Ian Bradley


Ian Campbell Bradley is a retired British academic, author, theologian, Church of Scotland minister, journalist and broadcaster. At the University of St Andrews, he was Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History, and was previously Principal of St Mary's College and a University chaplain. He also served as the associate minister of Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews.
He has researched and written widely on religious matters, from Celtic Christianity to the future of spirituality in Britain. In addition, he has published works on the subjects of hymnody, monarchy, the Victorian era, Gilbert and Sullivan and musical theatre.

Life and career

Early life and education

Ian Bradley was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, on Whit Sunday 1950. He grew up in the southeast of England and was educated at Tonbridge School and New College, Oxford, from which he graduated with a first-class honours degree in modern history. He remained at University of Oxford to complete a doctoral thesis on religion and politics in early nineteenth-century Britain, earning his DPhil degree.

Career

Bradley subsequently worked in radio and television production with the BBC. He spent five years on the staff of The Times and then combined freelance writing with teaching at Cranleigh School in Surrey. Following further study at the University of St Andrews, from which he graduated with a first-class honours BD degree in theology, Bradley was ordained to the ministry of the Church of Scotland and appointed Head of Religious Broadcasting for BBC Scotland. He has lived in Scotland since 1985. He sat on the committee that drafted the Church of Scotland's Hymnary, which was published in 2005. Bradley has taught in the areas of Christianity in contemporary Britain; hymnody, liturgy and worship; monarchy, church and state; and the theology of musical theatre. According to his profile in his 1997 book Abide with Me, he was one of the first lecturers to teach an honors course on hymnology at a British University.
Having lectured on church history at the University of Aberdeen for many years, Bradley was appointed to a position at the University of St Andrews in 1998, where he was later awarded a Chair in Cultural and Spiritual History in its School of Divinity, where he was previously Principal of St Mary's College, St Andrews. He retired in 2017. He was also associate minister of Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews, and honorary Church of Scotland chaplain for the university.
As a journalist, Bradley has contributed to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Tablet and Life and Work as well as often appearing on television and BBC Radio 4. Bradley frequently writes, broadcasts and lectures about Gilbert and Sullivan and has spoken numerous times at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festivals in Buxton and Harrogate, England. He has performed regularly with the University of St Andrews Gilbert and Sullivan Society, of which he is honorary life president. He is the author of more than 30 books. He is married and has two children.

Selected works