Kevin Belmonte

Gilbert Chesterton (1874-1936) is a multi-faceted character. He is a detective writer, a biographer, an apologist, a poet, a cultural critic among many other things. He has been called an 'apostle of common sense' (Dale Ahlquist), 'a theologian' (Aidan Nichols) and 'a prophet for the twentieth century' (Aidan Mackey). Numerous biographies have been written about him. So why the interest in him and why another biography? Particularly as a major biography is soon to be released in 2011 by Ian Ker published by OUP.

What makes this book by Belmonte, stand out? This is not a biography in the normal sense of the word - its first chapters are biographical covering the period form his birth through his 'dark night of the soul' while at the Slade school of Art, his marriage to Frances Blogg and his career as a journalist and writer (chapters 1-4). The rest of the book looks at Chesterton's key work in chronological order and uses them to look at the man and, as the subtitle suggests, his impact. Thus it provides an interesting slant on a biography and we get a fuller look at Chesterton's work than we would in a traditional biography.

Belmonte makes good use of secondary sources - he utilises at least ten other biographies. He also draws upon contemporary reviews and criticisms of Chesterton's work; this serves well to place Chesterton's work in its cultural milieu. It is fascinating to read what H L Mencken, G B Shaw and T S Elliott made of Chesterton.

There is a helpful timeline and bibliography, there are 29 pages of notes, but, unfortunately, no index.

This is a great starting book for those who want to get to know better the life and works of G K Chesterton.
… (mer)

I began thinking that the details of this book were somewhat familiar, but just chalked it up to knowing a little about DL Moody already. On concluding this lengthy biography, I noticed that I had read another book about DL Moody by the same author just last year....hmmm, that must be what happens when you read too many books!

I wasn't a big fan of this biography--It is too full of praise for Moody and there are insufficient details of his weaknesses and failures. It does give a good overview of his life and ministry and some of his character can be ascertained. However, there was little about his wife and children. There were too many technical details about places and sources contained within the narrative which resulted in an interrupted flow. I would have preferred to have learned more detail about some of the events and incidents rather than reading a vague overview of everything.

I was surprised to learn of Moody's ecumenical focus--he even went as far as stating that Catholics and Evangelicals are on the same path. He refused to debate the finer points of Scripture preferring to stick to the Gospel--I can see both sides of this argument.

I would recommend the shorter book that the author has written about Moody for those interested in learning about his life and ministry rather than this one. I struggled to really remain interested in this and nearly gave up on it. Academics/scholars might enjoy it or those with a special interest in the subject...… (mer)

Can a biography be focused too much on its subject? This may sound odd, but I think it can. As Christians, we know that our faith comes from God, and we know that He has ordained whatever good works we do in our service for Him. We are also not after the praise of men, nor do we consider it a great compliment to be praised by them. We try to do our good works as unnoticed by people as possible, seeking the praise of God alone.

Knowing all of this, it seems quite strange for this biography of D. L. Moody to begin with telling how Moody was praised by three U. S. Presidents, and that he, "gained an immortality only presidents can bestow: their genuine respect". You'd think that as a Christian Moody would resent the praise of the 'great' people of the world.

Kevin Belmonte made too much of the man. One statement in particular makes it seem as though God was dependent on him. "Consider as well how history would have been different had Moody not resolved to step away from his business career. The Northfield schools , Moody Bible Institute, millions of conversions throughout Britain, Canada, and America - none of these things would ever have happened. Of course, Moody knew nothing of these things. They lay in the future. But we may, with hindsight, see all that hinged on his decision…." The Father is the One who gives people to the Son(John 10:29), and all of the people given to the Son will come to Him(John 6:37). God will not lose any of His people, all of them would have been converted with or without Moody.

I also didn't like the flow of the book very much, it moved backwards and forwards in time too much. It didn't seem like a smooth flow, rather it seemed choppy, but that's just my opinion.

Finally, I was really discouraged by what I learned of Moody himself. The things that stick in my head about him are not of the type that produce admiration. For one thing, I learned that Moody didn't want to discuss disputed passages of scripture. I don't consider that a thing to emulate. He also made the statement, "Men will listen to a story when they won't listen to Scripture" and evidentially put that statement into practice. Stories are not the power of God unto salvation, the Gospel is, and if God's Word is sharper than a two-edged sword, I'm pretty sure its more powerful than storytelling(Heb. 4:12). As Christians who read God's Word, we already know that the Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, and we are not told to change the message to make it less foolish to them, or less convicting. Moody was apparently ecumenical as well, and he seemed to believe that Catholicism is a saving religion. Apparently he stated that, "Catholics have the same Savior as the Protestants - One Shepherd, one Christ". But a true Catholic does not believe that Christ is the only savior, they also have saviors/mediators in Mary, the Apostles and other saints. But the Scriptures say, "For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, " (1 Tim 2:5) Moody ought to have been loving towards Catholics in correcting them, not encouraging them in a false gospel that will not save.

Overall the biography was rather discouraging. Yes, he did a lot of works to help people out practically and materially, but it was his reluctance to delve any deeper into God's Word that is discouraging. I still think that Moody was probably Christian, based on his banking the salvation of his soul on Christ alone, but he didn't seem to grow spiritually as much as he could have, and seemed too unconcerned about false gospels by his not wanting to define salvation much beyond it's being a profession of faith in Christ. I think he was leaving the door open for false professions by not being more specific about what the Bible says of the Gospel. He wasn't fond of creeds, "God does not ask you to believe a creed, but a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.", but we need a creed, or at least a basic set of truths from the Bible beyond mere belief in someone called "Jesus Christ", as it is possible to preach about a false Christ. The Apostle Paul rebukes the Corinthians for listening to a false presentation of Jesus Christ: "For if someone comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or should you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you are all too willing to listen. "(2Co 11:4 ISV) And He also warns the Galatians, "To be sure, there are certain people who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel about the Messiah. "(Gal 1:7 ISV) And he goes on to state, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that person be condemned!
(verse 8) Sounds rather serious, doesn't it? It is possible to preach about Christ and yet be preaching a false Gospel. The Epistles are full of warnings about false teachers masquerading as messengers of the true Gospel, and we are to watch out for them. How will we do that if we do not study in detail what the Bible has to say about the Gospel?

Thanks to Moody Publishers for sending me a free review copy of this book(My review did not have to be favorable).
… (mer)