The two biographies that I have read recently are "William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity" by Kevin Belmonte and "Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery" by Eric Metaxas. While both biographies covered much of the same territory, each lent a different perspective. Belmonte took a more formal approach focusing on the personal life of Wilberforce. Metaxas was a more eloquent writer, but I sometimes wished for him to edit his flowery thoughts and focus on the facts. Metaxas gave me a better cultural perspective of the time period and went into more detail in setting up the context of Wilberforce's actions. After reading each book, I was pressed with the desire to live a more productive and Christ-centered life as Wilberforce did.
When I began reading Wilberforce's own words, I realized within the first pages that he was going to open my eyes and challenge me as a result of his faith and observations. While "A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes in This Country Contrasted with Real Christianity" (Wilberforce wrote his book at a time when book titles were written with the intent to make its’ content as clear as possible—it was pre-catchy-title days!) was written and published for the first time over 200 years ago in 1797, the principles of the book are as relevant for today's readers as any I've ever read.
The book that I read was actually an adaptation/paraphrase of Wilberforce's original book by Bob Beltz--the producer of the film "Amazing Grace". In the future I would like to read Wilberforce's original book in order to evaluate the integrity of the paraphrase. I am thankful to Beltz for updating the language of Wilberforce's classic and making in more readable for a modern audience.
In the coming days I will be breaking down the chapters of "Real Christianity" in order to provide a summary, book review and commentary on some of the most intriguing points of the text. Here is a breakdown of what is to come:
Chapter 1: The State of Contemporary Christianity
--what Wilberforce calls "Cultural Christianity" Even though Wilberforce was using contemporary to describe England in 1797, I was impressed with how prescriptive it was of modern-day Christianity in 2011.
Chapter 2: Current Ideas about the Nature of Man
Section 1: Faulty Ideas about the True State of Humanity
Section 2: Faulty Ideas about Evil
Section 3: Objections to These Facts
Chapter 3: Understanding Cultural Christianity
Section 1: Essential Truths of Authentic Christianity
Section 2: Emotions and Faith
Section 3: Faulty Thinking about the Holy Spirit
Section 4: Faulty Thinking about Acceptance with God
Chapter 4: True Standards of Christian Behavior
Section 1: How Belief Influences Behavior
Section 2: The Behavior of the Cultural Christian
Section 3: The Concern about what People Think about Us Compared to the Attitude of
Authentic Christianity
Section 4: Faulty Thinking about “Good” Lives and “Good” Deeds as Substitutes for
Authentic Faith
Section 5: Other Problems with Cultural Christianity
Section 6: The Big Problem with Faulty Thinking about Christian Theology
Chapter 5: Arguments for True Christianity
Chapter 6: The Current State of Christianity
Chapter 7: Practical Hints about Authentic Faith
Section 1: Faith that is Not Faith
Section 2: Some Advice to Those Who Believe
Section 3: Brief Comments to Various Kinds of Skeptics
Section 4: Advice for Those Who Possess Authentic Faith
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