Writing

For me, the act of writing is almost the same as thinking, and I tried many years ago to embrace the ‘essay’, both as a genre and in the sense of ‘an attempt’. My academic training was in theology and history, but my working life has drawn me into writing of all kinds, not least as a journalist and preparing practical materials for congregations. The sections below detail a little of this work. (And like much else on the site: the page is still being built.)

Congregational resources

In every community I’ve served in recently, I have developed a formational program. The backbone is Credo, a baptism and confirmation course I co-wrote in 2018 with the Revd Canon Anna Matthews, which I have used since in different contexts: parish, chaplaincy, cathedral. It focuses on the Creeds and basic practices, not only teaching theology but inviting multiple forms of engagement through art, music, poetry, Scripture. Here is an example ‘chapter’ on Liturgy.

I have usually developed a mixture of courses, study days, and reading groups for different ages in collaboration with lay and ordained colleagues.

Activities I have led recently include:

  • a series on the Early Church (‘Praying with the Early Church’, ‘Reading with…’, soon to be followed by ‘Fasting with…’ and ‘Doing Justice with…’)

  • book studies (Henri Nouwen, Spiritual Direction; Paula Gooder, Body; Simon Cuff, Love in Action; Henri Bouteneff, How to Be a Sinner)

  • a range of Bible studies (such as Genesis, Jonah, Isaiah, the Gospels, the Pauline Epistles).

  • retreats for embroiders (collaborating with Suellen Pedley, and writing reflections on ‘Stitching the Cross: the Fleurette’ and ‘Stitching Angels’

Academic work

I teach British and European history, ca. 300-1100, mostly as a ‘tutor’ at Oxford. I continue to work on the intersection of history and theology, including biblical reception. I have a particular interest in medieval manuscripts and little known but influential works of theology from the Early Middle Ages.

I’m finishing a book on the Venerable Bede’s commentary On Luke, and how its economic vision impacted political and ecclesiastical elites, from monks in well-resourced monasteries to bishops, kings, and emperors.

My first monograph was published in 2021 by Brepols, and garnered the 2023 Book Prize of the Ecclesiastical History Society. (Click here to order). Reviewers’ descriptions: ‘Thought-provoking’, ‘absorbing’, ‘a model of a monograph’. It will be an indispensable tool for future work in the history of theology, patristics, and biblical interpretation in the Middle Ages. The homiliary of Paul the Deacon was commissioned by Charlemagne, collected together ‘the best’ and ‘most useful’ writings of the patristic tradition, and became a liturgical collection used throughout Europe.

A selection of articles in progress and published:

  • ‘The volumina noua of St Gall: An early medieval exercise in gathering, compiling, and editing homiliaries’, Medieval Book Collections and their Navigation Charts, ed. René Hernández Vera (De Gruyter, forthcoming).

  • ‘Tracing the borders of authority: Paul the Deacon’s homiliary and the performance of orthodoxy’, in Riccardo Macchioro (ed.), Visions of Authority in the Early Middle Ages, Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia (Turnhout: Brepols, forthcoming).

  • ‘Praying for the Dead in Carolingian Europe: Augustine’s Enchiridion in Paul the Deacon’s homiliary’, Augustine and the Making of Christian Practice, 400-1000, ed. Matthieu Pignot, Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia (Brepols, forthcoming).

  • ‘Biblical commentary and royal patronage in Carolingian Europe’. Medieval Commentary: New Perspectives, ed. Cosima Gillhammer and Audrey Southgate (Boydell and Brewer, forthcoming).

  • ‘The use of Scripture in the histories of Bede,’ The Bible in Ancient Christian Historiography (Berlin: De Gruyter, forthcoming).

  • ‘Race, Christianity: Medieval Times and Reformation Era,’ in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, forthcoming).

  • ‘Hierarchies of knowledge in the writings of the Venerable Bede’, in Lewis Ayres, Michael Champion, and Matthew Crawford (ed.) The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2023).

  • ‘Once or always? The renunciation of wealth among “the poor” and “perfect” in Bede and his successors’, The Churches and Rites of Passage, Studies in Church History (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2023).

  • ‘Tangled roots: The legacy of Christian mastery and anti-racism today’, Practical Theology 15:1-2 (2022), pp. 50-61.

  • Zachary Guiliano, ‘Adelard of Bath,’ ‘Council of Hatfield (679)’, and ‘Erigena’, in F.L. Cross, E.A. Livingstone, and Andrew Louth, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 4th ed. (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2021).

  • Zachary Guiliano, ‘Holy gluttons: Bede and the Carolingians on the pleasures of reading’, in Naama Cohen-Hanegbi and Piroska Nagy (eds.), Pleasure in the Middle Ages. IMR 24 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018), pp. 281-308.

  • Zachary Guiliano, ‘Hincmar of Reims’, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Volume 11: Halah to Hizquni (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2015).

  • Zachary Guiliano, ‘Patristic allegorical preaching as a mimetic technology’, in Guiliano and Partridge (eds.), Preaching and the Theological Imagination, pp. 77-104.

  • Zachary Guiliano, ‘Foreigner, Christianity: Medieval Times and Reformation Era’, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Volume 9: Field to Gennesaret (2014).

  • Zachary Guiliano, ‘The cross in (Pseudo-) Dionysius: pinnacle and pit of revelation’, in Markus Vinzent (ed.), Studia Patristica 68. Volume 16: From the Fifth Century (Greek Writers) (Leuven: Peeters, 2013), pp. 201-214.

  • Zachary Guiliano and Charles Stang, ‘Introduction,’ in Guiliano and Stang (eds.), The Open Body, pp. 1-16.

Journalism

I spent nearly a decade as a journalist, working primarily at The Living Church magazine, but also writing for other outlets like Anglican Communion News Service.

It was a huge privilege to write regularly, review books, work on layout and everything that comes with planning a magazine. But I loved working with dozens of authors on their writing over the course of those years. It’s behind the scenes work, but can be incredibly rewarding.

Some pieces I’m proud of:

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