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Nicholas Cumming Faculty Profile

Nicholas Cumming

Assistant Professor of Humanities
Humanities and Teacher Education Division, Seaver College
CAC 103B

Biography

Dr. Cumming earned his PhD in theology and religious studies, with a specialty in the history of early modern Christianity at King's College London. His dissertation was entitled "The Life of Francis Turretin and His Impact on the Protestant Reformed Tradition", which passed with “no corrections”, the highest possible outcome. He earned his MDiv, MS, and his BA at Pepperdine University. Trained in both history and historical theology, Dr. Cumming has taught classes on Western Civilization, World History, Late-Medieval Church History, and the history of Christianity in the United Kingdom 1500-Present, among other classes, at Pepperdine University, Lipscomb University, King's College London, and Quinnipiac University. His research explores the history of early modern Europe, particularly the ecclesial and political contexts of seventeenth-century Geneva. Dr. Cumming has presented papers at the American Society of Church History, the Sixteenth Century Society, the Reformation Research Consortium, and the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. His first book, Francis Turretin (1623-87) and the Reformed Tradition was published in the St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History Series in 2020.

Education

  • PhD, Theology and Religious Studies, King's College London 2016
  • Master of Divinity, Pepperdine University, 2013
  • Master of Science, Ministry, Pepperdine University, 2013
  • Bachelor of Arts, Telecommunications, Pepperdine University, 2010

 

  • “Foreword”, in Fraçois Turrettini, Institución de Teología Eléntica (Dort Publications, 2022).
  • Francis Turretin and the Reformed Tradition, St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History (Brill, 2020).
  • "'Sin as Punishment of Sin': Francis Turretin's (1623-87) Reformed Doctrine of Sin." Reformation and Renaissance Review 22.1 (2019), pp. 1-16.
  • "Finger on the Pulse: Armenian Identity and Religiosity in Southern California," co-authored with Dyron B. Daughrity, in A. Agadjanian (ed.), Armenian Christianity Today: Identity Politics and Popular Practice (Ashgate, 2014), pp. 233-52.
  • "Predestination in World Christianity," Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (De Gruyter, forthcoming).
  • "Punishment in World Christianity," Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (De Gruyter, forthcoming).
  • "Real Presence in World Christianity," Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (De Gruyter, forthcoming).

Book Reviews:

  • Gary W. Jenkins, Calvin's Tormentors: Understanding the Conflicts that Shaped the Reformer, in The Stone-Campbell Journal 22.2 (2019).
  • Martin Heale, The Abbots and Priors of Late Medieval and Reformation England, in Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, 86.2 (2017).
  • American Academy of Religion, Member
  • American Society of Church History, Member

  • Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Member

  • Calvin Studies Society, Member

  • Small Conference Grant, King's College London, 2016 

  • Small Research Grant, King's College London, 2014

  • Promising Scholar Award, Stone Campbell Journal, 2013

  • "'This Just King Died in a Bed of Honor, not of Men, but of God!' Reactions to the Execution of King Charles I in the Republic of Geneva," at the Sixteenth Century Society Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN, October 2022.

  • "Between Evangelical and Enlightened: Religious Communities in Seventeenth-Century Geneva", at the Sixteenth Century Society Annual Conference, San Diego, California, October 2021.
  • "Between Evangelical and Enlightened: Religious Communities in Seventeenth-Century Geneva", at the Sixteenth Century Society Annual Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, October 2020. (Postponed due to Covid-19)
  • "Geneva Among the Reformed: The Pastoral, Political, and Academic Contexts of the City of Geneva in the mid-Seventeenth Century", at the Reformation Research Consortium (RefoRC) Annual Conference, Warsaw, Poland, May 2018.
  • "'Our Illustrious Calvin': The Reception and Appeal to John Calvin in Seventeenth-Century Scholastic Theology," at the Reformation Research Consortium (RefoRC) Annual Conference, Wittenberg, Germany, May 2017.
  • "'As Commonly Asserted by the Orthodox': The Nature of Reformed Self-Understanding in Seventeenth-Century Geneva," at the American Society of Church History/American Historical Association Winter Meeting, Denver, Colorado, January 2017.
  • "'Sin is Rightly Called the Punishment of Sin': Francis Turretin (1623-87) and the Doctrine of Sin in the Early Modern Reformed Tradition," at the American Society of Church History Spring Meeting, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, April 2016.
  • "'According to His Good Pleasure': Francis Turretin and the Predestination Debates in Seventeenth-Century Geneva," at the European History 1500-1800 Seminar, Institute for Historical Research, University of London, November 2015.

Topics

  • Church History

  • Early Modern History

  • Late-Medieval History

  • Historical Theology

Courses

  • Humanities 111: Ancient and Medieval

  • Humanities 212: Renaissance to Revolutions

  • Religion 301: The Religious History of the American Revolution

  • Religion 301: The History of Christianity in the United Kingdom, 1500 - Present