John Newton’s Amazing Grace: The Man and the Story Behind the Song -with guest Dr. Bruce Hindmarsh Bruce Hindmarsh holds the James M. Houston Chair of Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver. He has published and spoken widely to international audiences on the history of early British evangelicalism. His recent book, Amazing Grace: The Life of John Newton and the Surprising Story Behind the Song, co-authored with Craig Borlase, offers a dramatic biography of John Newton, the 18th century slave-trader turned abolitionist who penned the poem, Amazing Grace, that has become the near universal hymn of humanity in the western world. Bruce joins Steve to talk about this page-turner of a dramatic biography which will also yield a feature-length documentary in 2024. WEBSITE: www.brucehindmarsh.com Books by Bruce Hindmarsh: Amazing Grace: The Life of John Newton and the Surprising Story Behind the Song By Bruce Hindmarsh and Craig Borlase (W Publishing Group, an imprint of Thomas Nelson, 2023) Newton’s story is shocking, and Amazing Grace does not try to airbrush or excuse his faults. There are glaring contradictions in the life of a ship’s Captain who retreats to his cabin to study his Bible and write tender love letters to his wife while hundreds of slaves lie in chains in the hold below. The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism: True Religion in a Modern World By Bruce Hindmarsh (Oxford University Press, 2018) The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism sheds new light on the nature of evangelical religion by locating its rise with reference to major movements of the 18th century, including Modernity, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment. Hindmarsh draws on a wide range of sources to make meaningful connections between the evangelical awakening and the history of science, law, art, and literature. For Christ and His Kingdom: Inspiring a New Generation By James Houston and Bruce Hindmarsh (Regent College Publishing, 2013) Dr. Hindmarsh presents the need for intellectual and spiritual integrity as essential to paradosis, the transmission of a living faith to the next generation, while Dr. Houston provides a compelling case for a fulsome theological understanding of the person in Christ as intrinsic to an authentic Christian education that avoids the reductionism of secular viewpoints. The Evangelical Conversion Narrative: Spiritual Autobiography in Early Modern England By Bruce Hindmarsh (Oxford University Press, 2005) In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, thousands of ordinary women and men experienced evangelical conversion and turned to a certain form of spiritual autobiography to make sense of their lives. This book traces the rise and progress of conversion narrative as a unique form of spiritual autobiography in early modern England. John Newton and the English Evangelical Tradition: Between the Conversions of Wesley and Wilberforce By Bruce Hindmarsh Dr. Hindmarsh draws upon extensive archival and antiquarian sources to provide a serious, scholarly consideration of the life and religious thought of John Newton (1725-1807). In addition, he uses the theme of Newton as a 'sort of middle man' to explore the religious understanding of a whole generation who knew themselves as 'evangelical' although this was different from those who later adopted the term as a badge of partisan loyalty. SONG: Come To My Help (Psalm 70:1) By Steve Bell *WATCH VODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/ZfLYdoPvxTA SEE ALSO: In 2021 Steve released a independant vodcast with Dr. Bruce Hindmarsh discussing the life of St. John of The Cross and his poem "Dark Night of the Soul" which is the inspiration for Steve's song of the same name. The vodcast includes a performance video of the song at the end of the conversation. Watch: Steve Bell Video Podcast: Bruce Hindmarsh "Dark Night of the Soul" (St. John of the Cross)
