Review: A Tender Lion by Bennet W. Rogers
Book info
P. #: 318, 380 with Appendix, Bibliography, and Index
Author: John Charles Ryle (1816-1900)
Life: Ryle’s life was full of constant controversy, pushback, and disagreement. He fought against many doctrines that were new or revitalized in the mid and late 1800s like the doctrine of Perfectionism. Ryle was a man who was willing to stand alone for the sake of Christ, and often did so.
General info about author: Ryle was a pastor, theologian, tract writer, first Bishop of Liverpool, husband, and father. Ryle was a very devoted pastor even from his first parish, (p. 30)
Overall Summery/review:
First rigid and academic biography of Ryle. On p. xiii, “The purpose of this work...” and p. xv, “The aim of this work...”
I wouldn’t recommend reading this as an introduction to Ryle, but it’s great for those who want to have a deeper understanding of Ryle. For those just starting to read about Ryle or Ryle’s work, I highly recommend the autobiography and Prepared to Stand Alone (which we’ve reviewed here on the channel before).
Unlike most other biographies (of Ryle and others) which go chronologically through Ryle’s life, Bennet instead takes us through Ryle’s life topically. This allows us to study each portion of his life individually.
This book also gives us a look into his political views, his pastoral philosophy (p. 20-21), Theological views (p. 18), his traditionalism and his progressivism. (p. 313-314)
One very nerdy thing included on p. 54 is a graph that compares several sermons to each other.
Includes many, many footnotes, and an extremely substantial bibliography at the back.
So many times during my life, I’ve felt like I’m doing nothing; that I’m not doing enough with my life. Ryle also felt this way while in school stating that that time was a time of, “Patient learning and not active doing” (p. 26)
Content: Read Table of Contents.
Quotes: p. 14, 16, 59, 61, 65-66, 102, 128, 137, 213, 249, 318