Stewart J. Brown, Professor of Ecclesiastical History, University of Edinburgh

Stewart J. Brown is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Edinburgh. He has lectured widely in Europe, China, Australia, India, and the USA, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He served as co-editor of the Scottish Historical Review from 1993 to 1999. His publications include The Oxford Handbook of the Oxford Movement (2017), The Oxford Movement: Europe and the Wider World 1830-1930 (2014), and The National Churches of England, Ireland, and Scotland 1801-46 (2001).

"The great strength of Stewart Brown's biography is that he lets you make up your own mind. His account is lucid and fair-minded throughout, laying the facts on the table. Access to Stead's private journal allows him to illuminate the personal ideas and emotions that lie behind the manifold campaigns." -- Peter Ackers, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

"...this book enables us to gain greater insight into the aims and objectives of this remarkable man. Stewart J. Brown is to be commended for writing a compelling religious biography of Stead." -- Brian Talbot, Scottish Church History

"As a biography, Brown has produced a comprehensive and readable account of a complex and multi-faceted life which, one might argue, deserves to be known on a much wider scale... a welcome contribution toward increasing the public profile of a remarkable figure in British journalism." -- George Adams, Susquehanna University

"Brown's religious biography is a welcome and vital addition to our study of one of the nineteenth century's most intriguing and paradoxical figures." -- Helena Goodwyn, Journal of Victorian Culture

"Brown has done a real service by fleshing out Stead's larger accomplishments as a 'newspaper editor, author, social reformer, women's tights advocate, and spiritualist,' all of which made him 'one of the best-known public figures in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain'." -- Brian C. Wilson, Western Michigan University, Religion