I am a historian primarily of early modern and modern Europe, with a special focus on Christian culture, and I serve as a Professor of History at Christendom College in Front Royal, Va. My writing and teaching hover around the challenges of living in modernity, both historically and in the present day. My current research focuses on the theology, spirituality, and culture of the Anglican patrimony, especially in relation to the Ordinariates in the Catholic Church. My earlier writing explored historical cultures of vocation, especially young people's choices of a state of life (marriage, the clerical state, or religious vows) during the seventeenth century. My first book thus provided a window into religious experience as related to such issues as lay vocation, the role of parents in their children’s path to adulthood, and the relationship of individual spiritual liberty to the spiritual common good.