Wondering just what you all are gleaning from your reading of these things, the books mentioned ...
Thought I might call it up to attention again.
I have been really busy and can only grab short times of reading but that which I have has me already thinking out ahead to more and more - Briefly, one of the things that has really stood out to me is the parallels to even this setting, this forum. It is a form of 'letter writing' in it's own rite and perhaps the challenge is that rather than the more personal letter that is one to one - It's one to many ...
At the same time though it has been also a humbling and a conviction, just how far yet there is to go - where I have failed to be as charitable as I ought amongst other things ...
Have been going back and forth between the two books mentioned earlier - One being more of a discourse and extrapolation of his life, the style of his writings and so forth ... too early to tell and frankly some of it sits a bit skewered in making much ado of the 'style' of writing, the comparisons to the novel and it's development - it's done fairly enough ... maybe it's the slight sense of too much tweaking with someones expressed honesty? Too didactic? Again, still early ...
A couple of things that caught my attention and had me searching all about for more info. One, [i]The Eclectic Society[/i] which was mentioned in the same book and a bit to follow, the other being the [i]Authentic Narrative[/i] that looks to be the next up on the list somewhere down the road. Even within that [i]Narrative[/i], some names that influenced him have me also wanting to know more about them as well.
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[b]Newton clips from Cornerstone course[/b]
Here are a few highlights from the Cornerstone course--John Newton session. They are pretty raw, but I thought folks might like to see and interact with them:
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Yes, he was a sea captain—a backslider from his mother's evangelical faith—who worked in the slave trade and had many adventures and near-death experiences. And yes, it was a storm at sea that first turned him back to God in prayer, (although his ship didn't capsize).
But Newton didn't get hauled out of the water, dry himself off, and write the famous hymn. No, "Amazing Grace" belonged to a second, and Newton believed, far more exciting and important, phase of his life. The part where he became the Anglican curate of an impoverished English midlands town, then the rector of one of London's most prestigious parishes. And became the most influential person to shape evangelicalism in its crucial "teen years" after the heyday of John Wesley.
To Newton, those years as a lonely soul wrestling with God through dangerous situations in exotic locales did not hold a candle, for excitement and eternal significance, to his long career as a pastor.
. . . the hundreds of warm Christian friendships he built over the years, and the work he did to bring Christians together across boundaries of class, denomination, and theology. [b]These[/b] were the touchstone of his years as pastor—and what he would really want us to remember him for.
Newton was the ultimate Christian boundary-crosser and bridge-builder. He was a Calvinist who accepted Arminians, a state-church pastor who encouraged independent churches, friend of prominent personalities who was comfortable in the company of the working poor.
In an America more pluralistic than ever on its Christian scene—not to mention the many non-Christian religions—John Newton is a man worth knowing.
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Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.
Though some today wonder if the word "wretch" is hyperbole or a bit of dramatic license, John Newton clearly did not think so. In fact often, throughout his life, he referred to himself as "the old African blasphemer."
***
It was during this period of peak influence in his London parish that Newton founded the Eclectic Society, a group of like-minded "Gospel" clergy, to discuss the issues of the day. It was, he said, "the society that bears no name, and espouses no party." It included in its membership Anglicans, nonconformists, and even a Moravian or two.
The agenda of each monthly meeting was driven by a single question, submitted by one of the members at the end of the previous meeting. The members would take turns answering, and Newton kept minutes in a small journal.
The questions spanned theological issues, cultural trends, and the practical trials and dilemmas of church and family life—from "How should we reconcile Paul and James on justification?" to "What are the particular dangers of youth in the present day?"
Newton insisted the group maintain a high tone of gracious humility. In responding to theological error and dealing with ecclesiastical foes, kindness always took precedence over sternness and persuasion over polemics.
"If we stretch our authority, we lose it," Newton observed.
In both its charitable tone and its parachurch format, the Eclectic Society became the model for other parachurch societies (including William Wilberforce's influential Clapham Sect) and agencies (including the great British missionary societies, two of which were birthed out of the Eclectic Society).
***
[b]How Did Newton Build Bridges?[/b]
By ministering to the needy, engendering hope in hopeless places.
By building broad personal friendships, fostered by considerable personal correspondence.
By holding fast to his theological convictions, but not allowing them to prevent cooperation.
By working within the government-sanctioned religious system where possible, around it only when necessary.
By giving lay people power and responsibility, encouraging their freedom of thought (unfortunately, at the expense of his pastoral authority).
By gathering people with divergent views and encouraging civil conversation.
[url=http://deadchristianssociety.blog.com/JOHN+NEWTON/]Dead Christians Society[/url]
([i]Neat site![/i])
