A symposium to celebrate the quatercentenary of Lancelot Andrewes' birth, and the centenary of T. S. Eliot's essay.

For Lancelot Andrewes

September 25th 2026 marks the 400th anniversary of Lancelot Andrewes’ death. It also marks the 100th anniversary of an essay by T. S. Eliot which appeared first in the TLS and was later collected into the volume named after it: For Lancelot Andrewes. This essay instigated modern critical interest in Andrewes’ intellectual and imaginative legacy, and is a significant event not just for sermon studies but for the conjunction of modernism and early modernism, and the influence of the renaissance period on the poets and thinkers of the twentieth century and beyond.

This two-day conference, to be held at the Cambridge English Faculty (23rd) and Pembroke College (24th), will invite participants to consider the current state of Andrewes criticism, and to think in new ways about the wider legacies of Eliot’s essay.

Panels will run from c.10 am to 5pm on Wednesday 23rd, and 9 am to 5pm on Thursday 24th. Details and running order to be confirmed shortly. There will also be an exhibition of connected materials from Pembroke's Old Library.

Lunch will be provided onsite for both days.

On the evening of the 23rd there will be a chapel service and drinks reception - kindly sponsored by the Cambridge Quarterly - to which all participants are warmly invited. Due to space contraints, we can sadly only accommodate speakers at the conference dinner that evening.

Keynote speakers: Professor Peter McCullough (Lincoln College, Oxford) and Professor Jeff Dolven (Princeton).

Description supplied by the event organiser.