Semester Break

The fall semester has come to an end. Today is the last day of regular classes, with final exams next week.

I look forward to having one month off. After having submitted the manuscript of Early Evangelicalism: A Reader, I intend to use the month of December to catch up on my reading. There are several books on my shelves that I have not had the time to read, and so I hope to tackle some of these titles over the next few weeks.

I recently finished Paul Gutjahr's Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Orthodoxy. I don't have time to write a proper review, but can honestly say that it was a joy to read. Gutjahr deserves a round of applause for bringing to life a key religious figure who has been neglected by scholars for decades. I especially appreciated the numerous images and charts that Gutjahr included as well as the contextual information that he provided throughout his narrative.
Hodge lived a long life (1797-1878) and taught several years at Princeton Theological Seminary and so Gutjahr had to do a lot of research on American history, from the establishment of the early republic to beyond the Civil War. The book is not very theologically rich in its delineation of Hodge's thought, but it is an enjoyable read and I would easily recommend it to non-specialists interested in American religious history and especially people who want to learn about the evolution of American Presbyterianism from the end of the eighteenth century to the latter half of the nineteenth century.

The last few days I have returned to Debby Applegate's The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher. I had to put it down about halfway through to complete other projects, but now I am determined to finish it. Applegate's book is truly one of the best biographies I have read in a long time. While I love reading a good monograph, Applegate's book could be recommended to family and friends without any caveats. It is funny, interesting, well researched and eloquently written. After each chapter I am continually amazed at her superb writing style. Henry Ward Beecher comes alive in her descriptions of him so that you feel as though you know the man as well as a lifelong friend.

The Most Famous Man in 19th-Century America

With one week before the start of the semester, I chose to read Debby Applegate's book, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher. I had leafed through several other books on my shelves, including Sarah Rivett's The Science of the Soul in Colonial New England and Amanda Porterfield's Conceived in Doubt: Religion and Politics in the New American Nation, but I decided to take a break from reading academic monographs. I couldn't have picked a more refreshing book than Applegate's.

I'm about half-way through and can easily say that this is an extremely well-written and engaging biography of arguably the most famous American preacher in the nineteenth century. Henry Ward Beecher was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and the son of Lyman Beecher, the New England minister who went on to serve as the founding president of Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. Applegate presents H. W. Beecher as a shy boy who overcomes his insecurities to become a masterful rhetorician and extroverted preacher. Over time Beecher rejects the message that he was accustomed to hearing as a child of God's judgment, instead promoting the love of God towards humanity. Toward the end of his life, Beecher gained national headlines when he was accused of having an adulterous relationship with one of his parishioners.

Applegate is a superb writer, and the book is very well researched (Applegate earned a PhD in American Studies at Yale University). There is one issue, however, that I did not think received adequate treatment. She presents Lyman Beecher as a "Puritan" who preached "fire and brimstone" messages on God's wrath and judgment. Yet after these opening chapters on the elder Beecher's role as the town dictator of Litchfield, Connecticut, she sneaks in that he was scrutinized by conservative Calvinists for holding liberal theological views. After he moved to Cincinnati, Lyman was put on trial for his perceived heterodoxy (he was acquitted). In reading this type of background information, one wonders if Applegate had digested the nuances between the various types of Calvinism taught and practiced in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. In fairness, some of the debates between the Old and New School Presbyterians and New England and New Haven ministers are difficult to digest. Nonetheless, it would have been nice to have placed Lyman Beecher within the proper theological context.

Putting aside these comments, I can't praise this book enough. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to read an intelligent biography about a key American figure.