We are pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s Davenant Fellowships.
Simon Kennedy (above right) is pursuing a Ph.D research project at the University of Queensland under Prof. Peter Harrison, in which he is investigating how various early modern Reformed thinkers such as John Calvin, Richard Hooker, and Johannes Althusius understood the origins of society and political authority.
Simon Kennedy’s Ph.D work represents a valuable inquiry into topics of particular interest to the Davenant Trust. Indeed, this project sits at the intersection of several of our key priorities: Mr. Kennedy aims to recover the insights of early modern Protestantism, particularly in the Reformed tradition, shedding light on neglected ideas from the 17th century that continue to impact us today. His particular concern is to seek to understand the theological grounding for any conception of political authority, and how different theological ideas result in very different political doctrines and institutions. Given the Davenant Trust’s desire to offer historical resources to help Christians rethink their vocations as citizens and their relationship to an increasingly post-Christian civil government, Mr. Kennedy’s project is a timely one.
Daniel Hyde (above left) is pursuing a Ph.D project at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam under Prof. Willem van Vlastuin on John Owen’s theology of public worship, showing how Owen developed connections between theology and liturgy, orthodoxy and orthopraxy.
Rev. Daniel Hyde’s project on John Owen’s theology of public worship also comes at a pivotal moment. Many evangelicals, burned out by decades of anti-liturgical, individualistic worship, are seeking refuge in “high-church” traditions. So it is critical for us to show that there are important resources for understanding liturgy and for a robust theology of worship in the Reformed tradition. Rev. Hyde’s project dovetails especially well with the Davenant Trust’s particular interest in the post-Reformation English church, and the relationships between “Anglican” and “Puritan” streams within that church. By helping to recover John Owen’s English Reformed theology of worship, Rev. Hyde will be rendering a valuable service to the contemporary church.
The Davenant Fellowship awards $2,500 of funding toward a Ph.D or postdoctoral project in Protestant historical theology. Learn more.