Religion, Secularity, & Identity in Shakespeare and Early Modern Culture Brian B. Cummings. He has written widely on 16th-century religion and literature and delivered our Shakespeare’s Birthday Lecture in 2014. Profile Biography. Before moving to York he was Professor of English at the University of Sussex, where he co-founded the Centre for Early Modern Studies in 2004. Among his books are Shakespeare and the Shapes of Time (1982), Shakespeare after Theory (1999), and Shakespeare and the Book (2001). CUMMINGS: Well, it’s been an absolute pleasure. --Modern Philology Brian Cummings. Thank you.-----WITMORE: Brian Cummings is Anniversary Professor of English at the University of York. Prospero’s renunciation of his book in The Tempest acknowledges its power as a kind of ‘fetish’. Writing for the British Library, Brian Cummings accepts the claim that John Shakespeare was a Recusant: "Evidence exists that his father John was a recusant, and his mother’s family, the Ardens, had visibly Catholic relatives." Brian Cummings explores the radical religious reforms enacted in Shakespeare's lifetime, and the traces of religion that exist in … The Reformation in Shakespeare Article by: Brian Cummings Themes: Shakespeare’s life and world, Power, politics and religion. Cummings delivered the 2014 Shakespeare’s Birthday Lecture on “Shakespeare, Biography, and Anti-Biography” at the Folger Shakespeare Library; the lecture also opened the Folger Institute’s NEH-funded collaborative research conference, Shakespeare and the Problem of Biography, which Cummings … on "Shakespeare and the Problem of Biography," part of the Folger's celebration of the 450th anniversary year of Shakespeare's birth. This essay traces the idea of the book as ‘commodity fetish’ and as material text. SHEIR: Well, Brian Cummings, thank you so much for talking with me. Brian Cummings came to York in October 2012 as one of sixteen Anniversary Professors appointed across the arts and sciences to promote the University’s international research profile in its 50 th year. Brian Cummings's Mortal Thoughts: Religion, Secularity and Identity in Shakespeare and Early Modern Culture is a profoundly serious book that deserves to be read closely and carefully." Questions concepts of the 'religious' and 'secular' in the Early Modern period; Combines study of literature, art, philosophy, and theology; Offers commentary on a key topic in Shakespeare studies; Contributes to the history of religion and religious change April 3, 2014 Brian Cummings: Thank you, Kathleen, for that lovely and generous introduction. "It is a great comfort, to my way of thinking, that so … Looking at a variety of different plays, it shows how the transformations in the rituals of everyday life are constantly present in the dynamic forces of Shakespeare’s theatre in performance. Keywords: Shakespeare's faith, Shakespeare's religion, Shakespeare's Ideas, David Bevington, Reformation, A. D. Nuttall, Stephen Greenblatt Brian Cummings Brian Cummings is Professor of English at the University of Sussex and was founding Director of the Centre for Early Modern Studies, 2004–2008. Brian Cummings’s Mortal Thoughts: Religion, Secularity and Identity in Shakespeare and Early Modern Culture is a profoundly serious book that deserves to be read closely and carefully.