I am even more convinced of the importance of this book nearly a year after I first read the book. I am planning on re-reading this in 2013.
Takeaway: A perfect example of why we need historians to help us work through modern problems.
This is a whim book. I borrowed it on Lendle because it was by Mark Noll, not because I knew anything about it. What a wonderful surprise! I have been working through a project over the last year to understand what scripture is and how we should be using it as Christians. Had I known about this book I would have read it earlier.
Noll does a masterful job walking the reader through the theological issues of the Civil War. I grew up hearing about the brave Christians that called for an end of slavery. In recent years there was a decent movie and book about William Wilberforce and his explicitly Christian work to abolish slavery in England. I went to Wheaton College, which was a stop on the underground railroad and started by Jonathan Blanchard an outspoken Abolitionist. (Noll taught at Wheaton for 15 years, including while I was there.)
But the story is not so simple. Many people are aware that people on both sides of the Civil War thought that God was on their side. Abraham Lincoln has a famous quote, “The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong.”
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Summary: A short Christmas themed Sherlock Holmes mystery.