Stewart Brown

Bio: Stewart Brown is an academic researcher from University of Edinburgh. The author has contributed to research in topics: Scottish Enlightenment & Enlightenment. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 9 publications receiving 38 citations.

Hugh Blair, the sentiments and preaching the enlightenment in Scotland

Abstract: The five volumes of sermons by the Edinburgh Church of Scotland minister, Hugh Blair, represented one of the most successful publishing projects of the eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment. Ac...

Providential empire?: The established Church of England and the Nineteenth-Century British Empire in India

Abstract: In the early nineteenth century, many in Britain believed that their conquests in India had a providential purpose, and that imperial Britain had been called by God to Christianize India through an alliance of Church and empire In 1813, parliament not only opened India to missionary activity, but also provided India with an established Church, which was largely supported by Indian taxation and formed part of the established Church of England Many hoped that this union of Church and empire would communicate to India the benefits of England's diocesan and parochial structures, with a settled pastorate, parish churches and schools, and a Christian gentry As the century progressed, the established Church was steadily enlarged, with a growing number of bishoprics, churches, schools, colleges, missionaries and clergy But it had only limited success in gaining converts, and many Indians viewed it as a form of colonization From the 1870s, it was increasingly clear that imperial India would not become Christian Some began reconceptualizing the providential purpose behind the Indian empire, suggesting that the purpose might be to promote dialogue and understanding between the religions of the East and West, or, through the selfless service of missionaries, to promote moral reform movements in Hinduism and Islam

After the Disruption: The recovery of the national Church of Scotland, 1843–1874

Abstract: In 1843, the established Church of Scotland was broken up by the Disruption, as nearly a third of the ministers and perhaps half the lay adherents left to form the new Free Church. Many predicted t...

The Oxford Movement in Ireland, Wales and Scotland

Abstract: While the Oxford Movement was an English development, it did exercise a significant influence upon the other nations within the United Kingdom. In Ireland and Wales, where the established United Church of England and Ireland held the allegiance of only a minority of the population, small but influential groups of high churchmen embraced Tractarian principles as a form of Church defence. In Scotland, Tractarian principles contributed to the modest revival of the small Scottish Episcopal Church, and also had unexpected consequences in promoting a Scoto-Catholic movement within the late nineteenth-century established Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

Union and Disunion in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract: This volume examines the nineteenth century not only through episodes, institutions, sites and representations concerned with union, concord and bonds of sympathy, but also through moments of secession, separation, discord and disjunction. Its lens extends from the local and regional, through to national and international settings in Britain, Europe and the United States. The contributors come from the fields of cultural history, literary studies, American studies and legal history.

The Fitness of Scripture: Richard Chenevix Trench and Victorian Doctrines of Scripture

Abstract: This thesis outlines Archbishop Richard Chenevix Trench’s theology of Scripture, showing that he reads the Bible distinctively by situating him within the broader Victorian Church of England. Furthermore, it argues that because of the clarity with which Trench apprehends the character of Scripture and the interpretive implications of this, he offers a comprehensive paradigm from which one can articulate a coherent understanding of “the fitness of Holy Scripture for unfolding the spiritual life of men.” I examine Trench’s theology of Scripture by way of comparison with other prominent thinkers in the Church of England during his time. First, Charles Simeon’s devout but unidimensional interpretation, which aims to discover the full range of biblical teaching, is set beside Trench’s layered Christological reading of the text. The next chapter discusses Benjamin Jowett’s attempts to uncover the original meaning and context of each passage of Scripture. Trench’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit’s authorship juxtaposes with Jowett, opening room for a further future unfolding of the meaning inherent in Scripture. Trench’s doctrine of Scripture comes into closer focus against the relatively similar exegesis of John Keble on the Parable of the Good Samaritan; one finds Trench has a looser view of ecclesial authority, opting instead for scripturally grounded authority. The previous findings are synthesized in the following chapter, which outlines Trench’s character as an Orthodox interpreter with special focus on his conservatism, traditionalism, and cohesiveness. This is

Virtuous discourse: sensibility and community in late eighteenth-century Scotland

Abstract: Reappraisals of the history and historiography of the Scottish Enlightenment abound these days. Yet however much is produced, authors continue to find new and interesting things to say. John Dwyer has certainly proved this in his excellent, fairly short study of the Scottish moralists. Dwyer, thankfully, has not taken the high road to philosophy but has investigated the output of the eighteenth-century literati as contributions to a contemporary debate about the state of Scotland. In his study of newspapers, poetry, and novels, Dwyer displays the Scottish moralists agonizing over the dangers ofcommerce, luxury, and corruption, and, at the same time, trying to steer Scotland on a course to prosperity and improvement. The best two chapters in the book explore this theme by looking at the Scottish definition of adolescence and the role of women. Dwyer also demonstrates exceeedingly well the decline of the Scottish literary republic during the economic and demographic changes coinciding with the French Wars. On the negative side, the book does display a certain timidity when it engages with the \"What was happening in Scotland?\" question. Nowhere does Dwyer spell out what he sees as the relationship between the profound material changes occurring in Scotland at this time and the status of the works he has studied. After all, the sentimental gushings that were inspired by the poems of Ossian were produced by people enmeshed in a patronage chain run by those who were radically changing the Scottish way of life. Unfortunately, too, Dwyer almost totally ignores science and medicine as sources of moral persuasion. Medicine is mentioned only briefly, in spite of the recent growth of a literature which argues that medical ideas were closely bound to change in Scotland. It would be wrong, however, to end on a critical note. This is a fine scholarly book, and numerous aspects of it deserve attention by all historians working on eighteenth-century cultural matters, whichever side of the Tweed they inhabit.