Simon Kennedy

Dr Simon Kennedy is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland. He holds additional affiliations as a Visiting Fellow at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (Budapest) and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Danube Institute. His expertise spans the history of legal, political, and religious ideas, with a focus on early modern and modern periods. Kennedy completed his PhD at UQ, titled Nature, the fall, and the secularisation of early modern political thought (2019).

His research interests include Reformed Protestantism, the history of political thought, legal history, and constitutional interpretation. Notable publications include Reforming the Law of Nature: The secularisation of political thought, 1532–1689 (Edinburgh UP, 2022) and Against Worldview: reimagining Christian formation as growth in wisdom (Lexham Press, 2024). He has collaborated on studies analyzing Samuel Rutherford’s political theories and the constitutional frameworks of Australia.

Kennedy’s work bridges legal, religious, and historical disciplines, addressing themes like constituent power, resistance theory, and the intersection of theology with governance. He currently supervises PhD candidates in constitutional history and political theology, maintaining availability for further academic mentorship.