[Anglican Journal] Oxford University Press in the United Kingdom will publish a five-volume series about Anglicanism, an undertaking that has been described as “an unprecedented international project in religious history.”

The project will be led by Murdoch University in Perth, which has a reputation for being one of Australia’s leading research institutions.

It marks the first time in its five centuries of publishing that Oxford University Press—a department of the University of Oxford—has agreed to support “such an extensive history of one Christian denomination,” said series editor Rowan Strong in a press statement issued by Murdoch University and published by the Anglican Communion News Service.

Publication of the entire series, to be called The Oxford History of Anglicanism, is planned for 2016.

“We are examining a religious identity that has been very contested over its history and has had a big impact, both positively and negatively, on many international societies and historical periods,” said Strong, a professor of church history at Murdoch University since 1992. “This project will give the Anglican Communion, scholars and general readers a critical knowledge of its identity and demonstrate its extraordinary influence in societies around the world.”

Strong will lead a team of more than 100 leading international scholars from five continents in covering “a wide range of fields well beyond the institutional history of the Anglican Church,” said the statement. They will include Anglicanism’s influence in art, music, architecture, politics, gender and mission, as well as its interfaith experiences.

Other editors of the series include Prof. Anthony Milton (professor of history, Sheffield University); Prof. Jeremy Gregory (professor of history of Christianity, University of Manchester);  Dr. Jeremy Morris (director of theology and religious studies and dean of King’s College, Cambridge) ; and Dr. William Sachs (director of the Center for Inter-faith Reconciliation, Virginia, USA.)