Dr Renie Chow Choy is Tutor and Lecturer in Church History at St Mellitus College. She comes from Hong Kong and Canada, has studied in the U.S., and obtained her doctoral degree from University of Oxford. She has published on various aspects of early medieval Christianity, and is the author of Intercessory Prayer and the Monastic Ideal in the Time of the Carolingian Reforms (Oxford University Press, 2016). Her latest book is Ancestral Feeling: Postcolonial Thoughts on Western Christian Heritage (SCM Press, 2021). She is currently leading a participatory history project called ‘London’s Iconic Churches: Inclusive Interpretations of Christian Heritage’, funded by Durham University. Renie has three children, has served as an elected governor at two primary schools, and attends St Alban the Martyr Church in Holborn, London.

Renie is Principal Investigator in a research project called ‘London’s Iconic Churches: Inclusive Interpretations of Christian Heritage’, funded by Durham University and in collaboration with Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, and Southwark Cathedral. The project seeks to enrich interpretations about London’s most iconic churches through the stories of individuals whose Christian identity is tied to the history of colonialism and migration. We are seeking participants. To join, please visit the project website.

Books

• Ancestral Feeling: Postcolonial Thoughts on Western Christian Heritage (London: SCM Press, 2021).
• Intercessory Prayer and the Monastic Ideal in the Time of the Carolingian Reforms, Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016)

Articles

• 'Intercession' in Andrew Irving and Daniel DiCenso, eds., Medieval Latin Liturgy: A Research Guide (Brill, in preparation)
• 'The Formulation of Prayer for the Formation of Faith in the Early Middle Ages', c. 700-900', in A. Cocksworth and J. McDowell, eds., T&T Clark Companion to Christian Prayer (London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming)
• ‘Mediator: Medieval Christianity and Reformation Christianity', in Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, forthcoming)
• 'Cathedral and Monastic: Applying Baumstark's Categories to the Carolingian Divine Office', in R. Kramer, E. Kurdziel, and G. Ward, eds., Categorising the Church: Monastic Communities, Canonical Clergy and Episcopal Authority in the Carolingian World (780-840) (Turnhout: Brepols, forthcoming)
• ‘Praying by the Rules: Legislating Intercessory Prayer in Carolingian Monastic Reform’, in K. Pansters and A. Plunkett-Latimer, eds., Shaping Stability: The Normation and Formation of Religious Life in the Middle Ages, Disciplina Monastica (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), pp. 69-88
• “‘The brother who may wish to pray by himself’ : Sense of Self in Carolingian Prayers of Private Devotion’, in S. Bhattacharji, R. Williams, and D. Mattos, eds., Prayer and Thought in Monastic Tradition: Essays in Honour of Sr Benedicta Ward (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), pp. 101-20
• ‘The Deposit of Monastic Faith: The Carolingians on the Essence of Monasticism’, in P. Clarke and C. Methuen, ed., The Church on its Past, Studies in Church History 49 (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 2013), pp. 71-83
• ‘Christian Letter-Writing: Seeking Meaning Behind Epistolary Clichés’, in P. Clarke and C. Methuen, ed., The Church and Literature, Studies in Church History 48 (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 2012), pp. 1-11
• 'Intercession' in Andrew Irving and Daniel DiCenso, eds., Medieval Latin Liturgy: A Research Guide (Brill, forthcoming)

Other

• Contributions to A. Louth, ed., Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 4th Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming)
• Contributor to the Hildemar Project which provides an English translation of Hildemar of Corbie's Commentary on the Rule of Benedict

• Doctor of Philosophy (University of Oxford)
• Master of Arts in Church History (Trinity International University)
• Master of Arts in Education (Columbia University)
• Bachelor of Arts in History and English (Cornell University)
• Associate of the Royal Conservatory with Honours in Piano Performance (Royal Conservatory of Music)

• Introduction to Church History (module leader)
• Foundations of Christian Worship
• Spirituality and Discipleship
• Ecclesiology
• Focus on Church History (module leader)
• Spirituality
• Research and Reflection: Resources and Methods

• Medieval monasticism
• Medieval liturgy; liturgical history
• Christian historiography