A tribute to Antony, Gregory, Dante, Margery, John, John, Charles, Amanda, Charles, and Dorothy
Monday, June 20, 2005
Who was John Newton?
John Newton (1725 - 1807): Connecting through stories to transform plain folk.Many dwellers in late 18th- and early 19th-century rural England found themselves under the boot-heel of modernization. The lacemakers of Newton's first parish barely scraped together a living providing their luxurious product to the doyens of London's "Vanity Fair." Against the highfalutin' literary and clerical culture of his time, Newton perfected the art of ministering in plain wordsout of his story and into other people's stories. He told his life narrative in the most popular and imitated biography of his era. And he ministered out of that narrative again and again in sermon, song (most famously, "Amazing Grace"), and an astounding number of letters of spiritual advice. His approach was always personal and caring: he wrote many of his songs and sermons with particular struggles of particular parishioners in mind, and he poured his life into a close friend, the psychologically troubled William Cowper. He took Cowper into his own home, cheered him in his bouts of depression, and inspired him to write many of his brilliant poems and hymns (generally agreed to have far surpassed in subtlety and style Newton's own literary productions).
This edition of Comenius's fascinating allegory has a simply wonderful introduction--one of the best I've seen for any historical book. It provides excellent biographical data and demonstrates real insight into Comenius's life, personality, and work.
The Life & Spirituality of John Newton: An Authentic Narrative (Sources of Evangelical Spirituality)
This edition includes John Newton's _Narrative_ (his autobiography up to the point of his conversion) and a few of his famed letters of spiritual direction (to the best of my memory). Bruce Hindmarsh, a professor at Regent College, Vancouver, has the only modern critical biography of Newton, listed separately under "books." Get it, along with John Pollock's shorter, more popular bio of Newton (also listed but out of print).
John Newton and the English Evangelical Tradition: Between the Conversions of Wesley and Wilberforce
The only and best modern critical biography of John Newton. This is also a perceptive analysis of the state of evangelicalism in the years between Wesley's conversion and Wilberforce's conversion (if memory serves). Bravo, Bruce!
Her best novel (please don't write me nasty emails, all you fans of _The Nine Tailors_. That novel just contains far more details than I ever wanted to know about bell-ringing ["campanology"]!) Set at a women's college of Oxford, this novel is "about" intellectual integrity. But that doesn't spoil the fun at all! As usual, she plots brilliantly. Here the focus shifts from Lord Peter Wimsey to Harriet Vane, and the relationship between those two heats up. There's a lot of Dorothy in these pages . . .
Letters to a Diminished Church : Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine
If you haven't read _The Divine Comedy_ by Dante Alighieri yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. What a wonderful tale, and what wonderful poetry! Sayers's translation sparkles, and her notes are legendary.
The Passionate Intellect: Dorothy L. Sayers\' Encounter with Dante
This warm portrait of a Christian mind in love with creativity, clarity, and truth is unsurpassed. Reynolds was a close friend of Sayers and finished Sayers's hugely popular Penguin translation of the Divine Comedy. Reynolds is also the editor of Sayers's letters and the author of a wonderful biography of Sayers. If you want to fall in love with the Christian life of the mind, there's no better beginning. Or if you would just like to enter the world of a rambunctious, opinionated, deeply devoted but no-bull Christian woman who also happens to have been a first-rate scholar, apologist, dramatist, mystery novelist, and essayist on many topics, then this is a great place to do it. I couldn't put it down.
Margery is a trip. She wrote--and is the subject of--the first biography in the English language. Windeatt's Penguin edition is the one to have. Don't get the Image Books edition. She's no "madwoman" or even "mystic"--just a laywoman intensely in love with God who knows a lot about praying through tough situations. We can learn from reading her book.
11. St. Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care (Ancient Christian Writers)
Here's a great early manual for pastors. Until recently, it was given to all bishops in the Catholic Church. Just as sensitive to the complexity of human character(s) as Benedict's _Rule_, but geared for the pastor rather than the abbot. Gregory itemizes dozens of kinds of people in a congregation and talks about how to minister effectively to each.
An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord\'s Dealings With Mrs Amanda Smith the Colored Evangelist (Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women)
There's no form like the autobiography to usher you into the life and world of the writer. This one, by an ex-slave evangelist from the nineteenth century, opens up the world of that century's holiness revival. Amanda Berry Smith (1837-1915) traveled to many of the Northeastern U.S.'s Victorian-era holiness camp meetings, where she ministered with wisdom and forcefulness to thousands of whites (and a few African Americans) who were willing to hear her as a messenger of God. She encountered racism and sexism along the way, and she is frank about her own fears about exposing herself to the ridicule of powerful Christian leaders white and (painfully) black. But the overwhelming sense we get is of a woman both entirely dedicated to her Lord and gifted by him for extraordinary ministry.
John Newton (1725 - 1807): Connecting through stories to transform plain folk. Many dwellers in late 18th- and early 19th-century rural England found themselves under the boot-heel of modernization. The lacemakers of Newton's first parish barely scraped together a living providing their luxurious product to the doyens of London's "Vanity Fair." Against the highfalutin' literary and clerical culture of his time, Newton perfected the art of ministering in plain wordsout of his story and into other people's stories. He told his life narrative in the most popular and imitated biography of his era. And he ministered out of that narrative again and again in sermon, song (most famously, "Amazing Grace"), and an astounding number of letters of spiritual advice. His approach was always personal and caring: he wrote many of his songs and sermons with particular struggles of particular parishioners in mind, and he poured his life into a close friend, the psychologically troubled William Cowper. He took Cowper into his own home, cheered him in his bouts of depression, and inspired him to write many of his brilliant poems and hymns (generally agreed to have far surpassed in subtlety and style Newton's own literary productions).
