McAdam Publishes "Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Religious Toleration" with University of Toronto Press
University of Lethbridge English professor Ian McAdam has published a new book with University of Toronto Press: Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Religious Toleration (2025).
McAdam’s book argues that the plays of Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare contain more theological nuance—and more openness to religious difference—than they have usually been credited with.
The study builds on the author’s long-standing interest in the interplay of literature, identity, and belief. His earlier works, The Irony of Identity: Self and Imagination in the Drama of Christopher Marlowe (1999) and Magic and Masculinity in Early Modern English Drama (2009), explored the imaginative strategies and cultural pressures shaping early modern theatre. This third book shifts the focus to the possibilities of toleration in a period marked by sectarian division and censorship.
At the centre of the book is a reappraisal of Marlowe. Traditionally treated as a provocateur and heretic, Marlowe emerges here as a playwright whose works exhibit what McAdam describes as “nuanced religiosity.” His controversial depictions of belief and unbelief are framed as imaginative tests of Protestant doctrines—particularly the question of divine grace—that preoccupied writers and theologians of the late sixteenth century. Shakespeare, in turn, is shown to engage closely with these same currents, often transforming Marlowe’s radical theological explorations into subtler but still probing dramatic forms.
By reading these playwrights side by side, McAdam uncovers a deeper intertextual dialogue that extends beyond style or theatrical technique. The book suggests that Marlowe and Shakespeare together illuminate how drama could register, and even foster, early stirrings of religious tolerance in a climate of surveillance and persecution.
McAdam has taught at the University of Lethbridge since 1995, focusing primarily on Renaissance and seventeenth-century studies. His scholarly contributions have been recognized nationally and internationally, with major funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), as well as awards for teaching and research. His first book was honoured by the Marlowe Society of America, and his second has been widely reviewed in leading journals. Beyond his own publications, he has served as Vice-President of the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies, edited for Marlowe Studies: An Annual, and acted as referee and assessor for numerous scholarly bodies.
For further details on Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Religious Toleration, visit the publisher’s website.