William E. Phipps - Amazing Grace in John Newton: Slave Ship Captain, Hymn Writer, and Abolitionist

In Amazing Grace, the best-loved of all hymns, John Newton s allusions to the drama of his life tell the story of a youth who was a virtual slave in Sierra Leone before ironically becoming a slave trader himself. Liverpool, his home port, was the center of the most colossal, lucrative, and inhumane slave trade the world has ever known. A gradual spiritual awakening transformed Newton into an ardent evangelist and antislavery activist. Influenced by Methodists George Whitefield and John Wesley, Newton became prominent among those favoring a Methodist-style revival in the Church of England. This movement stressed personal conversion, simple worship, emotional enthusiasm, and social justice. While pastor of a poor flock in Olney, he and poet William Cowper produced a hymnal containing such perennial favorites as Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken and God Moves in a Mysterious Way. Later, while serving a church in London, Newton raised British consciousness on the immorality of the slave trade. The account he gave

Pages: 296, Paperback, Mercer University Press