Sarah Irving-Stonebraker

Biography

Dr. Sarah Irving Stonebraker is an intellectual historian of early modern Britain with a particular interest in the intersections of theology, natural philosophy, and historical writing. She was awarded her BA with First Class Honours and the University Medal from the University of Sydney, and her PhD in History from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Commonwealth Scholar at King's College. She then held a Junior Research Fellowship in History at Wolfson College, Oxford University.

Her first book, Natural Science and the Origins of the British Empire (London: 2008, reprinted 2016) was awarded the Royal Society of Literature and Jerwood Foundation Prize for Non-fiction. Her most recent book is Priests of History: Stewarding the Past in an Ahistoric Age (Zondervan/HarperCollins, 2024), which was awarded The Gospel Coalition's 2024 Book of the Year (Culture Category) and shortlisted for Australian Christian Book of the Year.

In 2026 she is a Visiting Scholar at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge University, and an Academic Visitor for Michaelmas term at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University.

Academic biography

Research topics

Early modern intellectual history

Philosophy of history

History of early modern science and Christianity