James Hannam: Historian of Science and Religion

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Contact Details for James Hannam

If you would like to contact me, please email bede@bede.org.uk.

I am on Twitter as @DrJamesHannam.

I'm available to give talks or interviews on history, science or religion. See here.


About James Hannam

I am the author of The Globe: How the Earth Became Round (2023); God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science (2009), which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize; and What Everyone Needs to Know about Tax (2017). I received my PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science at Pembroke College, Cambridge and I am a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. I live in Kent with my wife, two teenage children, dog and cat. My reviews and articles have been published in the popular press and academic journals.

James Hannam's Publications List

Books

The Globe: How the Earth Became Round (London: Reaktion, 2023)

What Everyone Needs to Know about Tax: An Introduction to the UK Tax System (Chichester: John Wiley, 2017)

God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science (London: Icon Books, 2009)

Published as Gods filosofen: hoe in de Middeleeuwen de basis werd gelegd voor de moderne wetenschap (Amsterdam: Nieuw Amsterdam, 2010) in the Netherlands; Die vergessenen Erfinder: Wie im Mittelalter die moderne Wissenschaft entstand (Augsburg: Sankt Ulrich Verlag, 2011) in Germany; The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution (New York: Regnery Publishing, 2011) in the United States; La genesi della scienza: Come il Medioevo cristiano ha posto le basi della scienza moderna (Crotone: D'Ettoris Editori, 2014) in Italy; and A Origem da Ciencia: Como os Filosofos do Mundo Medieval Lancaram os Fundamentos do Ciencia Moderna (Lisbon: Alma dos Livros, 2021)

Book Chapters

'Medieval Universities' in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education Miriam E. David and Marilyn J Amey (eds.) (Thousand Oaks CA: SAGE, 2020)

Various articles in Dictionary of Christianity and Science Tremper Longman III, Christopher L. Reese, and Michael G. Strauss, (eds.) (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017)

'Foreword: Medieval Science and Fiction' in Medieval Science Fiction Carl Kears and James Paz (eds.) (London: King's College London Medieval Studies, 2016) xv-xxvii

'Explaining the world: communicating science through the ages' in Successful Science Communication: Telling It Like It Is, David J. Bennett and Richard C. Jennings (eds.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) 31-44

Articles etc

'Why are people so defensive about the Flat Earth?' Reaktion Books Blog, July 2023

'Islam has become less rational since its medieval Golden Age. What went wrong?' Big Think, June 2023

'Divine Power, Wisdom and Goodness' Church History 134, 2020

The Myth of the Anti-Science Middle Ages Unherd, November 2019

'Atoms and Flat-Earth Ethics' Aeon, April 2019

'Fakes: Jesus' Wife, Boyfriend, and Brother's Coffin' First Things, October 2012

'The Last of Stalin's Foot Soldiers' First Things, October 2012

'Evolution and Islam' First Things, April 2012

'Modern Science's Christian Sources' First Things, October 2011

'Magnificant Man's Flying Machines' Standpoint, October 2011

'The Lost Art of Old England' Standpoint, July/August 2011

'Is Jesus Christ a Myth? - Parts One, Two, Three and Four' Patheos, 20 - 26 December 2010

'In defence of God's Philosophers' New Humanist, web exclusive 2010

'Cosmos: Did the Earth Move for Galileo?' Standpoint, October 2010

'Debating a Young Earth Creationist' Patheos, 4 June 2010

'Science versus Christianity?' Patheos, 18 May 2010

'Lost Pioneers of Science' History Today, January 2010

'Did Al Farabi really invent sociology?' The Spectator, 31 October 2009

'How Catholics Must Fight Back' Guardian Unlimited, 22 October 2009

'On Regaining my Hearing with an Implant' Mail on Sunday, 13 September 2009

'Science and Religion: A History of Conflict?' Guardian Unlimited, 14 June 2009

Book Reviews

'The Light Ages by Seb Falk' Catholic Herald November 2020

'Bede and the Cosmos: Theology and Nature in the Eighth Century by Eoghan Ahern' Science and Christian Belief 33(2) 2021

'The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins' Catholic Herald January 2013

'The Abacus and the Cross by Nancy Marie Brown' New Scientist 28 December 2010

'The Many Faces of God: Science's 400-Year Quest for Images of the Divine by Jeremy Campbell' Science and Christian Belief 20:2 (2009)

'The Church and Galileo by Ernan McMullim (ed.)' British Journal for the History of Science 40:2 (2007)

'Domingo do Soto and the Early Galileo by William Wallace' British Journal for the History of Science 40:1 (2007)

'The Scientific Revolution and the Foundations of Modern Science by William Applebaum' Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 58:2 (2006)

'Science and Religion: 400BC - AD1550 by Edward Grant and Science and Religion: 1450 - 1900 by Richard Olson' Viewpoint 80 (2006)

'When Science and Christianity Meet by David Lindberg & Ronald Numbers (eds.)' Science and Christian Belief 17:2 (2005)

Thesis and Dissertation

'Teaching Natural Philosophy and Mathematics at Oxford and Cambridge 1500 - 1570' PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge (2008)

'Cecco D'Ascoli and Church Discipline of Natural Philosophers in the Middle Ages' MA Dissertation, Birkbeck College, University of London (2003)

'Medieval and Early Modern Universities Research Guide' University of Cambridge (2004)

Journal Articles

'The library of Reuben Shirwoode (c1542-1599)' in Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, XIII:2 (2005)


© James Hannam 2023