Welsh Professor visits Ohio to celebrate the fourth-hundred anniversary of the publication of the English King James Bible

Professor Peredur Lynch, of the School of Welsh, has been invited to participate in a prestigious series of lectures at Ohio State University in celebration of the fourth-hundred anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible in 1611.

He will deliver his lecture on May 20 at the university’s Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies as part of a dedicated series of events focussing not only on the King James Bible but also on the influence of the Bible in general on medieval and early-modern thought.

The title of Professor Lynch’s lecture will be ‘Welsh National Identity and the Bible during the Medieval and Early Modern Periods’.

“My lecture will focus on the Biblical concept of a chosen people”, said Professor Lynch, “and the influence of this concept during the medieval period on notions of national identity.”

“In the wake of their conversion to Christianity, Bede projected the Anglo-Saxons as a new Israel. The question I will be posing is to what extent Wales was influenced by this biblical and providential model of nationality.” 

Professor Lynch’s visit to Ohio University coincides with the annual meeting of the Celtic Studies Association of North America (CSANA), which is being hosted this year at Ohio by the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. CSANA is the most prominent north-American academic association in the field of Celtic Studies.    

Publication date: 12 May 2011