Stewart Headlam
| Stewart Headlam | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Stewart Duckworth Headlam 12 January 1847 Wavertree, Liverpool |
| Died | 18 November 1924 St Margaret's-on-Thames, Middlesex |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Priest in the Church of England |
| Known for | Christian Socialism and Anglo-Catholicism |
Stewart Duckworth Headlam (12 January 1847 – 18 November 1924) was a priest of the Church of England who was involved in frequent controversy in the final decades of the nineteenth century. Headlam was a pioneer and publicist of Christian Socialism, on which he wrote a pamphlet for the Fabian Society, and a supporter of Georgism. He is noted for his role as the founder and warden of the Guild of St Matthew and for helping to bail Oscar Wilde from prison at the time of his trials.
Headlam (1847–1924) was born on 12 January 1847 in Wavertree, near Liverpool, the elder son and third of four children of Thomas Duckworth Headlam, underwriter of Liverpool. His parental home was strictly evangelical, though not narrow or severe, but Headlam rejected with horror the doctrine of eternal punishment.
From 1860-65 (ages 13–18) Headlam attended Eton College. There he was influenced by a teacher, William Johnson, who was a disciple of the Christian Socialism of Maurice and Kingsley.
When he attended Cambridge University, Headlam was taught by the Professor of Moral Theology, F. D. Maurice, the primary influence in his life. Headlam came to agree with Maurice that God's Kingdom on earth would replace a "competitive, unjust society with a co-operative and egalitarian social order."
Maurice’s teaching and example shaped Headlam’s life, starting with his decision to be ordained. Years later, Headlam told colleagues in the Fabian Society: that he had been delivered from "the belief that a large proportion of the human race are doomed to endless misery" by Maurice’s teachings Maurice instilled a "Christian humanism" in Headlam. In his Fabian Society Tract on "Christian Socialism," Headlam wrote, "I learnt the principles and was familiar with the title of ‘Christian Socialism’ from Maurice and Kingsley."
After Headlam took his degree from Cambridge in 1868, his father arranged with an Evangelical cleric, Herbert James, to give further training before ordination. But Headlam was not open to the teaching. James said, it was "impossible to budge" Headlam from his convictions based on Maurice’s teachings.
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