Edward Robert Norman (born 22 November 1938) is an ecclesiastical historian and former Church of England priest.
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.
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".