William Gibson (historian)


William Thomas Gibson is a historian, academic, and professor who specialises in the history of religion in Britain in the early modern period.

Education

He received BA MA, PGCE, PhD, DLitt, FRHistS, FRSA, FBS.
He was educated at Huish’s Grammar School, Taunton, Somerset; St David’s University College, Lampeter, Lincoln College, Oxford, and Middlesex University.

Biography

He initially worked as a teacher in a comprehensive school before holding posts in further education colleges in Southampton and Basingstoke. He was also an inspector in the post-compulsory sector for some years. In 1999-2000 he was Hartley Fellow at Southampton University and in 2004 was appointed Academic Director for Lifelong Learning at Westminster Institute of Education, Oxford Brookes University. In 2006 he was awarded the title Professor.
Gibson has been described as ‘one of that school of ecclesiastical historians… which in the late twentieth century has given fresh impetus and vitality to the revisionist view of the eighteenth-century Church...’ Gibson’s championing of the ‘optimistic’ view of the eighteenth century Church has drawn criticism from historians. The debate has been most recently aired in Reviews in History. His biography of Benjamin Hoadly, though generally well received, has been viewed as an overly strong statement of the optimist’s defence of a latitudinarian bishop
In February 2008 he was appointed as Director of the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History.
In October 2009 he was visiting fellow at Baylor University, Texas. In April 2011 he was visiting fellow at Yale University.

Writings

His books include, Church, State and Society, 1760-1850 ; The Achievement of the Anglican Church, 1689-1800: The Confessional State in England in the Eighteenth Century, ; A Social History of the Domestic Chaplain, 1530-1840, ; Religion and Society in England and Wales, 1689-1800, ; The Church of England 1688-1832: Unity and Accord, ; The Enlightenment Bishop: Benjamin Hoadly 1676-1761, ; Religion and the Enlightenment 1600-1800: Conflict and the Rise of Civic Humanism in Taunton, . He is the author of numerous articles.