SKETCHES OF FAITH
An introduction to characters from Christian
history
Editor John D. Woodbridge
10 Publishing. 224 pages. £14.99
ISBN 978 1 912 373 796
This book of 33 brief biographies of Christians through the ages would serve well as a presentation gift for a young person on their baptism or for their birthday. But they are so well written and edifying that they are worth reading by all of us.
Each chapter is by a different expert, including F.F. Bruce, David Bebbington, Brian Stanley, and Paul Helm. Although concise, the pieces are well crafted and long enough to present a serious, informative and encouraging overview of the life and work of each individual.
Warts and all
The writers creditably present their subjects as rounded characters including sinful traits, not shying away from Luther’s comments on Jews or Calvin’s involvement in the execution of Servetus; calling out Jim Elliott for a degree of hypocrisy in his attitudes towards the other sex, and Chuck Colson for impatience with others. But within their frailties, these figures are all shown devoting themselves to serving the Lord Jesus who, through them, achieved great things.
Each biography is accompanied by an introductory summary, a timeline, and a pencil portrait (although in the case of the apostle Paul this is presumably somewhat speculative, and he is made to look like one of the more troubled prophets from the Sistine Ceiling).
The biographies are clearly selected to tell history from a Protestant point of view ranging (after Paul) from John Wycliffe to Chuck Colson, but with a sufficiently broad theology to include Luther and Calvin, the Wesleys and Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon and William Booth, Martin Niemoler, C.S. Lewis, Martin Lloyd-Jones and Jim Packer.
The selection of biographies is, however, in other ways jarring. Out of the 33 people whose stories are told, only three are women. And, scarcely credible for a book published in 2020, not a single one is black. Apart from John Sung, the Chinese evangelist in the first half of the 20th century, all the faces are white Europeans (including the apostle Paul!) Was there really not a space for Martin Luther King Jr, Mahalia Jackson, or the inspiring S.M. Lockridge (Google ‘That’s my king!’ and your life will be enriched for ever)?
There is also a strong bias towards theologians, missionaries and preachers with the exception of a few missionary doctors. This tends to reinforce the unhelpful emphasis in too many churches that only pastors and missionaries are really doing ‘full-time Christian ministry’.
Every one of these lives deserves to be remembered and celebrated as an encouragement to believers, but the selection made me very uncomfortable. It would be great to read the equivalent biographies of Christian heroes of other races, and those who brought the gospel to bear on other walks of life, in politics and social care, education, economics, justice, art and literature. Those are the lives most of us live.
