Professor Jane Dawson's book has been shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish History Book of the Year award

The Saltire Society and its members believe that culture is at the heart of who we are as individuals, as a community, as a country. We care deeply about that aspect of our lives and work tirelessly to promote all that's best about it. We are inclusive in outlook, international in our perspective and independent in our views.

The School of Divinity are proud to announce that Professor Dawson's latest book "John Knox" has been shortlisted for this year's Scottish History Book of the Year award.

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John Knox statue and Professor Jane Dawson
copyright: andrewobrien.co.uk

Professor Dawson has written the definitive life of John Knox, a leader of the Protestant Reformation in sixteenth-century Scotland. Based in large part on previously unavailable sources, including the recently discovered papers of Knox’s close friend and colleague Christopher Goodman, Dawson’s biography challenges the traditionally held stereotype of this founder of the Presbyterian denomination as a strident and misogynist religious reformer whose influence rarely extended beyond Scotland. She maintains instead that John Knox relied heavily on the support of his “godly sisters” and conferred as well as argued with Mary, Queen of Scots. He was a proud member of the European community of Reformed Churches and deeply involved in the religious Reformations within England, Ireland, France, Switzerland, and the Holy Roman Empire. Casting a surprising new light on the public and private personas of a highly complex, difficult, and hugely compelling individual, Dawson’s fascinating study offers a vivid, fully rounded portrait of this renowned Scottish preacher and prophet who had a seismic impact on religion and society. 

FInd out more about "John Knox" by Prof Dawson on the Yale University Press website: http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300114737

Or read more about the 2015 Saltire Literary Awards Shortlists:  http://www.saltiresociety.org.uk/awards/literature/