Book review — A Burning and Shining Light: The Testimony and Witness of George Whitefield

Dan Nelson. Somis, CA: LifeSong Publishers, 2017. 340 pp. (Paperback).

I always enjoy reading biographies of our spiritual forerunners. George Muller, Jonathan Edwards, John and Charles Wesley, Dwight L. Moody, Billy Graham — all of their stories can serve to inspire us. George Whitefield’s story is no exception.

I had heard of George Whitefield but couldn’t have told you what century he occupied or even where he preached. I did not know he was a contemporary of the Wesley brothers and Jonathan Edwards. I certainly didn’t know that he preached to crowds of 20,000 at a time and led revivals in several countries.

The most interesting parts of this biography for me involved Whitefield’s relationship with John Wesley. The two were friends and colleagues but had a falling out over Whitefield’s Calvinistic leanings. You didn’t know the controversy was raging even in the 1700s? Me neither. Really interesting! Just to set your mind at ease, the two made up later and Wesley preached at a memorial service for his friend after Whitefield’s death.

This just scratches the surface of the gems revealed in “A Burning and Shining Light.” This well-researched biography, with its more than 900 footnotes, also is an engaging read. As a bonus it includes an extensive bibliography and quite a few photographs of sites connected with Whitefield — including one of the author performing an impersonation of Whitefield at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

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Meet the reviewer

Martine Bates Fairbanks, Ed.D., reviews books and movies for The Alabama Baptist. She is a university professor and retired principal. She is a member of Central Baptist Church, Decatur.