My recent PhD student completions include:

Chris Metcalfe (2011) ‘Methodist Reunion in Whitby’

Sally Tye (2013) ‘Religion, the SPCK and the Westminster Workhouses:‘Re-enchanting’ the Eighteenth Century Workhouse’

Keith Anderson (2014) ‘Images of the Crucifixion in Modern Art’

John Lenton (2014) ‘John Wesley’s Preachers: The Lives of the Methodist Itinerant Preachers accepted by John Wesley for the Itinerancy’

Clive Norris (2015) ‘The Financing of Early Methodism’

Linda Ryan (2015) ‘Child-rearing and Education: The Thinking and Practice of John Wesley and some of his Contemporaries, Evaluated within its Eighteenth-century Context’

Sarah Prendergast (2016) ‘The Welsh Revival of 1904-05: recovering the role of women’

Daniel Reed (2018) ‘Patronage, Performance, and Reputation in the eighteenth-century church’

John Harding (2020) ‘Griffith Jones and the Church of England in Wales in the eighteenth century’

Steve Sanders (2021) The Upholder in the Age of Chippendale’

Supervision

I am currently supervising students working on the Jewish-evangelical relationship in the eighteenth century and John Wesley's ideas of the supernatural.

Academic and research interests

• Religious History of early modern and modern Britain (broadly 1600-1900);
• Historical theology
• History of Universities;
• Welsh history;
• Church and State, the Church and politics.

Research projects

I am currently editor of the Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture and also edit the Routledge Methodist Studies book series.

Further information

https://ocmch.wordpress.com/

Books

• , Ed., The Anglican Episcopate 1689-1800, University of Wales Press (2022)
  
• Gibson W, Samuel Wesley and the Crisis of Tory Piety, 1685-1720, Oxford University Press (2021)
  ISBN: 9780198870241
  Abstract
  • Offers a reappraisal of the life and work of Samuel Wesley
  • Examines Wesley's life through key turning points, including his decision to join the Church of England in 1684; his marriage breakdown in 1701; his imprisonment for debt in 1705; a series of disagreements with the bishop of his diocese; his leadership of Tory clergy in Convocation; and the haunting of his rectory by a poltergeist in 1716
  • Considers these turning points as moments in which his Tory and High Church principles were tested
  • Advances the idea of the 'long Glorious Revolution' between 1685 and 1720
  Website 
• Gibson W, O'Brien D, Turda M, Ed., Teleology and Modernity, Routledge (2019)
  ISBN: 9780815351030 eISBN: 9781351141888
  Abstract

  The main and original contribution of this volume is to offer a discussion of teleology through the prism of religion, philosophy and history. The goal is to incorporate teleology within discussions across these three disciplines rather than restrict it to one as is customarily the case. The chapters cover a wide range of topics, from individual teleologies to collective ones; ideas put forward by the French aristocrat Arthur de Gobineau and the Scottish philosopher David Hume, by the Anglican theologian and founder of Methodism, John Wesley, and the English naturalist Charles Darwin; it criss-crosses intellectually and conceptually from a discussion of morality to that of the sacralisation of politics.
  

  Website 
• Begiato J, Gibson W, Sex and the Church in the long eighteenth century: religion, enlightenment and the sexual revolution, I B Tauris (2017)
  ISBN: 9781784533779
  Website 
• Gibson W, Ed., Religion and Society in the Diocese of St Davids 1485–2011, Ashgate (2015)
  ISBN: 978-1-4094-4772-6
  Website 
• Gibson W, Ed., The Oxford Handbook of the British Sermon 1689-1901, Oxford University Press (2012)
  ISBN: 9780199583591
  
• Cornwall R, Gibson W, Ed., Religion, politics and dissent, 1660–1832: essays in Honour of James E. Bradley, Ashgate (2010)
  ISBN: 9780754663843
  Abstract The idea of the long eighteenth century (1660'1832) as a period in which religious and political dissent were regarded as antecedents of the Enlightenment has recently been advanced by several scholars. The purpose of this collection is further to explore these connections between religious and political dissent in Enlightenment Britain. Addressing the many and rich connections between political and religious dissent in the long eighteenth century, the volume also acknowledges the work of Professor James E. Bradley in stimulating interest in these issues among scholars. Contributors engage directly with ideas of secularism, radicalism, religious and political dissent and their connections with the Enlightenment, or Enlightenments, together with other important themes including the connections between religious toleration and the rise of the 'enlightenments'. Contributors also address issues of modernity and the ways in which a 'modern' society can draw its inspiration from both religion and secularity, as well as engaging with the seventeenth-century idea of the synthesis of religion and politics and its evolution into a system in which religion and politics were interdependent but separate. Offering a broadly-conceived interpretation of current research from a more comprehensive perspective than is often the case, the historiographical implications of this collection are significant for the development of ideas of the nature of the Enlightenment and for the nature of religion, society and politics in the eighteenth century. By bringing together historians of politics, religion, ideas and society to engage with the central theme of the volume, the collection provides a forum for leading scholars to engage with a significant theme in British history in the 'long eighteenth century'.Website 
• Gibson W, James II and the trial of the seven bishops, Palgrave Macmillan (2009)
  ISBN: 9780230204003
  Abstract James II's prosecution of seven bishops in the summer of 1688 has often been overlooked in the accounts of the Glorious Revolution. Yet, it was on the night of the bishops' acquittal, amid widespread rejoicing, that the invitation was issued to William of Orange to come and save the nation. This book is the first modern examination of the events leading to the prosecution of the bishops, their trial and subsequent acquittal. Drawing on previously unused archival manuscripts, it shows the ways in which the bishops seized the propaganda initiative against the King and won popular support for the Church. In doing so they created the circumstances by which the revolution of 1688 could be a bloodless one. The book also analyses the divisions between the bishops and the way in which events ran out of their control in the autumn of 1688.
• Gibson W, Religion and the Enlightenment 1600-1800 : conflict and the rise of civic humanism in Taunton , Peter Lang (2007)
  ISBN: 9783039109227
  Abstract This book considers how Early Modern England was transformed from a turbulent and rebellious kingdom into a peaceable land. By considering the history of Taunton, Somerset, the most rebellious town in the kingdom, it is possible to see how the emerging features of the Enlightenment - moderation, reason and rational theology - effected that transformation. The experience of Taunton in the seventeenth century was marked by economic fluctuations of the cloth trade and military struggles in the Civil War, the Monmouth Rebellion and the Glorious Revolution. The primary motivation for the citizens was zealous Puritanism. It inspired support for Parliament and rebellion against James II. But in the final quarter of the century a new rational and moderate Protestantism emerged from the largest Nonconformist congregation in the country and from a distinguished dissenting academy. The study shows that both the militancy of the seventeenth century and the enlightened moderation of the eighteenth century were principally inspired by religious rather than secular values. This book contributes to our understanding of England's transformation and of the religious factors that stimulated it.
• Gibson W, Enlightenment prelate, Benjamin Hoadly 1676-1761, James Clarke (2004)
  ISBN: 9780227679784
  Abstract Benjamin Hoadly (1676-1761), Bishop successively of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury and Winchester, was the most controversial English churchman of the eighteenth century. He has unjustly gained the reputation of a negligent and political bishop, and with this publication, Gibson attempts to reappraise the legacy of this influential man. It was Hoadly's sermon on the nature of Christ's kingdom that sparked the Bangorian controversy which raged from 1717-1720. His sermons, books and tracts poured from the press in huge quantities and were widely read by Anglicans and Dissenters alike, yet his commitment to the ideology of the Revolution of 1688 and to the comprehension of Dissenters into the Church of England earned him the antagonism of many contemporary and later churchmen. This book is the first full-length study of Hoadly to be published, and is a powerfully revisionist study. Hoadly emerges as a dedicated and conscientious bishop with strong and progressive principles. He asserted the right of individuals to judge the Bible for themselves without the shackles of ecclesiastical authority and sought to establish a liberal enclave in the Church to re-attract Dissenters. He also restored a strongly Protestant commemorative view of the Eucharist to the Church. But it was not simply his ecclesiastical work which made him such an important figure. Hoadly's stout defence of rationalism made him a founder of the English Enlightenment. His views on the nature of political authority also drew heavily on John Locke, and Hoadly was responsible for bringing Locke's views to a wide audience. It was his commitment to civil liberties which made him a progenitor of the American Revolution whilst his writing on the nature of civil authority was acclaimed by John Adams as a source of American liberties and of the US Constitution. He also advanced sincerity of belief over the right of the State to impose penalties for the failure to conform. In these principles he presaged the future direction of both religion and society.
• Gibson W, The Church of England 1688-1832 : unity and accord, Routledge (2000)
  ISBN: 9780415240239
  Abstract A wide ranging new history of a key period in the history of the church in England, from the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688-89 to the Great Reform Act of 1832. This was a tumultuous time for both church and state, when the relationship between religion and politics was at its most fraught. This book presents evidence of the widespread Anglican commitment to harmony between those of differing religious views and suggests that High and Low Churchmanship was less divergent than usually assumed.
• Gibson W, Religion and society in England and Wales, 1689-1800: a sourcebook, Leicester University Press (1998)
  ISBN: 9780718501631
  Abstract Presenting source material for the study of religion in England and Wales between the Glorious Revolution and the end of the 18th century, this selection of documents includes extracts from letters and diaries, acts of parliament, sermons, memoirs, religious books, and parish and church records. This material contributes to a broad view of the nature of religion and piety in England during the 18th century. The source material evaluates religion before and after the "Glorious Revolution", the Church of England in the period, religious controversies, nonconformity and dissent, popular religion, Roman Catholicism, and religion and politics. The sources also deal with some of the significant social changes confronting religion in the 18th century, accounts of personal religion, foreign views of English religion, and women's religious observances. Included in the volume is an introduction which places the sources in the context of the 18th century as a whole. It provides the student with a set of source materials which contribute to the study of the state of the churches, and to an understanding of faith and piety in the period.
• Gibson W, A Social history of the domestic chaplain, 1530-1840, Leicester University Press (1997)
  ISBN: 9780718500931
  Abstract A history of the domestic chaplain to the nobility and gentry between 1530 and 1840, this work examines the work and role of domestic chaplains during this period, when they were regulated by law. It also considers the connections between chaplains and key events in British history, such as the Restoration. Chaplains often made a hidden, but important, contribution to the religious life of the nation. Their work was not chronicled in the usual records of the Church since they often operated outside the supervision of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. In this text, the status and the growing range of activities undertaken by domestic chaplains during the 16th and 17th centuries is explored. In particular, the nature of the chaplain's relationship with a patron is given special emphasis. Chaplains could be companions and spiritual guides, but they could also demonstrate the status or condescension of the patron. Drawing on a wide range of sources, this book reconstructs the secular and religious duties of a chaplain. It advances an explanation for the decline of the domestic chaplain during the 18th century, and the extinction of chaplain's rights to hold two livings in 1840. There is also an analysis of the role of women's chaplains, of Catholic chaplains, and the political influence of chaplains during the turbulence of the English Civil War and Restoration.
• Gibson W, The achievement of the Anglican Church (1689-1800) : the confessional state in eighteenth century England, Edwin Mellen (1995)
  ISBN: 9780773489905
  Abstract This strongly revisionist account seeks to redress the harsh judgments on the Hanoverian Church by Victorian and later historians. This lucid work, drawing on much recent scholarship, advances an interpretation that is far more favorable. The Church's involvement in politics is explained and vindicated. An examination of the social status of the clergy, and of the professionalization of the ministry suggests that period was one of progress and advancement, and the discharge of episcopal and clerical duties is considerably more distinguished than hitherto conceded. Much of the evidence supports the Clark thesis that eighteenth century England was a 'confessional state', in which the ethos and aspirations of the Anglican Church predominated. Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, this book ably synthesizes both qualitative and quantitative evidence to encourage the view that for the Church the period was one of accomplishment rather than decline.
• Gibson W, Church, State and Society 1760-1850, Palgrave Macmillan (1994)
  ISBN: 9780333587577
  Abstract In this wide-ranging book, William Gibson examines the principal themes in the developing relationship between the churches, the state and society between 1760 and 1850. Among other issues this book examines the involvement of the Church of England in Politics, the development of a clerical profession, the work of the bishops and clergy, the economic position of the church, the Church's reaction to the French and American Revolutions, the exercise of Church Patronage by premiers, the development of Church parties, the growth of Toleration, the reaction of the churches to industrialisation, the Halevy debate, the reform of the church after 1830, the development of Nonconformity and the state of religion and social groups in 1850.

Journal articles

• Gibson W, 'Engines of Tyranny: The Court Sermons of James II'
  Bulletin- John Rylands University Library of Manchester 97 (1) (2021) pp.11-24
  ISSN: 0301-102X
  Abstract

  This article considers the sermons preached by royal chaplains at the court of James II and the organisation of the chapel royal by James as a Catholic organisation. In doing so, it addresses the question of where James’s assurance and certainty came from that he was ruling as God wished him to do. The evidence presented here is that James organised his Catholic chapel royal to be a conscious source of guidance and support. His chaplains reciprocated by addressing him as a Catholic king whose duty was to bring to heel a recalcitrant and stubborn people. His chaplains used historical precedent and theological argument to press on James his determination to bring his Protestant subjects to obedience. This is a study of the Catholic milieu of James’s court and of the theological impetus behind his rule.
  

• Gibson W, '"None but Presbyterian Baptism": Samuel and Susanna Wesley, monarchy and marriage'
  Proceedings- Wesley Historical Society 61 (2018)
  ISSN: 0043-2873
  Abstract The article examines the return which Samuel Wesley made to Bishop William Wakes visitation queries in 1712 and especially the baptismal status of Susannah Wesley being baptised as a Presbyterian. It also looks at the legitimacy of ejecting an appointed monarch which was to root of the dispute between Samuel and Susannah Wesley.
• Gibson WT, '"So Cruel and Unjustifiable a Revolution": Bishop George Pretyman Tomline and Edward Kilvington 1794-96'
  Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 106 (2017)
  ISSN: 0309-3603
  
• Gibson W, 'Introduction: New Perspectives on Secularisation in Britain (and Beyond)'
  Journal of Religious History 41 (4) (2017) pp.431-438
  ISSN: 0022-4227
  Abstract This article reviews the recent developments in the debate on secularisation to establish the context within which the articles in this collection are located. It argues that the debate is complex and multi-faceted, and has been subject to refocus and redefinition in the last decade. The article traces the contributors’ previous interventions in the debate, and summarises the articles in this volume. It concludes that the theme of secularisation remains of continuing interest to scholars precisely because it has such broad collections between history and other disciplines. Moreover the secularisation debate continues to engage scholars on different sides of the enlightenment divide.Website 
• Gibson WT, 'English provincial engagement in religious debates: the Salisbury quarrel of 1705-15'
  Huntington Library Quarterly 80 (1) (2017)
  ISSN: 0018-7895
  Abstract From 1705 until his death in 1715, Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, was embroiled in a series of disputes in his diocese. The origins of the disputes lie in Burnet’s support for the toleration of religious dissent. But the disputes spread into the issue of the legitimacy of the Glorious Revolution and resistance to tyrants. The disputes provide an insight into the ways in which provincial and national controversies interacted. The actions of the mob, the electorate, the clergy and tract writers of all persuasions in London and Salisbury were the cause and consequence of this complex interplay of national and local identities. Salisbury was in some ways a microcosm of the issues that confronted people in the quarter century after 1688, but in the intensity of the conflict it was unique.
  
• Gibson W, '"Large and Handsome Volumes": Early Owners of Benjamin Hoadly's Works'
  Quaerendo 46 (4) (2016) pp.329-360
  ISSN: 0014-9527 eISSN: 1570-0690
  Abstract
  This article examines the sale of Benjamin Hoadly's Works in 1773 and the purchasers of them. Benjamin Hoadly (1676-1761) was a highly controversial Anglican bishop who sparked two major theological controversies, so his Works were principally theological polemic pieces. The Works were printed in a large paper and regular folio issues. This article shows the ways in which the two issues were differentiated which has hitherto been unclear. The article also traces through ESTC the first individual and institutional purchasers and owners of the Works. Such reconstruction recovers the nature of book purchasing in the eighteenth century. The purchase of Hoadly’s Works was motivated by a combination of theological and political principles, bibliographic goals and admiration of Hoadly. The article contributes to our understanding of book purchases in the eighteenth century.
  
  Website 
• Gibson W, 'Tory anti-exclusionism in church and state: Richard Thompson of Bristol in 1678–85'
  Seventeenth Century 31 (3) (2016) pp.357-374
  ISSN: 0268-117X
  Abstract This article examines the career of Richard Thompson, briefly dean of Bristol in 1685, as an example of a clergyman of Tory royalist and anti-exclusion principles. Thompson’s public attack on the Popish plot and impugning of the exclusionist cause led to his attempted impeachment by the House of Commons in December 1680. Only the prorogation of parliament in January prevented his impeachment. Nevertheless, Thompson remained a figure strongly associated with the anti-exclusion cause in Bristol. His fractious behaviour brought him to the attention of Archbishop Sancroft on a number of occasions. But this did not prevent his advancement to a prebend and then the deanery of Bristol. His sermon during the Monmouth rebellion is one of the highest expressions of Tory theology. Thompson’s extreme High Tory position therefore also serves to illustrate the spectrum of views within Toryism in the late 1670s and 1680s.Website 
• Gibson W, 'John Trusler and the Culture of Sermons in Late Eighteenth-Century England'
  Journal of Ecclesiastical History 66 (2) (2015) pp.302-319
  ISSN: 0022-0469 eISSN: 1469-7637
  Abstract

  Using John Trusler's unpublished memoirs, this article seeks to reconsider his trade in printed sermons using imitation manuscript print, which clergy could pass off as their own. While the trade smacks of corruption and dishonesty, and attracted considerable scorn for Trusler, it was in some respects a reflection of late eighteenth-century sermon culture. Trusler's defence to Bishop Terrick of London of trading in imitation manuscript sermons suggests that he was not embarrassed by the enterprise. Trusler's talents as a preacher were considerable, but Victorian Britain came to regard his commerce as reprehensible.
  

  Website 
• Gibson W T, 'John Trusler and the Sermon Culture of Late Eighteenth Century England'
  Journal of Ecclesiastical History 66 (02) (2015) pp.302-319
  ISSN: 0022-0469
  Abstract

  Using John Trusler's unpublished memoirs, this article seeks to reconsider his trade in printed sermons using imitation manuscript print, which clergy could pass off as their own. While the trade smacks of corruption and dishonesty, and attracted considerable scorn for Trusler, it was in some respects a reflection of late eighteenth-century sermon culture. Trusler's defence to Bishop Terrick of London of trading in imitation manuscript sermons suggests that he was not embarrassed by the enterprise. Trusler's talents as a preacher were considerable, but Victorian Britain came to regard his commerce as reprehensible.

  Website 
• Gibson W, 'Mr Wesley's Business': dissenters, debt and distress in 1705'
  Historical Research 83 (222) (2010) pp.635-648
  ISSN: 0950-3471 eISSN: 1468-2281
  Abstract Employing hitherto unused archives from the Bodleian Library, this article seeks to explain the circumstances in which Samuel Wesley was imprisoned in 1705. Methodist historians have tended to see Wesley as unfortunate, and some historians have regarded Wesley's debts as evidence of his incompetence with money. However, this article views the imprisonment from the perspective of Wesley's controversy with dissenters and of his engagement with convocation and the Lincolnshire election. In this context it is possible to see that he was almost certainly the victim of low church whig conspiracies to put pressure on him and attempt to silence his attacks on dissenters and the whigs.Website 
• Gibson W, 'Samuel Wesley's conformity reconsidered'
  47 (2) (2009) pp.68-83
  ISSN: 261238.0 eISSN: 261238.0
  
• Gibson W, 'The limits of the confessional state: electoral religion in the reign of Charles II'
  Historical Journal 51 (1) (2008) pp.27-47
  ISSN: 0018-246X eISSN: 1469-5103
  Abstract From 1670 there were sustained attempts to use excommunication as a tool to influence parliamentary elections. Excommunicants could not qualify for membership of municipal corporations under the Test and Corporation Acts. Towards the end of Charles II's reign, as fear of protestant dissent grew, excommunication was, however, used to deny voters the right to exercise their franchise. There was a concerted attempt, encouraged by the king, to ensure the election of a compliant tory parliament through the use of excommunication in elections in borough seats. The attempt, reliant on bishops and spiritual courts, represented the high water mark of the"confessional state" . Of questionable legality, the exclusion of excommunicants from the right to vote was short-lived. The accession of James II, and his Catholicizing policies, created new alliances between Anglicans and dissenters and eroded the willingness of bishops to use excommunication as an electoral instrument. In 1689, the Toleration Act removed the principal cause of the persecution of dissent. The use of excommunication, nevertheless, represented an important attempt to unite the church and state for electoral reasons.Website 
• Gibson W, 'Episcopal lands at Llanarthney : correspondence from the Huntington Library '
  Carmarthenshire Antiquary 44 (2008) pp.125-127
  ISSN: 0142-1867
  Abstract No abstract available
• Gibson W, 'Dissenters, Anglicans and the Glorious Revolution: the Collection of Cases'
  Seventeenth Century 22 (2007) pp.168-184
  ISSN: 0268-117X
  
• Gibson W, 'William Talbot and Church Parties 1688 - 1730'
  Journal of Ecclesiastical History 58 (1) (2007) pp.26-48
  ISSN: 0022-0469
  Abstract It has been assumed by historians that the High and Low Church parties in the early eighteenth-century Church of England were exclusive and homogenous groups. However the life and career of Bishop William Talbot, as with a number of other clergy, raises questions about these assumptions. Though Talbot was ostensibly a Latitudinarian Whig, he embraced some clear High Church principles, including those on the Trinity and on the sacerdotal nature of the priesthood. Talbot also repeatedly opposed the idea of a split between High and Low Churchmen, which had its origin in political abuse rather than theological principle. This study of Talbot" s thought suggests that churchmen were able to embrace both High and Low Church principles and thus demands a reconceptualisation of the presumption of exclusivity in the two parties. Historians therefore need to revise their views of the Church parties of the early eighteenth century and to recognise that they existed as overlapping and complementary tendencies around Anglican core values rather than as exclusive and opposing bi-polar structures.Website 
• Gibson W, 'Brother of the more famous Benjamin: The theology of Archbishop John Hoadly'
  Anglican and Episcopal History 75 (3) (2006) pp.401-422
  ISSN: 0896-8039
  
• Gibson W, 'The persecution of Thomas Emlyn, 1703'1705'
  48 (3) (2006) pp.525-539
  ISSN: 2040-4867 eISSN: 2040-4867
  Abstract No abstract availableWebsite 
• Gibson W, 'The Persecution of Thomas Emlyn, 1703-1705'
  Journal of Church and State 48 (2006) pp.525-539
  ISSN: 0021-969X
  

Book chapters

• Gibson W, 'Thomas Frederick Tout at Lampeter: the making of a Historian' in Rosenthal J, Barron C (ed.), Thomas Frederick Tout (1855–1929): Refashioning History in the Twentieth Century, Institute of Historical Research (2019)
  ISBN: 9781909646995 eISBN: 9781912702022
  Website 
• Gibson W T, 'George Whitefield and the Church of England' in Hammond G, Ceri Jones D (ed.), George Whitefield: Life, Context and Legacy, Oxford University Press (2016)
  ISBN: 9780198747079
  
• , 'Être aumônier de la noblesse en Angleterre, à l’époque du duc Léopold de Lorraine' in Les chapell es princières, institutions au service du prince, et leurs avatars contemporains, Éditions du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques (2015)
  ISBN: 978-2-7355-0843-3
  
• , '‘The most glorious enterprises have been achiev’d’: The Restoration Diocese of St Davids 1660–1730' in Religion and Society in the Diocese of St Davids, 1485-2011, Ashgate (2015)
  ISBN: 978-1-4049-4772-6
  
• , 'Introduction: Approaches to the History of Religion in St Davids Diocese 1485–2011' in Religion and Society in the Diocese of St Davids, 1485-2011, Ashgate (2015)
  ISBN: 978-1-4049-4772-6
  
• , 'Reflections on Johnson's Churchmanship' in Samuel Johnson: New Contexts for a New Century, Huntington Library Press (2014)
  ISBN: 978-0-87328-259-8
  
• Gibson W T, 'Reflections on Johnson's Churchmanship' in Samuel Johnson: New Contexts for a New Century, Huntington Library Press (2014)
  ISBN: 978-0-87328-259-8
  Website 
• , 'THE CULTURAL AGENCY OF CHAPLAINS IN PATRONAGE: SAMUEL WILLES AND LORD HUNTINGDON, 1660-1684' in Chaplains in Early Modern England, Manchester University Press (2013)
  ISBN: 978-0-7190-8834-6
  
• Gibson W, 'The British sermon 1689-1901: quantities, performance, and culture' in The Oxford Handbook of the British Sermon 1689-1901, Oxford University Press (2012)
  ISBN: 978-0-19-958359-1
  
• Cornwall R , Gibson W, 'Introduction' in Religion, politics and dissent, 1660'1832 : essays in honour of James E. Bradley, Ashgate (2010)
  ISBN: 9780754663843
  
• Gibson W, 'Dissenters, Anglicans and elections after the Toleration Act, 1689-1710' in Religion, politics and dissent, 1660-1832 : essays in honour of James E. Bradley, Ashgate (2010)
  ISBN: 9780754663843
  Website 
• Gibson W, 'Introduction' in The Original and institution of civil government, discss'd by Benjamin Hoadly, AMS Press (2007)
  ISBN: 9780404648510
  Abstract This new edition of Hoadly's book brings it for the first time to a widespread audience. The introduction considers Hoadly's work in the context of his other publications and his career as an Anglican bishop. It also provides a fresh evaluation of Hoadly's Original and Institution of Civil Government and the place of that text in the history of Britain and America.
• Gibson W, 'Attitudinarian equivocation: George Smalridge's churchmanship' in Religious Identities in Britain, 1660'1832 , Ashgate (2005)
  ISBN: 9780754632092
  Abstract Through a series of studies focusing on individuals, this volume highlights the continued importance of religion and religious identity on British life throughout the long eighteenth century. From the Puritan divine and scholar Roger Morrice, active at the beginning of the period, to Dean Shipley who died in the reign of George IV, the individuals chosen chart a shifting world of enlightenment and revolution whilst simultaneously reaffirming the tremendous influence that religion continued to bring to bear. For, whilst religion has long enjoyed a central role in the study of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British history, scholars of religion in the eighteenth century have often felt compelled to prove their subject's worth. Sitting uneasily at the juncture between the early modern and modern worlds, the eighteenth century has perhaps provided historians with an all-too-convenient peg on which to hang the origins of a secular society, in which religion takes a back-seat to politics, science and economics. Yet, as this study makes clear, in spite of the undoubted innovations and developments of this period, religion continued to be a prime factor in shaping society and culture. By exploring important connections between religion, politics and identity, and asking broad questions about the character of religion in Britain, the contributions put into context many of the big issues of the day. From the beliefs of the Jacobite rebels, to the notions of liberty and toleration, to the attitudes to the French Wars, the book makes an unambiguous and forceful statement about the centrality of religion to any proper understanding of British public life between the Restoration and the Reform Bill.
• Gibson W, 'Prelates, Politics and Conflict' in Gibson W (ed.), The Anglican Episcopate 1689-1800, University of Wales Press ()
  

Reviews

• Gibson W, review of Making Toleration: the Repealers and the Glorious Revolution, in Journal of Religious History 37 (2013) pp.421-422ISSN: 0022-4227
  Website 
• Gibson W, review of The Eighteenth-century Church in Britain, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History 63 (2012) pp.178-180ISSN: 0022-0469
  Website 
• Gibson W, review of Shapers of English Calvinism, 1660-1714: Variety, Persistence, and Transformation., in Journal of British Studies 51 (2012) pp.478-480ISSN: 0021-9371
  Website 
• Gibson W, review of The Church in the Long Eighteenth Century, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History 63 (2012) pp.632-632ISSN: 0022-0469
  Website 
• Gibson W, review of Devil in Disguise: Deception, Delusion and Fanaticism in the Early English Enlightenment, in Journal of Religious History 36 (2012) pp.420-421ISSN: 0022-4227
  Website 
• Gibson W, review of Anti-arminians: the Anglican Reformed Tradition From Charles II to George I, in Journal of Anglican Studies 9 (2011) pp.120-121ISSN: 1740-3553 eISSN: 1745-5278
  Website 
• Gibson W, review of Dissenting Histories: Religious Divisions and the Politics of Memory in Eighteenth-century England, in Journal of British Studies 49 (2010) pp.454-456ISSN: 0021-9371
  
• Gibson W, review of Church Life in Hereford and Oxford. a Study of Two Sees, 1660-1760, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History 61 (2010) pp.196-197ISSN: 0022-0469
  Website 
• Gibson W, review of The Church of England and the Bangorian Controversy, 1716-1721, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History 59 (2008) pp.360-361ISSN: 0022-0469
  Website 
• Gibson W, review of A Glorious Work in the World. Welsh Methodism and the International Evangelical Revival, 1735-1750., in Journal of Ecclesiastical History 56 (2005) pp.612-613ISSN: 0022-0469
  Website 
• Gibson W, review of The Church of England in Industrialising Society: the Lancashire Parish of Whalley in the Eighteenth Century., in Albion 36 (2005) pp.737-739ISSN: 0095-1390
  

Membership of professional bodies

Director of the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History

Consultancy

2017-18 Erasmus-funded Visiting Professor, University of Sassari, Sardinia.

2019-20 Visiting Professor, University of Clermont-Auvergne, France.

Conferences

Conferences

Recent papers

• 2017 Invited speaker at the Pusey House Anglicanism 1689-1900 seminar.

  2017 Invited speaker at Nottingham University Conference on the History of Religion and Sexuality.

  2017 Invited keynote speaker: ‘Spiritual Networks: Religion in Literature and the Arts from 1700’ Martin-Luther-University, Halle-Wittenberg.

  2017 Invited speaker at the Institute of Historical Research ‘Refashioning History in the Twentieth Century’ on Thomas Frederick Tout.

  2017 Invited speaker at the University of San Diego Humanities Institute: ‘The Origins of American Rights in a British Crisis in the 1680s’

  2017 Invited speaker, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego.

  2018 Invited Plenary Speaker Sermons Studies Conference, Montreal.

  2019 Invited Plenary Speaker Religion and the Enlightenment, Martin-Luther University, Halle-Wittenburg

  2019 Invited Speaker at the Society of Antiquaries meeting, November.

  2019 Invited Pleanary Speaker Church and Public Space Conference, Clermont-Avergne University, France.

Career history

• Teaching in secondary, further and higher education
• Inspection roles in HMI, Ofsted and ALI