Knox, Great Man of Weakness

Douglas Bond brings us the latest in Reformation Trust’s “Long Line of Godly Men” series; a biography of John Knox entitled The Mighty Weakness of John Knox. Bond uses the first quarter of the book to set out a brief outline of Knox’s life, making mention of important events and dates, while using the remainder of the book to explain notable events in finer detail, and Knox’s theology in general.

While the book is quite short and merely meant as an introduction to Knox and his influence on the church and Scotland, Bond does quite well in his short treatment. While I would have liked more of a traditional biography, I believe this particular series does not intend to contain strictly biographical sketches. Bond mentions most of the key events in Knox’s life: his time as a bodyguard, his encounters with Mary Queen of Scots, his denunciations of Bloody Mary, and some of his travels to Geneva and Frankfurt. But each of these events is mentioned with such brevity that we really do not get much of an impression of the man. We get more of a blur.

Bond spends most of his time on Knox’s theological views and influence in the church, and that is where the strong point of this book lies. Numerous quotes are offered from Knox himself that really help the reader to understand Knox and his desperation in trying to recover the integrity and majesty of Christ’s Kirk in not only Scotland, but around the world. I would like to thank Reformation Trust Publishing for this complimentary reading copy.

"J.R.R. Tolkien," by Mark Horne

“J.R.R. Tolkien”, by Mark Horne, is a new biography of Tolkien that acts more as an introduction to Tolkien rather than a full biography. Although coming in at 130 pages, this short work is quite a nice overview of Tolkien’s life. This book genuinely makes one want to read not only Tolkien’s work, but also fuller biographies of his life.

Horne’s emphasis throughout his biography was Tolkien’s desire to create stories that would not only stand the test of time, but would inspire and radiate beauty to his readers. Tolkien, very much a perfectionist, held himself very strictly to this standard, and was extremely hesitant to release any of his writings. Were it not for some of his students, his wife, or friends like C.S. Lewis, we might not have The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. These people did not simply supply encouragement, but also pushed Tolkien to share his work with the public.

While Horne shows us Tolkien as academic and Tolkien as fantasy-writer, he also shows us the adventurous years of his youth, such as Tolkien hijacking a bus and driving it through Oxford.

Despite its brevity, this biography does what all good biographies should do: give the reader a desire to delve into the person’s work. I’d like to thank Thomas Nelson for this complimentary book to review.