Big people, Little people

GAZETTE - Week beginning 2 October 2005

It was Ralph Waldo Emmerson who once remarked that 'all history is biography'. He was right of course -- ultimately the history of the world is the story of the lives that are interwoven in the tapestry that makes up the shape of the world as we know it.

That is true in the history of the church, too. It is the history of an institution, but it is the story of a people first. The concept of the church is founded upon the people of Israel, whom God chose to be his own special people. The essence of the covenant between God and Israel was precisely this: 'I will be your God; you will be my people'.

The enigmatic role of Hosea's children amply illustrates this same point. One child was to be called 'Not-my-people', to illustrate the particular bond that ought to have existed between God and Israel. Paul, in a move designed to define the New Testament church as a new Israel, applies the same language to the followers of Christ: 'you are the people of God'.

So, theologising the story of the church means personalising the story of the church. It means that the story cannot be told except in terms of individual lives that were consecrated to Christ and devoted to his service.

For that reason, I am particularly excited by the appearance of a new series of Christian biographies published by P&R publishing under the series title 'American Reformed Biographies'. This set of writings will not merely tell the lives of eminent Christians, but will make a critical assessment of their lives, ministries and contributions to the ongoing work of the church.

Two titles have already appeared: a biography of R.L. Dabney by the series editor, Sean Lucas of Covenant Theological Seminary, and one of John Williamson Nevin by Darryl Hart. Other titles in the series include biographies of Cornelius Van Til, James P. Boyce, Francis Schaeffer, B.B. Warfield, Charles Hodge, Geerhardus Vos and John Witherspoon.

What will make this a series rather than an eclectic and disjointed set of life stories? That question can best be answered by referring to the two volumes that have already appeared. Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898) was a Presbyterian pastor, teacher and theologian, whose theological acumen is evident in the published 'Discussions'. His life, according to his biographer, 'embodied the passions and contradictions of nineteenth century Southerners'. Pastor, professor, patriot, partisan and public theologian -- the chapter headings say it all.

Nevin (1803-1886), on the other hand, was raised in a different milieu. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, he deputised for Charles Hodge when Hodge furthered his theological studies in the academies of Europe. Raised in the American Presbyterian tradition, he switched mid-career to become a theological teacher in the German Reformed Church, becoming a leading advocate of German theology at Mercerburg Seminary.

There he wrote two of the works for which he would be long remembered: The Anxious Bench (1843), dealing with revivalism, and The Mystical Presence (1846), dealing with the subject of the Lord's Supper. Nevin developed a reputation as a 'high church Calvinist', emphasising that the church was designed by Christ to be a mediator of grace to the people of God.

Two contemporaneous but diverse lives -- yet justly celebrated in this series of American Reformed Biographies. Together Dabney and Nevin represent the influence exerted by men of phenomenal intellectual stature within the church. Their nineteenth century context is indispensable for understanding the ecclesiastical and theological ferments of the last hundred years. Their respective theologies help to crystallise and clarify the main elements of the Reformed faith. And their American background is proof enough of the importance to the Reformed churches around the world of the theological schools of the New World.

And much the same will be said of the other volumes in the series. We have long needed a biography of B.B. Warfield, Princeton's last great apologist; Geerhardus Vos has had no equal in the area of biblical theology, and John Witherspoon's life will be of interest as the Scottish Presbyterian who injected Scottish philosophy into American theological reflection, and became the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence.

These were lives exemplary in the twin duties of loving God with all heart, soul, strength and mind, and loving neighbour as oneself. They were men whose influence was formative, whose love was deep, and whose consecrated abilities were a driving force in the ongoing work and witness of the church.

Their story needs to be told. History -- church history no less than any other branch -- is biography. It is written in human syllables, made up of lives God touched. The fact that men like Dabney, Nevin and Vos were theists at all is enough to demonstrate that the Bible is true.

But reflecting on this prompts two further observations. First, could we not do with a series of Scottish Reformed Biographies? We are in danger of betraying our own legacy by neglecting to tell the stories of the men who moulded Scottish evangelicalism in the same period of intellectual ferment and of evangelical revival.

My suggestion for such a series would be John Kennedy, John Macdonald, Hugh Martin, William Cunningham, Patrick Fairbairn, James Fraser of Alness, and John Murray. These are the giants of Scottish evangelicalism, and we cannot understand our history except in the light of these lives.

My second observation is more pedestrian: for all the biographies that can be written of the great men of the church, ten thousand more can be written of the lesser men and women. These are the ones who were never called to stand in the forefront of theological battles, and who will never be celebrated in the telling of the church's story.

But their lives are no less important. They too are the people of God, men, women, boys and girls who have lived lives of selfless devotion and absolute consecration to the Christ of God. Without the big people, the cause of Christ could never have advanced. Without the little people, the cause of Christ could never have advanced.

That is why the important thing is not to be written about a century after our death, but to have our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

iaind@backfreechurch.co.uk