Professor Scott Spurlock

Professor of Scottish and Early Modern Christianities (Theology & Religious Studies)

telephone: 01413304990
email: Scott.Spurlock@glasgow.ac.uk

403, 3 The Square, Theology and Religious Studies, The School of Critical Studies, Glasgow, G12 8QQ

Biography

Scott is Professor of Scottish and Early Modern Christianities at the University of Glasgow with a particular focus on Scottish and Irish religious cultures. Before coming to Glasgow in 2013 he held academic appointments at the University of Aberdeen, Queen's University Belfast, the University of Edinburgh, Trinity College Dublin and the University of Manchester.

He co-convenes the Masters in Church History and Theology with Professor Charlotte Methuen. Elements of the teaching are delivered collaboratively with Stellenbosch University, where Scott is a Research Associate.

Research interests

Research interests
Professor Spurlock's work focuses on projects relating to Scottish religious cultures, in particular the Reformation in Scotland and traditions developing out of its upheaval including Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Dissenting and Quaker; the experience of lay Catholics in early modern Scotland; the role of Reformed theology in shaping early modern cultures; and, the comparative development of Reformed communities in the early modern Atlantic.

Research groups

History of Christianity

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2024 | 2023 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006

Number of items: 53.

2024

Spurlock, Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2024) Theologising the bounds of community: VOC religious policies in the early Cape colony. Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae, (doi: 10.25159/2412-4265/15540) (Early Online Publication)

2023

Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2023) Catholicism in Scotland to 1603. In: Kelly, James and McCafferty, John (eds.) The Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism, Volume I: 1530–1640. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 68-88. ISBN 9780198843801

2021

Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2021) Post-Reformation Scottish Catholic Survival. In: Hazlett, Ian (ed.) A Companion to the Reformation in Scotland, c.1525–1638. Series: Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition (100). Brill, pp. 578-604. ISBN 9789004329720 (doi: 10.1163/9789004335950_024)

Bennett, Martyn, Gillespie, Raymond and Spurlock, Scott R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (Eds.) (2021) Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives. Liverpool University Press: Liverpool. ISBN 9781789622379

2020

Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2020) The Solemn League and Covenant and the making of a people in Ulster. Scottish Historical Review, 99(S), pp. 368-391. (doi: 10.3366/shr.2020.0487)

Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2020) Scotland. In: Coffey, John (ed.) Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Vol. I The Post-Reformation Era, 1559-1689. Oxford University Press: Oxford. ISBN 9780198702238 (doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198702238.003.0009)

Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2020) Polity, discipline and theology: the importance of the covenant in Scottish Presbyterianism, 1560-c.1700. In: Vernon, Elliot and Powell, Hunter (eds.) Church Polity and Politics in the British Atlantic world, c. 1635–66. Manchester University Press: Manchester. ISBN 9780719090424

Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2020) Scottish Presbyterianism. Victorian Review, 46(2), pp. 162-166. (doi: 10.1353/vcr.2020.0040)

2019

Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2019) Boundaries of Scottish Reformed orthodoxy, 1560–1700. In: Fergusson, David and Elliott, Mark W. (eds.) The History of Scottish Theology, Volume 1: Celtic Origins to Reformed Orthodoxy. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 359-376. ISBN 9780198759331 (doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198759331.003.0025)

2018

Davies, John ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5823-4019 and Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (Eds.) (2018) Records of the Scottish Church History Society Vol. XLVII. Series: Records of the Scottish Church History Society. Scottish Church History Society: Edinburgh, UK.

2016

Armstrong, Robert, Holmes, Andrew R., Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 and Walsh, Patrick (Eds.) (2016) Presbyterian History in Ireland: Two Seventeenth-Century Narratives. Ulster Historical Foundation: Belfast, UK. ISBN 9781909556508

2015

Gribben, Crawford and Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (Eds.) (2015) Puritans and Catholics in the Trans-Atlantic World 1600-1800. Series: Christianities in the trans-Atlantic world, 1500–1800. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137368973

Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2015) Confessionalization and clan cohesion: Ireland's contribution to Scottish catholic renewal in the seventeenth century. In: Edwards, David and Egan, Simon (eds.) The Scots in early Stuart Ireland. Union and Separation in Two Kingdoms. Manchester University Press: Manchester, pp. 167-202. ISBN 9780719097218

Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2015) The tradition of intolerance in the Church of Scotland. In: Selderhuis, Herman J and Lange van Ravenswaay, J. Marius J. (eds.) Reformed Majorities in Early Modern Europe. Series: Refo500 academic studies (23). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: Göttingen, Germany, pp. 295-312. ISBN 9783525550830

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2015) Catholics in a Puritan Atlantic: the liminality of empire's edge. In: Gribben, Crawford and Spurlock, Roy (eds.) Puritans and Catholics in the Trans-Atlantic World 1600–1800. Series: Christianities in the trans-Atlantic world, 1500–1800. Palgrave Macmillan: 2015, pp. 21-46. ISBN 9781137368973

2014

Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2014) State, politics and society in Scotland, 1637-1662. In: Braddick, M. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution. Oxford University Press. (doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199695898.013.021)

2013

Spurlock, Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2013) The problem with religion as identity: the case of mid-Stuart Ireland and Scotland. Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, 6(2), pp. 1-31.

2012

Spurlock, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2012) Confessionalization and clan cohesion: Ireland's contribution to Scottish catholic renewal in the seventeenth century. Recusant History, 31(2), pp. 171-194.

Spurlock, R.S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2012) The laity and the structure of the Catholic Church in early modern Scotland. In: Armstrong, R. and Ó hAnnracháin, T. (eds.) Insular Christianity. Alternative models of the Church in Britain and Ireland, c.1570–c.1700. Series: Politics, culture and society in early modern Britain. Manchester University Press: Manchester, pp. 231-251. ISBN 9780719086984

2011

Spurlock, R.S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2011) Cromwell's Edinburgh press and the development of print culture in Scotland. Scottish Historical Review, 90(230), pp. 179-203. (doi: 10.3366/shr.2011.0033)

2010

Spurlock, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2010) Politics of eschatology: Baptists in Interregnum Scotland. Baptist Quarterly, 43(6), pp. 324-346.

Spurlock, R.S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2010) Cromwell and Catholics: towards a reassessment of lay catholic experience in interregnum Ireland. In: Forrest, S. and Williams, M. (eds.) Constructing the Past. Writing Irish History, 1600–1800. Series: Irish historical monograph series, 6. Boydell Press: Suffolk, UK, pp. 157-179. ISBN 9781843835738

2009

Spurlock, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2009) English revolution. In: Ness, I. (ed.) The International Encyclopedia of Protest and Revolution: 1500 to the Present. Wiley-Blackwell: Chichester, UK, pp. 1096-1100. ISBN 9781405184649

2008

Spurlock, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2008) “I disclaim both Ecclesiasticke and Politick Poperie”: lay Catholic practice and experience in early modern Scotland. Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 38, pp. 5-22.

2007

Spurlock, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2007) “Anie Gospell Way”: religious diversity in interregnum Scotland. Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 37, pp. 89-119.

Spurlock, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2007) Cromwell and Scotland: Conquest and Religion, 1650–1660. John Donald: Edinburgh, UK. ISBN 9781904607779

2006

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Albert Schweitzer. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Arnold Joseph Toynbee: An Historian's Approach to Religion. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Austin Marsden Farrer: The Freedom of the Will. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Charles Scott Sherrington. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Charles Scott Sherrington: Man on his Nature. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Cornelius Petrus Tiele. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Cornelius Petrus Tiele: Elements of the Science of Religion. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) David Daube. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Friedrich von Hügel. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) George Frederick Stout: God and Nature. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) George Frederick Stout: Mind and Matter. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Henry Melvill Gwatkin. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Henry Melvill Gwatkin: The Knowledge of God and Its Historical Development, Vol. 1. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Henry Melvill Gwatkin: The Knowledge of God and Its Historical Development, Vol. 2. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) John Baillie. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) John Dewey. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) John Dewey: The Quest for Certainty. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Nathan Söderblom. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Nathan Söderblom: The Living God. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Otto Pfleiderer. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Otto Pfleiderer: Philosophy and Development of Religion. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) The Reality of God and Religion and Agnosticism. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Roderick Diarmid Maclennan. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Rudolf Bultmann: History and Eschatology. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) William James. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) William James: The Varieties of Religious Experience. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) William Mitchell Ramsay: Asianic Elements in Greek Civilisation. The Gifford Lectures

This list was generated on Sun Jun 15 07:20:53 2025 BST.

Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Edited Books | Conference or Workshop Item

Number of items: 53.

Articles

Spurlock, R. Scott ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2020) Scottish Presbyterianism. Victorian Review, 46(2), pp. 162-166. (doi: 10.1353/vcr.2020.0040)

Spurlock, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2010) Politics of eschatology: Baptists in Interregnum Scotland. Baptist Quarterly, 43(6), pp. 324-346.

Spurlock, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2007) “Anie Gospell Way”: religious diversity in interregnum Scotland. Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 37, pp. 89-119.

Books

Spurlock, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2007) Cromwell and Scotland: Conquest and Religion, 1650–1660. John Donald: Edinburgh, UK. ISBN 9781904607779

Book Sections

Edited Books

Conference or Workshop Item

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Albert Schweitzer. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Arnold Joseph Toynbee: An Historian's Approach to Religion. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Austin Marsden Farrer: The Freedom of the Will. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Charles Scott Sherrington. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Charles Scott Sherrington: Man on his Nature. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Cornelius Petrus Tiele. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Cornelius Petrus Tiele: Elements of the Science of Religion. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) David Daube. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Friedrich von Hügel. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) George Frederick Stout: God and Nature. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) George Frederick Stout: Mind and Matter. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Henry Melvill Gwatkin. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Henry Melvill Gwatkin: The Knowledge of God and Its Historical Development, Vol. 1. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Henry Melvill Gwatkin: The Knowledge of God and Its Historical Development, Vol. 2. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) John Baillie. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) John Dewey. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) John Dewey: The Quest for Certainty. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Nathan Söderblom. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Nathan Söderblom: The Living God. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Otto Pfleiderer. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Otto Pfleiderer: Philosophy and Development of Religion. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) The Reality of God and Religion and Agnosticism. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Roderick Diarmid Maclennan. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) Rudolf Bultmann: History and Eschatology. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) William James. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) William James: The Varieties of Religious Experience. The Gifford Lectures

Spurlock, Roy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-7207 (2006) William Mitchell Ramsay: Asianic Elements in Greek Civilisation. The Gifford Lectures

This list was generated on Sun Jun 15 07:20:53 2025 BST.

Grants

Hope Trust (2015)

Royal Society of Edinburgh Networking Grant (2014)

University of Glasgow Chancellor's Fund (2014)

Irish Research Council Collaborative Research Project (2012)

Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies Grant, Trinity College Dublin (2010)

Strathmartine Trust Grant (2007)

Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (2006)

Supervision

Scottish religious traditions: Catholic, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Baptist, Quaker
Historical theology
Early modern religious networks
Theology and early modern colonialism

Choung, Sung Hoon
Paths after Geneva: A Comparative Study of Presbyterian Ecclesiology in Andrew Melville and Thomas Cartwright
Gibson, William
Development and Devolution in the Church of Scotland in the long 1960s
Kerr, Roslin
Popular sovereignty in early modern Scotland: constitutional theory and popular consent, 1603-1746

Completed doctoral students:

Jamie McDougall, 'The legacy of the Solemn League and Covenant in relation to political culture in Scotland c.1643-1707'. Co-supervised with Karin Bowie (History, 2018). AHRC funded

Jamie Kelly, 'The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, 1709–1872: Education, Language, Religion & Governance in the post-1707 British State & Empire'. Co-supervised with Martin Macgregor (History, 2020). AHRC funded

Mary Cornelius, 'Becoming Catholic: Religion and Society in Colonial Grenada, 1763–1838'. Co-supervised with Simon Newman (History, 2020).

Scott Meyer, 'Cotton Mather: theological conviction and change'. (Theology and Religious Studies, 2021).

Alistair Bates, 'The experience of involuntary childlessness in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland'. (Theology and Religious Studies, 2022).

Scott Dennis, ‘The Theology of Grace in H.R. Mackintosh’. (Theology and Religious Studies, 2023).

Andrew Mullan, 'Archbishop James Ussher: pastor, teacher, prophet, preacher'. (Theology and Religious Studies, 2023).

Andrew Muirhead, 'Reformation, Dissent and Diversity’ & ‘Scottish Presbyterianism Re-established’. (Theology and Religious Studies, 2023).

Thomas Davis, 'William Cunningham, historical theologian: Coram Deo, Per Systema, Pro Ecclesia'. (Theology and Religious Studies, 2023).

Teaching

Sub-honours:

Christian Traditions and Transformations 

The God Question

Religion, Culture and Controversy

Honours:

Church and Society in Scotland  since 1500

John Calvin and his Theology 

The Roots of Sectarianism in Ireland and Scotland

Masters:

Nature and Practice of Church History 1

Nature and Practice of Church History 2

Additional information

Along with Crawford Gribben he serve as editor of two books series: Palgrave Macmillan's 'Christianities in the trans-Atlantic World' and Edinburgh University Press's 'Scottish Religious Cultures: Historical Perspectives'. Both these series produce research monographs and edited collections. In addition, I edit the peer-reviewed journal Scottish Church History.

President of the Scottish Church History Society

Elected member of the Church History Society of Southern Africa

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