A good book with which to conclude the year. It took me about four months, but I finished more than half of it in a two-week push. This biography is more laudatory in its style and approach than what would generally be favored today; but on the other hand, I think the book would’ve lost something if it hadn’t been written by one who personally loved and was mentored by Machen.

It was really helpful to get a fuller picture of Machen as a churchman and scholar (one who had been much acquainted with theological liberalism), not simply a narrow controversialist. The chapter on [b: Christianity and Liberalism|156871|Christianity and Liberalism|J. Gresham Machen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387739498l/156871._SX50_.jpg|151382] was especially valuable in its assessment of Machen in relation to the emergent Fundamentalism of the day.

Also interesting to compare the personalities of Machen and Vos, after having read Vos’s letters a year ago.

Finally, I must register my amusement as a Hollins University alumna, as JGM preached there in 1917. He wrote to Mother Machen, “They are the only pretty girls [...] whom I had seen for 15 years. Had I enjoyed such advantages before I got too old, my life might have been different! It was really lots of fun. I wish I could preach to that same senior class every Sunday, and join the class-meeting afterwards.” !!!! This especially delights because, as a former attendee of such services as still took place in the college chapel in recent decades, I doubt Machen would *ever* have received an invitation to preach there 100 years later. And I don’t know if he would have had the same reaction to the “girls”...! Still, Hollins women have always had their ways of making an impression, it seems! ( )