Committee

2023

 

President: Emeritus Professor Constant J. Mews, School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria.

Constant J. Mews gained his BA and MA from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and his  DPhil from Oxford University. He is Professor within the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies, Monash University where he is also Director of the Centre for Religious Studies. He has published widely on medieval thought, ethics, and religious culture, with particular reference to the writings of Abelard, Heloise, Hildegard of Bingen and their contemporaries, including Abelard and Heloise (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005) and The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard. Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century France, 2nd edition (New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2008). His research interests range from the early middle ages to late medieval religious and intellectual culture, as well as the interface between various religious and ethical traditions.

Vice President: Reverend Professor Glen O’Brien, Research Coordinator, Eva Burrows College, University of Divinity.

Glen O’Brien  a graduate of Kingsley College (Bachelor of Theology and Master of Arts in Biblical Studies), Asbury Theological Seminary (Master of Arts Theological Studies) and La Trobe University (PhD in history), Glen has engaged in postdoctoral research on John Wesley’s political writings at Duke Divinity School in 2011, Asbury Theological Seminary in 2013, and Oxford Brookes University in 2014.   Glen continued that research as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Manchester Wesley Research Centre in the summer of 2015.   In 2013 and 2018 he was elected a Member of the Oxford Institute for Methodist Theological Studies.

He is a Uniting Church minister in the Yarra Yarra Presbytery with a placement to full time theological education in The Salvation Army.  Research Coordinator at Eva Burrows College , he lectures in Christian History and Theology, specialising in Wesleyan studies. He is Chair of the Research Committee, Deputy Chair of Examiners, and a Member of the University of Divinity’s Centre for Research in Religion and Social Policy, Vice-President of the Religious History Association, President of the Uniting Church National History Society, a Research Fellow of the Australasian Centre for Wesleyan Research (ACWR), an Honorary Fellow of the Manchester (UK) Wesley Research Centre, Member of the Australian Historical Association, and Member of the American Academy of Religion. He is a member of The Salvation Army / Uniting Church Dialogue.

He has published widely on Wesleyan and Methodist themes, including two volumes in the Ashgate Methodist Studies Series, many articles and book reviews in scholarly journals including The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, The Journal of Religious History, Methodist Review, Wesley and Methodist Studies, and the Wesleyan Theological Journal, as well as contributing numerous chapters to edited collections. In addition to his many publications, he is the editor of The Journal of Wesleyan Thought (formerly Aldersgate Papers) the peer reviewed journal of the ACWR and has recently completed a full-length monograph on John Wesley’s political writings.

Treasurer: Associate Professor Michael Champion, Australian Catholic University (ACU), Victoria

Michael specialises in late-antique and early Christian studies and the philosophy, history, culture, and reception of the ancient Mediterranean world up to Byzantium. I am a member of the Biblical and Early Christian Studies and Medieval and Early Modern Studies Programs of the IRCI.

Michael’s current research investigates traditions of classical education, ethics, and law, drawing on history of emotions and reception studies. These projects involve the study of early Christian accounts and sites of human flourishing, late-antique education and justifications for classical language learning, the work emotions do in different educational contexts, and social laboratories and changing conceptions of justice and equity.

Secretary: Professor Katharine Massam, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity, Centre for Theology & Ministry, 29 College Crescent, Parkville, Victoria.

 Katharine is Professor of Church History at Pilgrim Theological College in Melbourne, and teaching within the University of Divinity. She writes and teaches on a range of themes in the history of Christian spirituality, with a particular interest in Australia. She holds a doctorate in history from the University of Western Australia, and has also studied in the School of Education at Flinders University (Adelaide) and at the School of Theology, St John’s University (Collegeville, MN).  Her publications include Sacred Threads: Catholic Spirituality in Australia (UNSW Press, 1996), On High Ground (UWA Press, 1996), as well as a number of scholarly articles and a forthcoming monograph on the Spanish Benedictine Missionary Sisters of New Norcia.

RHA Attached documents:
The Minutes – RHA Minutes July 2016-Final