Elton Trueblood (1900–1994)

I have always been afraid of Trueblood, though of course, I never had cause to feel that way. Perhaps I should rather say I have been intimidated by him. As an alumna of Earlham School of Religion, I often had classes in the room named for him, and often sat looking at his formidable visage.

His book on Lincoln's spiritual leadership made me understand a greater humanity in both men. So much of what I had understood (or thought i had) about Trueblood was uninformed personal angst about not show more being smart enough. So much of what I had understood (or thought i had) about American civil religion was directly related to Lincoln, and I never realized this.

Two examples:
Thanksgiving: I thought we just always did this.
"Under God": Even though I have heard the Gettysburg Address, I never correlated the two.

But even more than these two rather glaring examples, I enjoyed having the many Biblical references which littered both Lincoln's speech and writing explicated. Abraham Lincoln was truly a President who acted with faith and spoke with faith and believed that his faith would carry not only himself, but the Union, AND the Confederacy, to fulfill what God had ordained. show less

Trueblood is a quaker theologian who writes in this book of the power of the early church. He encourages us to remember that the early church was not popular, and they thrived on that fact. I appreciate that Trueblood drives us back to scripture over and over. He reminds us that church exisits for the world, and not the world for the church. We are to be going out and doing the work of evangelist, driven by Holy Fire.

I have never read a book that so clearly articulated the vision for God's church that we carry out in our campus ministry, where the reaching is done by both missionaries and students (mostly by the committed students!), and people are reached in community and offered an opportunity to journey with us to get to know Jesus. It's about "building an army, not an audience!"

Along the same vein, I would highly recommend The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert E. Coleman. Coleman gives further show more biblical basis for many of Trueblood's more experience-backed convictions.

In response to other reviewers, I noticed only a few things that were "dated," mostly the examples, for which present-day ones could just as easily be substituted. But my favorite authors died between 1910 and 1930, so that could affect what I notice :)

May many more lives be changed through living the vision of this book. show less

Transcript of the 1939 Swarthmore lecture

For the early Christians, faith in God was a matter of acquaintance rather than speculation---something akin to Quaker empiricism. The word George Fox used for this was ‘experimental’ which is similar to the word ‘experiential’ Friends have always emphasized the importance of the direct experience of God over cumulative knowledge of God. By applying epistemological logic to the many experiences of God recorded through history he puts forward show more a validation of them and invites us to know a Power beyond that of ourselves which transforms, heals, and sustains us in this life. show less