Eerdmans' Library of Religious Biography

I would like to commend to you Eerdmans' Library of Religious Biography. This series is edited by Mark A. Noll, Nathan O. Hatch and Allen C. Guelzo. As you will note, the series is very broad, including individuals from various ends of the spectrum of American and British religious history.

This morning we have posted Doug Brown's review of the following volume in this series:

Tyson, John R. Assist Me to Proclaim: The Life and Hymns of Charles Wesley. Library of Religious Biography. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2008. Paperback, 328 pages. $22.00

Purchase: Eerdmans | Amazon | CBD

A Limited Preview is available via Amazon’s Online Reader: here.

Book Review: Assist Me to Proclaim (Reviewed by Doug Brown)

The Publisher's Description of this Series:

The Library of Religious Biography is a series of original biographies on important religious figures throughout American and British history.

The authors are well-known historians, each a recognized authority in the period of religious history in which his or her subject lived and worked. Grounded in solid research of both published and archival sources, these volumes link the lives of their subjects — not always thought of as “religious” persons — to the broader cultural contexts and religious issues that surrounded them. Each volume includes a bibliographical essay and an index to serve the needs of students, teachers, and researchers.

Marked by careful scholarship yet free of footnotes and academic jargon, the books in this series are well-written narratives meant to be read and enjoyed as well as studied.

Titles in this Series:

Billy Sunday [1862-1935]

Lyle W. Dorsett, Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America (Eerdmans, 1991) - Eerdmans | Amazon (Note: this title has since been republished by Mercer University Press in 2004.)

George Whitefield [1714-1770]

Harry S. Stout, The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism (Eerdmans, 1991) - Eerdmans | Amazon

William Ewart Gladstone [1809-1898]

David W. Bebbington, William Ewart Gladstone: Faith and Politics in Victorian Britain (Eerdmans, 1993) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Aimee Semple McPherson [1890-1944]

Edith L. Blumhofer, Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister (Eerdmans, 1993) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

Edwin S. Gaustad, Sworn on the Altar of God: A Religious Biography of Thomas Jefferson (Eerdmans, 1996) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Charles G. Finney [1792-1875]

Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe, Charles G. Finney and the Spirit of American Evangelicalism (Eerdmans, 1996) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Blaise Pascal [1623-1662]

Marvin R. O'Connell, Blaise Pascal: Reasons of the Heart (Eerdmans, 1997) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Thomas Merton [1915-1968]

Lawrence S. Cunningham, Thomas Merton and the Monastic Vision (Eerdmans, 1999) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Abraham Lincoln [1809-1865]

Allen C. Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President (Eerdmans, 2002) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Horace Bushnell [1802-1876]

Robert Bruce Mullin, The Puritan as Yankee: A Life of Horace Bushnell (Eerdmans, 2002) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Arthur Tappan Pierson [1837-1911]

Dana L. Robert, Occupy Until I Come: A. T. Pierson and the Evangelization of the World (Eerdmans, 2003) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Orestes Augustus Brownson [1803-1876]

Patrick W. Carey, Orestes A. Brownson: American Religious Weathervane (Eerdmans, 2004) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Emily Dickinson [1830-1886]

Roger Lundin, Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief (2nd edition, Eerdmans, 2004) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Fanny J. Crosby [1820-1915]

Edith L. Blumhofer, Her Heart Can See: The Life and Hymns of Fanny J. Crosby (Eerdmans, 2005) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Jonathan Edwards [1703-1758]

George Marsden, A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards (Eerdmans, 2008) - Eerdmans | Amazon | WTS | CBD

Ellen G. White [1827-1915]

Ronald L. Numbers, Prophetess of Health: Ellen G. White (3rd edition, Eerdmans, 2008) - Eerdmans | Amazon

William Miller [1782-1849]

David L. Rowe, God's Strange Work: William Miller and the End of the World (Eerdmans, 2008) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Charles Wesley [1707-1788]

John R. Tyson, Assist Me to Proclaim: The Life and Hymns of Charles Wesley (Eerdmans, 2008) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Francis Schaeffer [1912-1984]

Barry Hankins, Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Eerdmans, forthcoming Nov, 2008) - Eerdmans | Amazon | WTS

Eerdmans' Library of Religious Biography

America’s Songbird—Fanny Crosby

Happy birthday to Fanny Crosby, born Francis Jane Crosby on March 24, 1820 in Putnam County, New York. Miss Crosby was one of the best known women in the USA in the 19^th and early 20^th Centuries, writing at least 8000 hymns during her long life. Most of the hymnals published in America for about the last century and a half contain her work.

When Fanny was six weeks old her parents John and Mercy Crosby took her to the doctor to treat inflammation of the eyes. The man filling in for the regular family doctor recommended a treatment that ended up blinding her for life. Instead of being bitter, Fanny was thankful not to have the distractions from knowing God that sighted people have. Even her earliest writings reflect the strong Bible teaching she received during childhood from her mother and grandmother (her father died when she was one year old). At age eight she wrote these verses revealing her attitude toward her blindness:

Oh what a happy soul I am,

Although I cannot see;

I am resolved that in this world

Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy,

That other people don't;

To weep and sigh because I'm blind,

I cannot, and I won't.

In adult life Miss Crosby became a teacher and a musician. She married a blind musician and fellow-teacher in 1858 and had a daughter, who died in infancy. Having experienced success writing poems and popular songs, she turned to writing what she is most famous for—hymns. In one of her best known hymns she writes, “I long to see my Savior first of all.” Her attitude toward God’s dealings with her really shines in her song, “All the Way My Savior Leads Me.” One line in this song states, “Can I doubt His tender mercy, who through life has been my guide?”

The hymns of Fanny Crosby indicate that she kept her childhood resolve to be content. In her hymn, “Blessed Assurance,” she exclaims, “Perfect submission, all is at rest; I in my Savior am happy and blest.” It was probably this testimony of contentment that led one poet to eulogize her with the words, “Our songbird has taken her flight.” The blind hymnist finally saw her Savior first of all on February 12, 1915.

Such steadfast, joyous faith comes from knowing and believing the Word of God. She accepted the Bible’s testimony about her Lord despite adverse circumstances. All the way the Savior led her, and she was able to truly testify, “For I know whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.”

Oh, for the insight to see as clearly as Fanny Crosby did!

____________________

For further reading:

Fanny J. Crosby: An Autobiography (Hendrickson Publishers, 2008) Forthcoming

Guye Johnson, Treasury of Great Hymns and Their Stories (BJU Press, 1986)

Wikipedia article on Fanny Crosby

America’s Songbird—Fanny Crosby