Another two biographies in the bitesize series cover the Reformers Farel (1489-1565) and Knox (1514-1572). These two biographies stick to the remit quite well, the latter written by a retired pastor (John J Murray) and the former by an academic.
There are eight chapters on Farel, the eighth being an assessment looking at his character and mission; Scripture, God's will and true righteousness, the Sacraments and his spirituality. The book does well to show that Farel was an important figure in his own right even though he was clearly not of the stature of Calvin. It made me want to hunt out the brief theology he wrote and look at it again. The style is fine although certain sentences read like bad translations. Was it translated from French by its Canadian author, Jason Zuidema?
No problems of that sort in John J Murray's fine survey of the life of Knox. Slightly shorter, perhaps, it has 12 chapters, the final one being on the Knox legacy and noting that he was the man for the hour, impelled by the fear of God, a preacher of God's Word, a Reformer by conviction, one who made Geneva the model for Scotland, who laid foundations for the future state and who made Scotland over I his own image. It is good to be reading about Knox in this anniversary year and with the Scots voting next Autumn too. (Steve Lawrence's contributions in the Banner are good too).
The Farel paperback has a glossy cover for some reason. All the rest are in matt.
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