Bringing slaves from Africa to England over multiple trips, he admitted to sometimes treating the slaves abhorrently. Upon his return, however, Newton became a slave ship master, a profession in which he served for several years.
On the return voyage to England, a violent storm hit and almost sank the ship, prompting Newton to begin his spiritual conversion as he cried out to God to save them from the storm. Later, abandoned by his crew in West Africa, he was forced to be a servant to a slave trader but was eventually rescued.
Having lived through a rather unfortunate and troubled childhood (his mother passed away when he was just six years old), Newton spent years fighting against authority, going so far as trying to desert the Royal Navy in his twenties. Knowing the story of John Newton's life as a slave trader and the journey he went through before writing the hymn will help to understand the depth of his words and his gratefulness for God's truly amazing grace. Written almost two and a half centuries ago in 1772, the words for the beloved song were borne from the heart, mind and experiences of the Englishman John Newton. The story behind the hymn "Amazing Grace" But knowing where the song came from allows us to appreciate it in a new and more profound way. We tend to sing its words and reflect on them in terms of our own lives - grateful for God's grace - and understandably so. " Amazing Grace" is easily one of the most recognizable hymns in the English-speaking world.Īlthough the words and tune ( NEW BRITAIN, for those of us who aren't hymn tune connoisseurs) are recognizable to most, many are unaware of the song's history. Considering that some estimates claim that the beloved spiritual is performed roughly 10 million times annually, it's no wonder. I have my own little circle of the Internet that appreciates this stuff.Chances are, you started humming along as you read those Amazing Grace lyrics. Above, I agreed to disagree on this topic, so I'm not even looking for the theology to be respected, just that the conditions that exist to birth such a theology - i.e. I have to just sit in the back and deal with husband/wife, masculine/feminine, Father/Mother theological imagery/mechanics which resonates with everyone else in the room except for like 5% (maybe greater?) of us - and the minute we want to talk about something that actually has to do with our own lives, the fact that we're a minority is the precise reason why we can't talk about it? I'm pretty sure Jesus' whole "last will be first" thing means that that isn't necessarily right. And I can't help that my sexuality isn't normative. How could I have nicely reminded the thread that among the folksy hoi polloi are non-straights and non-whites? Any day now the average American won't be white. Part of what attracts me to doing that in dialogue with Anglicanism is that the tradition allows for an intellectually honest assessment of orthodoxy and its claims. I am being forced to reconsider decisions that I made over a decade ago when I walked away from the religion.
I will confess something to you: I am deeply disturbed by the potential displacement of mainline Protestant Christianity, and more generally the sense of the sacred that does not abandon reason in favor of wilful ignorance. But it won't stop someone in that church from realizing that they are gay, or learning about Charles Darwin, or reading an article about the archeological and historical case against the simplistic history of orthodox faith. You can run off to your bible thumping, working class church. Contrast Wright with someone like Peter Enns, who thoughtfully wrestles with the consequences of biblical criticism. What has NT Wright produced? A treatise on the physical resurrection that convinces no one who doesn't already affirm the creeds. Particularly people like Spong and Borg who, for all the hate that they get for the effort, at least cared deeply about the truth, the Christian tradition and intellectual honesty. I agree that they have not succeeded, but at least they made an attempt. Your theologians attempted to respond to that crisis. The crisis was created by the creeds, as they clashed with modernity. To be fair, your theologians did not create the crisis.