Edward Robert Norman (born 22 November 1938) is an ecclesiastical historian and former Church of England priest. From 1999 to 2004, he was Canon Chancellor of York Minster. He was educated at Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he received an Open Scholarship.
Norman was educated at Chatham House Grammar School, Ramsgate, Kent, and the Monoux School Walthamstow. He went up to Selwyn College, Cambridge, on an Open Scholarship.[1]
Norman lectured in history at the University of Cambridge for many years. He was a fellow of Selwyn College (from 1962 to 1964) before moving to Jesus College, Cambridge, to take up a similar position. Today, he is an emeritus fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge.[2]
He was dean of Peterhouse for 17 years and then dean and chaplain at Christ Church College, Canterbury. He was also professor of history at the University of York. He is a member of the conservative-leaning Peterhouse school of history and was associated with the influential Cambridge Right, along with Roger Scruton and Maurice Cowling. On 7 October 2012, he was received into the Catholic Church by way of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.[3]
Norman was the BBC Reith Lecturer in 1978. For his series of six radio lectures, titled "Christianity and the World", he discussed the relationship between religion and politics. Margaret Thatcher once invited him to Chequers, although Norman insists he is not a Thatcherite and says he is "appalled by the results of naked capitalism".[4] Norman's book Church and Society in Modern England, published a year after Thatcher's election as Conservative leader, argued that Christianity and Conservatism were natural allies based on the moral superiority of the free market. The free market, Norman argued, left the individual responsible for their choices rather than dependent on state welfare, which rendered people "moral cripples". Thatcher exclaimed: "Dr Norman, you are a prophet".[5]