"William Wilberforce" by Kevin Belmonte

William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was born to a wealthy English merchant family. His father died when he was young, and for a time he was cared for by an uncle and aunt who were staunch Christian believers. His mother was concerned about their influence and brought him back into the immediate family. But a seed was planted, even if the soil looked unpromising for quite a number of years.

When Wilberforce did become a believing Christian, it was an event that would transform Britain and its empire. Against all earthly odds – fierce opposition, including from the king and the wealthy aristocratic class – the many who was small in stature but large in faith would lead the drive to end the slave trade and slavery in the British Empire. And he would undertake a reformation aimed at British morality that would transform British culture and society.

William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity by Kevin Belmonte is a biography worthy of the man. And it something of an unorthodox biography. Rather than a straight chronological account of Wilberforce’s like and deeds, Belmonte focuses the first part of the book on what the man called his “two great objects” – end the slave trade and reform society. The second part of the book includes biographical information, including information about his family and personal life.

A little unorthodox, yes, but it works. The reader gets the powerful account of the man’s accomplishments up front because those are what his life was so much about. And yet, Wilberforce was also a strong family man, deeply involved with the lives of his wife and children.

The critical account in the biography is what Wilberforce himself referred to as “the great change” – his conversion from nominal Anglican to devout Christian. It happened gradually over a two-year period and was the result, Belmonte writes, of a series of unlikely events. The man he asked to travel to the continent with him couldn’t go, and Isaac Milner, a believing Christian, took his place. The two had ample time for long, extended conversations about faith. A book on faith left behind by a cousin stimulated Wilberforce’s thinking. The discussions and the book led to a crisis in faith, forcing the man to grapple with what was happening in his life. He sought counsel from John Newton, the former slave trader turned minister and slavery opponent. 

The entire account is a compelling part of a compelling biography.

Belmonte is also the author of D.L. Moody: A Life (2014); Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life and Impact of G.K. Chesterton (2011); The Quotable Chesterton (2011); and John Bunyan (2012). Among other works. He received a B.A. in English from Gordon College, an M.A. in Church History from Bordon-Conwell Seminary; and an M.A. in American and New England Studies from the University of Southern Maine. The biography of Wilberforce won the John Pollock Award for Christian Biography, and he served as the lead script and historical consultant for the film Amazing Grace, which told the story of Wilberforce.

William Wilberforce succeeds on any number of levels. It’s is a solid account of Wilberforce’s life. It emphasizes the man’s great accomplishments. It puts those accomplishments into the right perspective; Wilberforce and his thinking influenced a generation of people on both sides of the Atlantic, including many of the American founding fathers. When you finish reading it, you simply say, “Well done, Mr. Wilberforce.” And well done, Mr. Belmonte. 

Related: Counting the Cost of Faith – my post on William Wilberforce at Literary Life.

Top painting: William Wilberforce about 1974, oil on canvas by Karl Anton Hickel

Counting the Cost of Faith

Years ago, more than 40 to be precise, I was reading The Habit of Being, the collection of selected letters by Flannery O’Connor that had been recently published. Checking now, I see that my copy was from the third printing. And the book in various forms is still available on Amazon.

It’s a marvelous book, filled with so many great quotations and observations that they’re difficult to keep track of. One that I memorized, and sometimes used in Sunday School classes, was something she said about faith: “What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.”

It is the cross. That observation keeps coming to mind over and over as I read William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity by Kevin Belmonte. Three chapters in particular demonstrate the truth of O’Connor’s statement – the three that describe the “two great objects” Wilberforce said God had set before him once he had experienced the “great change’ and became a believer.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Literary Life.

Painting: William Wilberforce by Karl Anton Hickel, about 1794.

'Defiant Joy' by Kevin Belmonte

Everything about G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) seems to have been oversized. He was famous for his physical size. His literary insights were recognized almost as soon as he began writing and publishing. He was considered a master of the paradox, and he was difficult to best in a debate. His interests ranged from detective fiction to Catholic saints, and he is still unsurpassed for his understanding of Charles Dickens. 

I first “met” Chesterton via his Father Brown mystery stories. Beginning in 1911 and continuing until his death in 1936, Chesterton wrote 53 of the stories. Over the years, the priestly detective has been featured in numerous film, radio, and television adaptations, and even in manga. But the stories are really only an introduction to the Broader Chesterton, and they served me as a bridge to his literary studies, biographies, and other works. 

His works are still widely read today, more than 80 years after his death. He was a philosophical adversary of George Bernard Shaw, but they were also close friends, and Shaw mourned his friend’s death. Chesterton has a more than significant influence on C.S. Lewis, and Lewis acknowledged that it was reading Chesterton that started him down the road to faith. A thriving Chesterton Societystill exists today, comprised of his admirers from around the world. And Chesterton still sounds contemporary; the issues he debated and confronted are similar to the issues of our own day.

Biographies have been written over the years, most notably by Garry Wills in the 1961 Chesterton. Writer Kevin Belmonte, in Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life and Impact of G.K. Chesterton, has written a literary biography that focuses less on the details of Chesterton’s life and more on his major works. It’s an excellent introduction, originally published in 2011.

Belmonte tells his story chronologically, and tells the main facts of the man’s life, but he focuses on Chesterton’s works. We’re introduced to his journalism, of which there was a prodigious amount; the literary studies that first captured the critics’ praise; his book entitled Heretics; his deep understanding of Dickens; Orthodoxy, one of his most famous books; the Father Brown mysteries; his famous poem of England, The Ballad of the White Horse; his biographies of Chaucer, St. Francis, and St. Thomas Aquinas; and his account of his travels in North America, What I Saw in America. 

Belmonte provides summary of the works as well as the critical responses, setting each in its historical and literary context. He allows Chesterton and his critics (good and bad) to speak for themselves, quoting long passages of reviews and Chesterton’s responses. In short, Defiant Joy is everything you hope a literary biography to be, creating an understanding of an important literary and cultural influence who was nothing short of brilliant.

Kevin Belmonte

Belmonte received his B.A. degree in English from Gordon College, an M.A. degree in Church History from Gordon-Conwell Seminary, and an M.A. degree in American and New England Studies from the University of Southern Maine. He works include D.L. Moody: A Life: Innovator, Evangelist, World Changer; A Year with G.K. Chesterton: 365 Days of Wisdom, Wit and Wonder; William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity (with Charles Colson); The Quotable Chesterton; A.J. Gordon: An Epic Journey of Faith and Pioneering Vision; Miraculous: A Fascinating History of Signs, Wonders and Miracles; A Journey through the Life of William Wilberforce; John Bunyan; and Called to a Different Purpose: The Story of Robert Fulton and His Vision for Web Industries.

Defiant Joy provides great insight into the works of one of the most original minds of modern times. It’s an excellent reference, worth reading again and again, and has already inspired me to go back and reread my favorite Chesterton works.