Miri Rubin

Religion and Culture: A Historian’s Tale is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary University of London.

After behind-the-scenes insights into Miri Rubin’s career path which led her from chemistry to working in an orthopaedic hospital to studying medieval history with a ‘cultural anthropologist” persuasion to the subject of medieval Christianity, this wide-ranging conversation covers several books that Miri Rubin has written, including The Life and Passion of William of Norwich; Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary; Emotion and Devotion: The Meaning of Mary in Medieval Religious Cultures; The Middle Ages: A Very Short Introduction; and Cities of Strangers: Making Lives in Medieval Europe.

This carefully-edited book includes an introduction, Cultural Contact, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter:

  1. Historical Beginnings – From Jerusalem to Cambridge
  2. Life on the Ground –  Hope, human agency and hemorrhoids
  3. William of Norwich – Fabricating hatred
  4. Mother of God – An ambitious project
  5. Doing History – Then, now and in the future



Available in electronic format on all major booksellers, including:



Religion and Culture: A Historian’s Tale is also part of the five-part Ideas Roadshow CollectionConversations About Religion, which is available in hardcover, paperback and electronic format.