About the Author

John Read is a Salvation Army officer currently serving as the Army's ecumenical officer for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.

Reviews

""Catherine Booth is rightly honored for the crucial role she played in shaping the Salvation Army and for her contribution to social reform and women's rights in the second half of the nineteenth century. Despite that recognition, in-depth, academic studies of her life and work have been thin. So, John Read's scholarly and eminently readable book is a very welcome volume. It deserves to be widely read."" --Chick Yuill, author of Moving in the Right Circles ""Many books describe Catherine Booth the person, but no one has demonstrated her pivotal role in shaping the spirituality of the Salvation Army better than Read. His penetrating reading of primary sources identifies the core evangelical and theological convictions that underpin her spirituality. Booth was not only the theological founder of the Army; she was a far more important practical theologian than many have imagined. Read's book is lively and persuasive."" --Kent Brower, Senior Research Fellow, Nazarene Theological College ""John Read has produced an outstanding study of Catherine Booth's theology, which he argues underlies her Salvationist spirituality. . . . Read shows convincingly how Catherine shaped Army self-understanding and was its leading apologist. He offers important new perspectives on the intellectual development of a radical Christian movement."" --Ian Randall, Senior Research Fellow, International Baptist Theological Seminary