If you haven't seen it yet, see the movie Amazing Grace, an inspiring movie about the life of William Wilberforce, an adult convert to Christianity who was elected to the British Parliament at 21, and who was instrumental in England's abolition of the slave trade. The movie does an excellent job of capturing the different facets and histories of this remarkable individual. The life of Wilberforce was not easy - he suffered personal crises regarding his his health, public ridicule by influential people, slander, humiliating defeats in the political process, even assassination attempts. His fire and persistence were truly amazing.
We couldn't find Wilberforce's texts online, but the first two chapters are available at the links below. Brock has just started Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery and I just found Wilberforce's Real Christianity: Discerning True Faith from False Beliefs and started to read. It's excellent and personally challenging. Excerpt:
"You might think that if you consider yourself a “good” person and are against “bad” things, your faith is adequate. The fact is, you might not be a Christian at all but simply a moral person. You might understand the Christianity our culture has adopted without understanding what constitutes authentic faith. You might know some of the basic facts about Christianity but have no idea how those facts should apply to your life."
For those who were interested in finding out more about what happened to Wilberforce where the movie left off, Wilberforce had 6 children, was apparently a great father (he considered his responsibilities as a father more important than his role in parliament), and a life-long happy marriage. Two of his sons became Anglican clergymen who converted to Catholicism- third son Samuel was famous for engaging Thomas Huxley on a debate regarding Darwin's On the Origin of Species at Oxford.
The life of William Pitt from the is also worth noting, we'll blog on him in a future post. Have a great weekend - we'll post about Classical Education and reluctant writers next week.
Peculiar Doctrines - Wilberforce
You have not labored in vain - Christian History
First Two Chapters of Wilberforce's Real Christianity
Amazing Grace - The Movie Site
Wilberforce Biography at the Wilberforce School
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