Arthur Burns was born in Barnard Castle, County Durham on 7 February 1963.
He was awarded a PhD by Oxford in 1990 for a thesis entitled The Diocesan Revival in the Church of England c.1825-1865.
Burns co-founded and co-edited the Boydell and Brewer monograph series Studies in Modern British Religious History.
He was a fellow of the Royal Historical Society,[4] and from 2012 to 2016 was its Vice President (Education), overseeing policy on the teaching of History in both schools and universities; he previously served as one of its Literary Directors.
In 2015 he was awarded an honorary fellowship of the Historical Association,[citation needed] in 2016 he was appointed President of the Church of England Record Society, and in 2017 he was appointed academic director of the Georgian Papers Programme at King's.