I must confess that until reading Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, I knew nothing of William Wilberforce, nor the author of the book, Eric Metaxas.
I and nearly everyone I spoke to assumed that the movie and the book which accompanies it were about John Newton, ex-slave trader and writer of the famous hymn.
In Amazing Grace, Eric Metaxas recounts the story of Wilberforce's life, from his birth, to his first discovery of faith, to his education, then focuses on his return to a life of genuine faith after having established himself in the British Parliament of the time. It also covers his marriage and eventual death.
The book goes to some depth about the passions that Wilberforce immersed himself in after his conversion: "The Reformation of Manners' and the abolition of the slave trade, his "Two Great Causes'.
Britain at the time had descended into rampant immorality and nominalism was quite widespread within the Church of England. Wilberforce himself was a Methodist, the description given to those that took their faith seriously and allowed it to impact upon their life, and as such, sought to re-establish some form of social conscience within eighteenth-century Britain. This "Reformation of Manners' as Metaxas describes it, was at least as significant as the abolition of the slave trade and eventual emancipation of slaves, of which Wilberforce was a driving force.
Metaxas describes all this with vibrant, colourful language that is quite eloquent. He somehow manages to float between a factual, biographical style and telling an engaging tale that you almost feel a part of. Not only does he focus on the events of Wilberforce's life, but also interweaves his story into it's historical context. He also introduces characters who strike the reader as real, living people. The one criticism I have of his literary style is that I often felt I needed to read the book with a dictionary by my side, as his vocabulary is incredibly extensive.
As a Christian I found this book to be heartening. Wilberforce embodied a faith that is serious, that cares for the sick and the destitute, that values holiness yet doesn't retreat from the world:
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:27).
By choosing to stay in politics, he also fulfilled Jesus' exhortation to the disciples; Wilberforce was indeed "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world" and endeavoured to "let [his] light shine before men" (Matthew 5:13-16).
This is the kind of faith and passion we must pray for if we too are to see "an unusual work of God in our time" that Archbishop Jensen spoke of in his Presidential Address in 2005. And the object of such a faith is Jesus. His death and resurrection sets us free from our slavery to sin, in order that we might be slaves to God instead, being led to holiness and eternal life (Romans 6).
I commend this book as a brilliant example of a life that was profoundly impacted by genuine faith in Christ.
