Book Briefs: April 8, 1988

Princeton Piety

Charles Hodge: The Way of Life, edited by Mark A. Noll (Paulist Press, 291 pp; $14.95, cloth).

Part of Sources of American Spirituality, a series spanning a wide variety of traditions, this volume also contains a 44-page introduction by Wheaton College historian Mark Noll, outlining Hodge’s life and thought.

Born in Philadelphia among connections of wealth and influence, Hodge lived in Princeton with few interruptions for over 60 years (1812–78). He was a student in the classical academy, the college, the seminary; and then he was a theological professor whose writings shaped more than one generation of Presbyterian thought.

The bulk of Noll’s introduction covers Hodge’s contribution to Princeton theology and his concept of piety. The selections making up the rest of the book are The Way of Life (1841), a classic of Presbyterian piety, and excerpts from his commentary on Romans, his Sunday afternoon talks to seminary students, and his systematic theology.

Capturing Personality

Through a Glass Lightly, by John J. Timmerman (Eerdmans, 184 pp.; $12.95, paper).

Through a Glass Lightly gives us another academic life. A retired English professor at Calvin College, now in his seventies, Timmerman is a storyteller. The book, in the form of literary essays laced with narrative, focuses on facets of his experience and of the church of which he is a lifelong member—offering a fascinating look into the East Friesian (German-speaking) part of the (predominantly Dutch) Christian Reformed Church.

Timmerman remembers places he lived and people he knew. The last section of the book displays his ability to capture a personality. Brief sketches of colorful acquaintances include novelist Peter De Vries, one of Timmerman’s Calvin College classmates.

Newsworthy Believers

Heir to a Dream, by Pete Maravich and Darrel Campbell (Nelson, 234 pp.; $15.95, cloth) and Terry Waite: Man With a Mission, by Trevor Barnes (Eerdmans, 142 pp.; $4.95, paper).

Someone dies suddenly (as Marvich did in January) and only then do you discover he was a Christian. Or a major player in relaxing Middle East tensions (as the kidnaped Waite was) turns out to be a believer. One turns to biographies such as these to satisfy curiosity about how they came to prominence and how they came to belief.

These straightforward life stories of basketball star Maravich and Anglican envoy Waite are somewhat adulatory, but after you strain out the wonder-struck tone, they do help you understand a person who makes a difference

Maravich became a Christian after success and prominence; Waite, before. They came from very different worlds, which makes reading these books a stretching experience.

Up At 2 A.M

Thomas Merton, Brother Monk: The Quest for True Freedom, by M. Basil Pennington (Harper & Row, 205 pp.; $15.95, cloth).

Sometimes the author of a biography is almost as much the subject of the book as the one written about. So it is here. Pennington is a fellow “strict order” Cistercian, and is able to interpret his brother monk’s ideas and struggles. For instance, chapter 1 recounts the monks’ day: a mixture of work and prayers that begins at 2 A.M. with matins and terminates about 7 P.M. when nighttime prayers lead into silence and sleep.

Chapter 2 summarizes Merton’s thought on true freedom. The reader may be getting Pennington’s ideas as much as Merton’s, but that may not bea defect. Communal life tends toward unity of thought, something most Americans, with their independent ways, cringe at.

Pennington’s theme, the quest for true freedom, is modern. Chapter 3 follows Merton through his early life: 27 years of “freedom,” financially independent and sampling life. He attended English public school, Cambridge and Columbia universities, and crossed the Atlantic 14 times before World War II. The story then moves into 27 years of monastic life where he increasingly found inner, true freedom.

Persistence

God’s Politician: William Wilberforce’s Stuggle, by Garth Lean (Helmers and Howard, 197 pp.; $8.95, paper).

William Wilberforce, the member of Parliament who persisted through 20 years of political infighting to end slavery in Britain, was a key figure in Western public ethics. Like Merton, he was a privileged, bright, talented youth: feasting, talking, and drinking his way through public life. He entered Parliament through a corrupt electoral process. When he became a Christian as a result of Wesleyan influence, he was urged not to withdraw from public life. People like pastor and hymn writer John Newton sensed that he had come to the kingdom for just such a time.

His friendships with other leaders, including the prime minister, led to weekends of talk, strategy, and background work for weekday conflict in Parliament. God used even old school ties to forge a group of public leaders who would work together to end a social evil.

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