Staff profile

I have been a church historian for the past quarter of a century, working in fields as diverse as Mormon history, Roman Catholicism in the Vatican II era and Anglicanism in English, North American and African contexts. I am currently engaged upon a study of Kelham Theological College, the motherhouse of the Society of the Sacred Mission, and its impact on the ministry of the Church of England. I have served as a historian expert witness in the United States and have been a lecturer with Lindisfarne College of Theology. Since October 2024 my wife and I have operated a wool shop in Durham City. 

An Altar on the Edge of the World

In October 2025 I was commissioned by the Trustees of the Society of the Sacred Mission to write a history of Kelham Theological College, whose early commitment to the training of Anglican ordinands from working class backgrounds gave it a unique role in Anglican theological formation. For all the singularity of its founder, Herbert Hamilton Kelly, other members of the Kelham community played a significant role in 20th century liturgical renewal and ecumenical dialogue, as the contributions of Gabriel Hebert (before his translation to Australia) and George Every make clear.  

The benefits of such a history are threefold: for the Society of the Sacred Mission, as an academically rigorous yet inspiring account of the motherhouse that gave rise to a generation of Church of England clergy; for scholars of seminary education – Anglican and otherwise – to understand better Kelham pedagogy and its role in the shaping of Anglican ministry; and for the Church of England, as it still struggles adequately to shape parish ministry to the needs of the present day.

Please visit the Herbert Kelly Institute for Anglican Religious Life for further information.

• 2015 - 2025: Royal Historical Society:

Authored book

• The road to renewal: Victor Joseph Reed and Oklahoma Catholicism 1905-1971
  
  Bonner, J. (2008). The road to renewal: Victor Joseph Reed and Oklahoma Catholicism 1905-1971. Catholic University of America Press.

Chapter in book

• The United States of America
  
  Bonner, J. (2016). The United States of America. In D. Goodhew (Ed.), Growth and Decline in the Anglican Communion: 1980 to the Present (pp. 227-248). Routledge.
• Who will guard the guardians? Church government and the ecclesiology of the people of God, 1965-1969
  
  Bonner, J. (2013). Who will guard the guardians? Church government and the ecclesiology of the people of God, 1965-1969. In J. Bonner, M. Fraser Connolly, & C. Denny (Eds.), Empowering the People of God: Catholic Action before and after Vatican II. (pp. 222-248). Fordham University Press.

Edited book

• Costly Communion: Ecumenical Initiative and Sacramental Strife in the Anglican Communion
  
  Chapman, M. D., & Bonner, J. (Eds.). (2019). Costly Communion: Ecumenical Initiative and Sacramental Strife in the Anglican Communion. Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004388680

Journal Article

• The limits of acceptable behaviour: the Arundel Affair and the Social Gospel in Progressive Pittsburgh
  
  Bonner, J. (2009). The limits of acceptable behaviour: the Arundel Affair and the Social Gospel in Progressive Pittsburgh. Western Pennsylvania History., 92(2), 50-61.
• State, Church and Moral Order: The Mormon Response to the New Deal, in Orem, Utah, 1933-40
  
  Bonner, J. (2002). State, Church and Moral Order: The Mormon Response to the New Deal, in Orem, Utah, 1933-40. Journal of Mormon History, 28(2), 81-103.

Monograph

• Called Out of Darkness Into Marvelous Light. A History of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, 1750-2006
  
  Bonner, J. (2009). Called Out of Darkness Into Marvelous Light. A History of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, 1750-2006. Wipf and Stock.

Other (Print)

• Missionary Anglicanism Redux: A New Paradigm?
  
  Bonner, J. (in press). Missionary Anglicanism Redux: A New Paradigm? The Living Church.