Newman and Tolkien: The Humility of (Hi)story – Prof. Giuseppe Pezzini

Prof. Giuseppe Pezzini explores the biographical and spiritual connections between Newman and Tolkien, revealing how their shared organic vision of historical development and renewal challenges modern tensions between nostalgia, progress, and Christian identity.

This lecture was given on March 27th, 2025, at University of Edinburgh.

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About the Speakers:

Giuseppe Pezzini is Associate Professor in Latin at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which he joined in 2021, after five beautiful years of teaching in St Andrews (2016–2021), and research fellowships at Magdalen College Oxford (2013–2015) and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2016). He worked as an assistant editor for the Oxford Dictionary of Medieval Latin, and has published especially on Latin language and literature, philosophy of language, and the theory of fiction, ancient and modern. He is the Tolkien Editor for the Journal of Inklings Studies, one the founders of the Oxford Tolkien Network, and the author of many publications on Tolkien, including a forthcoming monograph on Tolkien’s literary theory (Cambridge University Press). He is also a member of the Young Academy of Europe, an Associate Member at the Institute of Theology, Imagination and the Arts at the University of St Andrews, and has published and curated exhibitions on John Henry Newman (2011, 2014) and Oscar Wilde (2015).

Keywords: Birmingham Oratory, Decline And Renewal, Historical Change, J.R.R. Tolkien, John Henry Newman, Organic Vision Of History, Sacred Memory, Seed And Tree Symbolism, Spiritual Influence, Vatican II