Resurrected writers: Charles Finney

The dead still speak
An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

Charles Grandison Finney, who lived from 1792 to 1875, was the best-known and most successful Christian evangelist of his time, as well as being the father of modern evangelism.

Schooled as a lawyer in pioneer America, he was converted to Christ in 1821 and trained for the Presbyterian ministry a year later. In 1835 he left the Presbyterian Church to become a Congregationalist, though he never agreed with the Westminster Confession that was the doctrinal basis of both denominations. Finney’s logical thinking, his command of language and his muscular physique – as well as his utter reliance on God’s guidance – ensured that he became perhaps the greatest soul winner since George Whitefield, an associate of John and Charles Wesley.

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Resurrected writers: J. B. Phillips

The dead still speak
An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

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ore than 40 years ago I made a discovery that has affected my life ever since. I discovered The New Testament in Modern English, translated by John Bertram (J. B.) Phillips, an Anglican clergyman and author. My small pocket edition, published in 1960, has accompanied me to many countries.  As I look again at the underlined verses and the dates in the margin I am reminded of how often God has used this magnificent rendering of His word. When our four children “came of age” my wife and I presented each with a pocket copy (usually second hand) of Phillips NT.

How did the translation come about?  During World War 11, when he was vicar of a London church, Phillips discovered that the young people in the church did not understand the King James Version of the Bible. So he decided to translate the New Testament, using modern English rather than the Elizabethan English of the KJV. The preliminary work was done in periods he spent in bomb shelters during the London blitz. In 1947 Letters to Young Churches (the book of Acts) was published. In 1952 he added the Gospels and by 1958 the complete New Testament appeared, with subsequent revisions in 1961 and 1972.

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Resurrected writers: Catherine Booth

The dead still speak
An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

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early 118 years ago, in the English coastal town of Clacton-on-Sea, heaven became richer as one of the best minds of the Victorian era - Catherine Booth, mother of The Salvation Army - slipped loose her hold on earthly life.  At 61 years of age the woman who was among the most compelling speakers of her era (one of her many biographers wrote that she was “one of the most remarkable woman who has ever lived”) succumbed to the ravages of cancer, her husband William and her children by her bedside.

Catherine was born in 1829 and from an early age, despite ill health as a child, revealed the qualities that would mark her as an extraordinary person.  She was ardent, yet her passion was joined to a formidable intellect and command of language. By age 12 she had read the Bible through eight times, the knowledge thus gained playing a large part in her later trenchant public sermons and lectures.

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Tags: Catherine Booth, writing

Resurrected writers: Sangster

The dead still speak
An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

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illiam Edwin Sangster, who went to heaven in 1960, has long been one of my heroes of the faith and his books continue to nourish and challenge me. Sangster was a British Methodist minister with a passion for Wesleyan holiness. One of the most able preachers of his time, he was – for 16 years - minister of Westminster Central Hall in London, the headquarters and centre of Methodism for the United Kingdom. He died at the age of 60, and at the height of his powers and influence, of ALS, known as Lou Gherig’s disease.

Following military service during World War I, he studied theology (with distinction in philosophy), and following ordination served in short-term pastorates before being called to be senior minister at the “cathedral” of Methodism. The huge building seated 3,000 and was filled for morning and evening services by crowds that were challenged and strengthened by the virile preaching of Sangster, particularly during the trying days of World War II.

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Resurrected writers: Carpenter

The dead still speak
An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

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uch of the thrilling history of The Salvation Army is found not in the tomes of official history (although they should not be neglected), but in the many biographies that capture the life and times of the biographical subjects. All that constitutes the Army - policy, evangelism, administration, salvation, holiness and much else - are found in the countless biographies that flooded from busy Army presses in its earlier days. Among the most prolific and skillful biographers was Minnie Lindsay Carpenter, wife of General George Carpenter, who led the international Salvation Army from 1939 to 1945.

Minnie Carpenter (right) with her husband General George Carpenter & their daughter Stella

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Resurrected writers: Chesterton

The dead still speak
An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

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e was a large man in every way. He stood 6 feet 4 inches and weighed almost 300 lbs. He usually wore a cape and a crumpled hat, with a swordstick in hand, and had a cigar hanging out of his mouth. To some, he was also larger than life. And in literary and religious circles there is still disagreement about his place in history, even though he died more than 70 years ago (1936). During his 71 years of energetic and creative life he wrote around 80 books, several hundred poems, some 200 short stories, 4,000 essays, and several plays. He was a literary and social critic, historian, playwright, novelist, Roman Catholic theologian and apologist, debater, and mystery writer (he created the eccentric and lovable amateur detective, Father Brown). Though he wrote a number of volumes on philosophy he was always proud to remind people that he was first and foremost a journalist.

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Resurrected writers: Brengle

The dead still speak
An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

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ne of the most neglected of foundational Salvation Army writers is Samuel Logan Brengle. Outside the Army in holiness circles and among people who are serious about their spiritual life his writings are sought after, read, quoted and cherished. But in the wider Salvation Army, apart from the United States, he is considered to be passé, too old-fashioned and unrealistic in his ideas about holiness. This, of course, is a tragedy for the Army, and an indication of how far we have moved from one of our denominational distinctives.

Even though the Army appears not to have abandoned its 10th doctrine, it has been reinterpreted a number of times so that its original intent and Brengle’s exposition of it have been weakened.

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Resurrected writers: Underhill

The dead still speak

An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

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n my library is a well-worn paperback that, according to my notations, I read during Lent in 1998, and again during Lent in 2007, though I have dipped into it occasionally at other times. The 105-page book is Lent with Evelyn Underhill, edited by an American priest, G. P. Mellick Belshaw, published (and reprinted) in 1964.

Who, you might ask, is Evelyn Underhill? She was a Christian mystic who, during her lifetime (1875 – 1941), was one of the most widely-read writers on the spiritual life in the first 50 years of the 20th century.

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Resurrected writers: Schaeffer

The dead still speak

An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

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t is instructive to realize how theological fashions change over the years. For instance, 25 or 30 years ago one of the most influential evangelical theologians whose name was on everyone’s lips - in North America at least - was Francis A. Schaeffer. Today, few have heard of him and his books often end up in used book sales or gather dust in theological libraries. This is a great pity because during his lifetime (1912 to 1984), and particularly in the decades of the 1950s to 1980s, his was the voice that gave intellectual muscle to evangelicals who were battling with theologically liberal ideas. Schaeffer was the evangelical David fighting against many Goliaths of theological modernism and doing it with great success. He was an American theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor whose reformed theology formed the foundation of his writings.

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Resurrected writers: Muggeridge

The dead still speak:

An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

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he trouble with many contemporary Christians is that they’re so intellectually locked into their time frame. They never seem to have heard of, let alone read, authors who were giants in their time and whose elegant and fiery prose still stirs the imagination, informs the mind and fires passion. For intellectual rigour, for clarity of thought, for a well-turned phrase that says it just right – read the old authors, and some who are not that old.

In this brief essay I have in mind Malcolm Muggeridge, colloquially known as “Saint Mugg” by his admirers, of whom there were, and are, many. He was a British journalist, author, satirist, media personality, soldier-spy and Christian scholar whose dates are March 24, 1903 – November 14, 1990. Muggeridge was born in Croydon, England, into a highly political middle class home where the faith was socialism. › Continue reading