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Alicia Smith

Alicia has been blogging for Faith in Scholarship since 2016. She completed a doctorate on the prayer practices of medieval solitary recluses in 2020. She lives and works in Oxford.
Faith-in-Scholarship

Learning by example?

This year I have been thinking often about exemplars – figures in history, or fiction, seen as admirable or exemplary in some way. The main reason for this is that I have been moonlighting as the assistant for an Oxford-based discussion group called Ethics through Fiction and Film, which has Read more…

By Alicia Smith, 2 weeksJune 14, 2022 ago
Faith-in-Scholarship

Swallowed up by life

Easter is mysterious. This isn’t a conclusion many come to in our culture today: from a secular point of view, it constitutes only a pleasant, mostly child-oriented spring festival, while even the Christians who continue to celebrate the religious aspect tend to present it primarily as a celebration in the Read more…

By Alicia Smith, 2 monthsApril 18, 2022 ago
Faith-in-Scholarship

Walking in freedom

“I will always obey your law, for ever and ever. I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.” (Psalm 119:44‭-‬45) Academic freedom is a frequent talking point in our times – it’s often seen as under threat, whether it’s the government waging a war against Read more…

By Alicia Smith, 8 monthsOctober 25, 2021 ago
Keep Calm sign
Faith-in-Scholarship

Is Covid history?

A virus in itself, even Covid-19, doesn’t know what effects it can have in our world. It’s simply part of the natural world, part of the domain of the microbiologists. But when a virus sparks a pandemic, then we’re dealing with something a lot more complex – history. When we Read more…

By Alicia Smith, 10 monthsSeptember 6, 2021 ago
St Michael's Mount
Faith-in-Scholarship

Religion in public in the Covid era

In this week’s installment of our series of reflections on the various dimensions of the Covid-19 pandemic, I’m briefly considering the question: how has Covid-19 revealed the religious orientation of our lives? I’m taking this phrase ‘religious orientation’ to mean the ways in which our lives, individually and collectively, are shaped and Read more…

By Alicia Smith, 1 yearMay 24, 2021 ago
Foggy road
Faith-in-Scholarship

One year on: writing from the middle of the story

It’s almost a year since my last post for FiSch, on writing my acknowledgements to my recently completed thesis. Since then I’ve defended and finalised it: anyone who cares to can now download 100,000 words on ‘Anchoritic Prayer in Time‘! Since this is a pandemic year, of course, some things are still Read more…

By Alicia Smith, 1 yearApril 6, 2021 ago
Thank you blocks
Faith-in-Scholarship

Writing acknowledgements: depending on others

Just over a week ago I submitted my doctoral thesis. One of the most enjoyable parts of the final few weeks of this process was writing the acknowledgements. Before sitting down to do this, I had thought to myself: “I’m not going to be one of those people who writes Read more…

By Alicia Smith, 2 yearsApril 20, 2020 ago
Bible on lectern
Faith-in-Scholarship

Solitude and unity: a medieval perspective

Like many of you, I spent yesterday morning, not at church, where I would usually be, but sitting on my sofa at home in front of a laptop, watching a livestream of my pastor preaching to an empty building. In just a week, it seems, everything has changed. The Covid-19 Read more…

By Alicia Smith, 2 yearsMarch 22, 2020 ago
Hands clasped in prayer
Faith-in-Scholarship

Reading and praying

I’ve written before on FiSch, as well as elsewhere, about my research on prayer. Today I want to look at a particular idea which jumped out at me recently, speaking to my own life and practice as well as to the medieval recluses it was meant for. This is the simple statement in Ancrene Read more…

By Alicia Smith, 2 yearsFebruary 17, 2020 ago
Desert path
Faith-in-Scholarship

A poem for a new year

As 2019 has come to a close, and a new decade is beginning, I have been thinking about a poem by Emily Dickinson – one of my favourites, for its enigmatic imagery and its expression of longing: ‘I did not reach Thee’. Here is the first stanza (you can read Read more…

By Alicia Smith, 2 yearsJanuary 6, 2020 ago

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Recent posts
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Latest comments
  1. Richard Gunton on Learning by example?June 20, 2022

    Thanks for this glimpse into literary circles, Alicia, and the provocation to reflect on conscious and subconscious ways in which…

  2. Hugh Grear on The Inspiring Story of August Francke who transformed a German CityJune 1, 2022

    Good story, but short! We all need to to find that one golden recipe! However, with the recipe comes the…

  3. Evan on The Inspiring Story of August Francke who transformed a German CityMay 31, 2022

    A good example of how to preach through our actions. Great stuff as always, Mark!

  4. Gillian Adsett Cameron on Jimmy Savile’s WorldviewMay 31, 2022

    Watching the Netflix doco on Jimmy Savile I was shocked to hear his views on freedom: "- Interviewer: what would…

  5. Bruce Wearne on Jimmy Savile’s WorldviewMay 19, 2022

    Well, Mark, thanks. Yes edgy story this. You'd think that hearing it, the victims of such criminal deeds and such…

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