7 Men: And the Secret of Their Greatness by Eric MetaxasMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The only problem I have with this book is that each biography is brief enough to have me looking through Metaxas' bibliography to read more about his subjects.
Not that Metaxas does an incomplete job writing about these great men but because he whets your appetite.
These men are probably not going to be considered the greatest men by many and maybe some of them shouldn't but I appreciated the author's reasons for including them.
While Mr. Metaxas honestly shows the foibles of each man he shows that humans can also be great while making mistakes or wrong or even immoral decisions.
Also, Metaxas is not set out to write a thorough biography of these men but rather focus on why he believes they are great.
The first biography is of George Washington. Metaxas does not spare the young Washington who lied about the massacre of French soldiers at the hands of a couple of Indians during a diplomatic negotiation that was to hopefully stave off war between the British and French.
He also shows his bravery and his abilities as a war strategist.
But he also points out something that seems to be overlooked in every historical account of our first president.
He agreed to become our president but refused to become our King. This was unprecedented in the entire recorded history of mankind. And people did not simply go along with it. There were several leaders who were bent on making George Washington King and he had a battle to fight against them.
Another important feature about Washington has to do with his slaves. Many authors enjoy pointing out the hypocrisy of a man who spent his life fighting for human freedom as described in the Constitution but not many seem inclined to admit or know that Washington freed all of his slaves before he died and left the elderly slaves with pensions.
It's easy to judge slave owners now, but how many today, of any race, in the same position would have done the same thing back then? How many of us are fighting against the slavery that still exists today throughout the African continent and the Middle East?
Wilberforce is of course included since he helped fight against slavery in England and succeeded in having it outlawed in the country seventy years before it was finally outlawed in the U.S.
Bonhoeffer is described as a radical in his own right because he refused to bend his knee to Hitler and the German Reich Church that thought it could syncretize Christianity with fascism.
He is less clear as to why he sees Pope John Paul II is great although I found his brief biography of the man interesting.
Metaxas also includes his hero and mentor Chuck Colson, the man who worked under President Nixon and went to jail only to become a Christian and start a Prison Ministry that is still serving Prisoners and their families.
One of the most inspiring was Eric Liddell. He was the Olympic gold medalist who became famous in the movie Chariots of Fire. Everyone knows his bravery in refusing to run in the Olympics on Sunday, but not many of us know how about his life as a missionary in China, where he died under Japanese occupation in a prison camp. Or that he died because when offered released gave his place to a pregnant woman and chose to remain in the camp in her stead.
But I must say my very favorite Great Man and the most inspiring to me was Jackie Robinson. Not just because he was the first black man to join a professional baseball team but because of all that he endured, how he refused to fight back and how his Christ-like practice of turning the other cheek forced white America to confront the ugliness of racism and be convicted in their hearts.
This is a highly readable book and I recommend it.
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