Hugh McLeod, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Birmingham, delivered a lecture titled “New Paths to Salvation in Modern Europe: A Religion of Sport?” during the conference The Dynamics of Secularism, (Anti)Clericalism, Theology, and Science in Southeastern and Central Europe, organized by the Institute for Advanced Studies (INS) at the University of Montenegro on 28 September 2024.

McLeod’s distinguished career includes serving as President of the Ecclesiastical History Society and the Commission Internationale d’Histoire Ecclésiastique Comparée (CIHEC), along with his election as a Fellow of the British Academy. His editorial leadership in the Routledge series, Christianity and Society in the Modern World, has been instrumental in shaping the study of ecclesiastical history and religious culture.

In his lecture, McLeod examined the phenomenon of modern sport through a religious framework, with particular emphasis on how sports clubs and associations in the 21st century have taken on sociopolitical functions historically linked to the church in the European context. As a leading authority on the history of religion in Western Europe and North America during the 19th and 20th centuries, McLeod has authored numerous books and publications on secularism, the intersection of religion and politics, and sociological trends in religious affiliation in the modern world.

The lecture was part of the project Beyond the Anticlerical Paradigm: Rethinking Secularism in Contemporary Montenegro, supported by a grant from the University of Oxford.