Hannah Thomas, eds., Jesuit Intellectual and Physical Exchange Between England and Mainland Europe, c. 1580 – c. 1773: The World is Our House? (Leiden: Brill)

This chapter explores Catholic political thought and activity concerning the interrelated issues ... more This chapter explores Catholic political thought and activity concerning the interrelated issues of religious pluralism and papal authority from 1644 to 1650—from the opening of peace negotiations in Westphalia ending the Thirty Years’ War, to the issuing of the papal brief, Zelo Domus Dei, condemning the ensuing agreement. During this period, Catholics residing in polities with Protestant rulers, including members of the Society of Jesus, undertook ambitious projects to secure political arrangements allowing them to enjoy liberty of conscience, while navigating their way around the papacy’s long-standing opposition to such permanent arrangements. Complicating this project was the priority that many of these Catholics still put on upholding the pope’s authority. The development of innovative applications for probabilism—a form of moral theology teaching that in moments of practical moral doubt an individual could justify a position with reference to a recognized authority, even if the weight of authoritative opinion was to the contrary—thus became particularly significant as a means of justifying religio-political positions that took into account the conditions in which Catholics, particularly in the Stuart Dominions and the Holy Roman Empire, had to live as they confronted the reality of a permanently confessionally divided world.

“Catholicism and the Making of Revolutionary Ideology in the British Atlantic, 1630 - 1673”

Perspectives on Europe, 2014

Book Reviews by Christopher P . Gillett

The Debate on Probable Opinions in the Scholastic Tradition, written by Rudolf Schuessler

Journal of Jesuit Studies

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Uncertainty in Post-Reformation Catholicism: A History of Probabilism, written by Stefania Tutino

Journal of Jesuit Studies

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Review: Miles Pattenden, Electing the Pope in Early Modern Italy, 1450-1700 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017)

EuropeNow, 2019

Review: Antoinette Sutto, Loyal Protestants & Dangerous Papists: Maryland and the Politics of Religion in the English Atlantic, 1630-1690 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015)

The English Historical Review, 2018

Invited Presentations by Christopher P . Gillett

“Catholic Radicalism during the Constitutional Crisis of 1647,” Gail and Francis Slattery Center for the Humanities, The University of Scranton, November 12, 2020.

“Catholic Activism in Revolutionary England: Constitutional Radicalism and the Seventeenth-Century Toleration Debate,” History of Christianity Seminar, Durham University, November 28, 2018.

“Catholicism and Revolution in the British World, 1630-1673,” University of Mississippi, Oxford MS, February 12, 2018.

"Catholicism and the Making of Revolutionary Ideologies," University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, February 3, 2017

“Better One Tyrant Abroad, Than One in Every Parish: the Brudenell-More Catholics, English Radicalism, and the Demise of the Independent Alliance,” Tudor and Stuart History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, London, May 23, 2016.

“Constitutional Experimentation in the British Catholic Atlantic,” Brown Early American Graduate Seminar, May 13, 2016.

“‘We think it just to hear all parties:’ Catholicism and Radicalism in the Making of the English Commonwealth,” Medieval and Early Modern History Seminar, Brown University, February 16, 2016.

“‘Credibly Informed:’ Information Management and the Protestant Construction of Jesuit Influence in the Constitutional Crisis of 1647,” Early Modern History Workshop: Political History, North American Conference on British Studies, Little Rock, AR, November 13-15, 2015.

“‘I should either unite the foolish Catholicks, or hang them:’ Blackloism, Probabilism, and English Catholic Allegiance in European Context, 1645-1650,” Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies NEH Guest Lecture, March 6, 2015.

“Denying the Words but Performing the Sense: English Catholics and the Oath of Allegiance in the Revolutionary Politics of 1647,” Early Modern Seminar, University of Warwick, November 20, 2014.

Conference Presentations by Christopher P . Gillett

“Reconsidering the ‘Utopian Politics’ of Seventeenth-Century Constitutional Radicalism between British and Catholic Worlds,” Council for European Studies 2020 Conference: “Utopias and Dystopias,” Virtual Conference, June 21 – 25, 2021.

“Whither Persecution? Catholicism and the Question of Liberty of Conscience in the Commonwealth,” North American Conference on British Studies, Virtual Conference, November 7 – 8 and 14 – 15, 2020.

"Catholicism and the Constitution in Revolutionary England,” North American Conference on British Studies, Providence, RI, October 25 – 28, 2018.

"Political Theology"

The Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism

forthcoming

"Probabilism, Pluralism, and Papalism: Jesuit Allegiance Politics in the British Atlantic and Continental Europe, 1644–1650"

in James E. Kelly and Hannah Thomas, eds., Jesuit Intellectual and Physical Exchange Between England and Mainland Europe, c. 1580 – c. 1773: The World is Our House? (Leiden: Brill)

“Catholicism and the Making of Revolutionary Ideology in the British Atlantic, 1630 - 1673”

Perspectives on Europe, 2014

The Debate on Probable Opinions in the Scholastic Tradition, written by Rudolf Schuessler

Journal of Jesuit Studies

Download

Uncertainty in Post-Reformation Catholicism: A History of Probabilism, written by Stefania Tutino

Journal of Jesuit Studies

Download

Review: Miles Pattenden, Electing the Pope in Early Modern Italy, 1450-1700 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017)

EuropeNow, 2019

Review: Antoinette Sutto, Loyal Protestants & Dangerous Papists: Maryland and the Politics of Religion in the English Atlantic, 1630-1690 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015)

The English Historical Review, 2018

“Catholic Radicalism during the Constitutional Crisis of 1647,” Gail and Francis Slattery Center for the Humanities, The University of Scranton, November 12, 2020.

“Catholic Activism in Revolutionary England: Constitutional Radicalism and the Seventeenth-Century Toleration Debate,” History of Christianity Seminar, Durham University, November 28, 2018.

“Catholicism and Revolution in the British World, 1630-1673,” University of Mississippi, Oxford MS, February 12, 2018.

"Catholicism and the Making of Revolutionary Ideologies," University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, February 3, 2017

“Constitutional Experimentation in the British Catholic Atlantic,” Brown Early American Graduate Seminar, May 13, 2016.

“‘We think it just to hear all parties:’ Catholicism and Radicalism in the Making of the English Commonwealth,” Medieval and Early Modern History Seminar, Brown University, February 16, 2016.

“Denying the Words but Performing the Sense: English Catholics and the Oath of Allegiance in the Revolutionary Politics of 1647,” Early Modern Seminar, University of Warwick, November 20, 2014.

"Catholicism and the Constitution in Revolutionary England,” North American Conference on British Studies, Providence, RI, October 25 – 28, 2018.

“Following the Money: Roman Pensions and the Problem of ‘Evil’ in Caroline England,” North American Conference on British Studies, Denver, CO, November 3-5, 2017.

"'A Duell between a Jesuite and a Dominican': Thomas Gage's role as a cultural translator in the Interregnum intelligence community," Early Modern Orders and Disorders: Religious Orders and British and Irish Catholicism, University of Notre Dame London Global Gateway, June 29, 2017.

“The Devil is in the Details: Metaphysical Epistemologies in Anti-Popish Critiques of Charles I,” North American Conference on British Studies, Little Rock, AR, November 13-15, 2015.

“‘For His Holiness’s Bulls to beget English Calves’: Blackloist and Probabilist approaches to Papal Authority in England and Europe, 1645-1650,” Early Modern Catholics in the British Isles and Europe: Integration or Separation?, Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University, July 1-3, 2015.

“‘Behold the Heart of a Traitor?’ Thomas Gage as an Interpreter of Catholic Action,” Mid-Atlantic Conference on British Studies, Lehman College, New York City, NY, April 4-5, 2014.

“‘What If I Told You...’ Anti-Jesuitism Was a Seventeenth-Century Meme?” Council for European Studies 2014 Conference: “Resurrections,” Washington D.C. March 14 – 16, 2014.

“‘Scorn and Scandal:’ English Catholicism and Anti-popery in the Wake of the Irish Rebellion of 1641,” Council for European Studies 2013 Conference: “Crisis and Contingency: States of (In)stability,” University of Amsterdam, June 25-27, 2013.

“Disguise, Penitential Suffering, and Accommodation among the Jesuits of the English Mission, 1558-1773,” American Catholic Historical Association Spring Meeting, Stonehill College, April 4-6, 2013.

“‘These Wicked Instruments:’ The Role of the Catholic Clergy in the Irish Rebellion of 1641,” American Catholic Historical Association Spring Meeting 2010, Princeton University, March 13, 2010.

“‘Scorn and Scandal:’ English Catholicism and Anti-popery in the Wake of the Irish Rebellion of 1641”

Loyal Protestants and Dangerous Papists: Maryland and the Politics of Religion in the English Atlantic, 1630–1690, by Antoinette Sutto

The English Historical Review, Dec 15, 2017

ing of evangelical discourse—ripe with fears of atheism and declension—she scrupulously avoids so... more ing of evangelical discourse—ripe with fears of atheism and declension—she scrupulously avoids social control reductionism without abandoning a focus on political order. Lum is attentive to the rise and fall of damnation rhetoric, tracing the social implications of its diminution as carefully as the needs that shape its coalescence in print culture, sermons, proselytization efforts, and associational networks that debated techniques and outcomes alike.

Michael D. Breidenbach, Our Dear-Bought Liberty: Catholics and Religious Toleration in Early America, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press, 2021, pp. xii + 356, £36.95, ISBN: 978-0-674-24723-9

British Catholic History

Catholicism and the Making of Revolutionary Ideologies in the British Atlantic, 1630-1673

Probabilism, Pluralism, and Papalism: Jesuit Allegiance Politics in the British Atlantic and Continental Europe, 1644–50

Loyal Protestants and Dangerous Papists: Maryland and the Politics of Religion in the English Atlantic, 1630–1690 by Antoinette Sutto

The Catholic Historical Review, 2017

EvanHaefeli, Accidental Pluralism: America and the Religious Politics of English Expansion, 1497–1662. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2021. viii + 384 pp. $45.00. ISBN 978‐0‐226‐74261‐8 (hb)

Renaissance Studies

Evan Haefeli, ed., Against Popery: Britain, Empire, and Anti-Catholicism, Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2020, pp. xiv + 344, £31.50, ISBN: 978-0-8139-4491-3

British Catholic History

Christopher P . Gillett

Uploads

Publications by Christopher P . Gillett

Book Reviews by Christopher P . Gillett

Invited Presentations by Christopher P . Gillett

Conference Presentations by Christopher P . Gillett

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