The derivation of the expression of the Brownian contribution to the stress tensor in a dispersion of spherical particles is discussed in relation to the level of description. The result obtained by Batchelor at the configuration space level is compared with a similar result of Bossis and Brady, derived at the underlying stochastic level from a Langevin equation. It is shown that the result of Bossis and Brady may be derived also at the configuration space level. This clarifies the connection between both approaches and provides a generalization of Batchelor’s result.