Postgraduate research students

This study traces and compares the ecclesiologies of Andrew Melville and Thomas Cartwright, two central figures in the development of Presbyterianism in late sixteenth-century Scotland and England. Both men spent time in Geneva during the early 1570s—a key center of the Reformed tradition and the cradle of Presbyterian polity—where they encountered a church and society shaped by a distinctly Presbyterian model. This shared experience, however, was later contextualized and developed along divergent lines as each man returned to his respective homeland, two Protestant nations within the British Isles but shaped by vastly different religious and political circumstances. Despite these differences, their relationship remained cordial and mutually respectful after their return.

Building upon their shared experience in Geneva, this study examines how their ecclesiologies evolved in response to their particular national contexts. Through an analysis of their writings, it identifies the differences between their ecclesiological visions and investigates the factors that contributed to those differences.

By focusing on the largely overlooked period between the era of John Knox and the Westminster Assembly—two pivotal moments in the history of Presbyterianism—this research highlights the ongoing connections between Scottish and English Presbyterian movements. It offers a fresh perspective by demonstrating that the ecclesiologies of Melville and Cartwright, though rooted in a common tradition, developed as contextually grounded and distinct theological frameworks rather than as subordinate variations of one another.

• Professor Scott Spurlock
• Dr Tim Duguid

- Hooper Holt Scholarship in Church History [2024]

- Somang Scholarship (ThM) [2023]

- Elder Eun-Seok Sung-Sub Kim Memorial Scholarship (Mdiv) [2019]