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W. T. Stead and the Civic Church, 1886-1895: The Vision Behind ‘If Christ Came to Chicago!’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2015

STEWART J. BROWN
STEWART J. BROWN*
Affiliation:
School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, New College, Mound Place, Edinburgh EH1 2LX; e-mail: S.J.Brown@ed.ac.uk
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Abstract

In 1894 the prominent English journalist and religious visionary, W. T. Stead, published If Christ came to Chicago!, a work of investigative journalism focusing on the problems of the modern city. The book constituted a manifesto for Stead's notion of the ‘Civic Church’, a religious movement through which he hoped to revive a sense of national religion, and unite churches and philanthropic associations around a shared commitment to follow Christ's example of social service. This article explores the development of Stead's ‘Civic Church’ ideal and his campaign to achieve this in Britain's urban-industrial society between 1886 and 1895.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , April 2015 , pp. 320 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

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39 Ibid. 1214.

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44 Ibid. 187.

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47 Stead, ‘My first visit to America’, 410.

48 Ibid. 410–11.

49 For a thorough account of these meetings see Downey, ‘William Stead and Chicago’, 159–61.

50 Stead to Reginald Brett, 22 Nov. 1893, Rosebery papers, National Library of Scotland, ms 10006, fos 157–8.

51 Handy, ‘George D. Herron and the Kingdom movement’, 104.

52 Stead to Brett, 25 Dec. 1893, Rosebery papers, ms 10007, fo. 3.

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54 Ibid. p. xiii.

55 Ibid. 264.

56 Ibid. 335.

57 Ibid. 334.

58 Ibid. 401.

59 Ibid.

60 Ibid. 434.

61 Lord Rosebery to Stead, 29 Apr. 1894, and W. T. Stead, ‘Memo of conversation with Lord Rosebery over lunch on 21 May 1894’, Stead papers, STED 1/62; Lord Salisbury to Stead, 1 May 1894, STED 1/63.

62 Stead to J. Burns, 24 Apr. 1894, John Burns papers, BL, ms Add. 46287, fo. 228.

63 ‘Sunderland: Mr. Stead's Civic Church’, Methodist Times, 19 Apr. 1894; ‘Mr. W. T. Stead in Leeds: an appeal for a more practical Christianity’, Leed's Mercury, 9 July 1894.

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65 [Idem], ‘The National Social Union: statement of its aims, methods, and organisation’, RoR (Sept. 1894), 286–96.

66 Ibid. 286.

67 ‘The National Social Union’, RoR (Nov. 1894), 496–500; ‘If Christ came to London: Mr. Stead at Queen's Hall’, Woman's Signal, 1 Nov. 1894; ‘W. T. Stead's two conferences at Queen's Hall’, BW, 1 Nov. 1894; ‘Mr. Stead's purity crusade’, Reynold's Newspaper, London, 4 Nov. 1894; Stead to Burns, 19 Oct. 1894, BL, ms Add. 46287, fo. 232.

68 Liberty Review, London, 24 Nov. 1894.

69 Daily News, London, 19 Nov. 1894; Leed's Mercury, 23 Nov. 1894; Bristol Mercury, 27 Nov. 1894.

70 Newcastle Weekly Courant, 15 Dec. 1894.

71 Reynold's Newspaper, London, 23 Dec. 1894; Stead to Rosebery, 19 Dec. 1894, Rosebery papers, ms 10100, fo. 130; ‘The National Social Union’, RoR (Jan. 1895), 66–9; (June 1895), 557–60.

72 [W. Robertson Nicoll], ‘If Christ came —’, BW, 10 May 1894.

73 W. T. Stead, ‘If Christ came: to the editor’, BW, 24 May 1894, and ‘“If Christ Came”: a reply to the British Weekly’, Methodist Times, 24 May 1894.

74 Idem, ‘“If Christ came”: a reply to the British Weekly’.

75 [W. Robertson Nicoll], ‘If Chicago came to Christ’, BW, 31 May 1894.

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77 Relton, F., ‘Is the individualist or the collectivist view of social progress more in accordance with the teaching of Christ?’, Economic Review iv (1894), 499–518Google Scholar. For the connection of the Economic Review to the Christian Social Union see Jones, Christian Socialist revival, 181.

78 Relton, ‘Individualist?’, 510.

79 Ibid. 511.

80 Ibid. 517–18.

81 ‘If Christ came to Chicago!’ Church Quarterly Review xxxix (1894–5), 253–4.

82 ‘Recollections of the late Dr R. W. Dale’, Westminster Review cxliv (1895), 66.

83 Stead, W. T., Satan's invisible world displayed or, Despairing democracy: a study of Greater New York, London 1898Google Scholar.