IT was a chance conversation that led Andrew Bradstock to write a biography of one of the highest profile bishops of the 20th century.

Andrew, who worships in the Haven benefice on the Isle of Wight, was chatting to the daughter of Bishop David Sheppard, the former Bishop of Liverpool. He mentioned his surprise that no one had ever written her father’s biography. Before too long, he was given the job!

Five years later, Andrew’s book – Batting for the Poor – has just been published. It was based on interviews with around 100 people, and contacts with another 250, as well as sifting through 66 box files of his private papers and archives at places he was connected with.

And it seemed appropriate that Andrew should be the person to write about a bishop who was known for his passion for social justice. His own life has involved exploring the intersection between the Christian faith and politics too.

“Bishop David Sheppard was someone who was committed to exploring how faith should impact on how we live as a society, who had something to say about the issues of his day such as homelessness, racism and unemployment,” said Andrew. “He was a pioneer in his own day in suggesting that an evangelical expression of faith should include involvement in these issues.

“And as my faith developed, I could understand where he was coming from. I’d started with a faith that was mostly concerned with personal salvation, but began to realise that faith wasn’t just an internal thing, but should have an impact on society.”

Andrew, who is now 64, grew up in a Christian family, worshipping at a Strict Baptist chapel in south London. He benefitted from intensive study of the Bible from an early age, and being given a chance to preach and pray out loud. But he also felt restricted by rules dictating what Christians should or shouldn’t do.

“I was aware that my lifestyle was different to other people at school,” he said. “For instance, I played football with my friends in the week, but then had to make up reasons why I couldn’t play with them on Sundays. In my early 20s, I developed a condition that would now be called obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). I don’t think it was because of my faith, but the idea of a judgemental authority figure being ready to strike me down didn’t help.”

Andrew got through the worst effects of his OCD, although he still struggles with aspects of the condition. However, he left school at 16, before getting the results of his O-levels, and chanced upon a civil service administrative job that kept him going for the next 10 years.

In 1981, at the age of 26, he was engaged to a student at Bath University, and was considering enrolling himself at nearby Bristol. The wedding didn’t happen, and the subsequent trauma led to a crisis of faith. But he decided to study for a theology and politics degree there anyway. That was a turning point.

He discovered academic theology, liturgy and the Church of England at this time, as well as an emphasis on how the Christian faith could help to transform society.

“Once the pieces of my faith had snapped apart, I was never going to put that jigsaw puzzle back together in the same way,” he said. “But I found a fresh way to follow Christ. I came to appreciate C of E liturgy, I valued public confession, and I enjoyed the fact that we celebrated Communion weekly. Academic theology also opened up new questions for me.”

He studied for a Masters at Bristol, and then a PhD at the University of Kent, spent some time in post-doctoral research in New Zealand, and then took up academic roles teaching at La Sainte Union College in Southampton and then at King Alfred’s College, Winchester.

His work involved exploring the Church’s renewed emphasis on social justice, something he was able to put into practice when appointed Secretary for Church and Society with the URC in 2000.

Andrew wrote several books examining how Christian faith has inspired political and social change, both historically and today. His books look at Reformation in Europe in the 16th century, the English civil war in the 17th century, the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua in the 1980s, and contemporary church responses in the UK to poverty, peace-making and climate change.

In 2008, he co-authored Moral, But No Compass: Government, Church and the Future of Welfare with Elizabeth Paulhus and Francis Davis, who was the founder of our Cathedral Innovation Centre. Among other things, this study suggested that the Church had a mistaken assumption that its role in society was understood.