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The Protestant distinctives of Philip Doddridge

A tercentenary lecture

Useful summary

PHILIP'S PROGRESS
A Doddridge Tercentenary Lecture
36 pages. ISBN 0 9526716 5 4

THE PROTESTANT DISTINCTIVES OF PHILIP DODDRIDGE
A Tercentenary Lecture
26 pages. ISBN 0 9526716 6 2

Both by Alan C. Clifford
Available at £2.50 each (plus p&p) from: Charenton Reformed Publishing, 8 Le Strange Close, Norwich NR2 3PN

In 2002 Alan C. Clifford published a biography of Philip Doddridge called The Good Doctor. It is a paperback of 319 pages. With so many interesting Christians waiting to have their biographies written, we are entitled to speculate whether anything massively new has been added to the seven biographical works listed after his entry in The Encyclopaedia of Christianity. One, though out of print, includes his complete Correspondence and Diary in five volumes, so there is unlikely to be much new detail.

The first of Dr. Clifford's booklets is a useful summary of the worthy man's career, based on material from The Good Doctor. We have descriptions of his life and work. There is a particularly charming account of his marriage, 'a beautiful blend of spirituality and romance', which was an enormous strength to him, and enabled him to accomplish more than otherwise would have been the case. We learn about Doddridge the writer, the educator, the polemicist, the preacher, the hymn writer, the patriot (who was prepared to fight the Roman Catholic 'Bonnie Prince Charlie'), the Congregation-alist Academy Principal, and the philanthropist. Finally we follow him to Lisbon where TB took his life just before he was 50.

Not all readers will agree with: 'I believe that Doddridge is at least worthy of a nomination for "Man of the Millennium".' That is 'over the top', as Clifford says. And why should J.C. Ryle be criticised for leaving him out of Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century? Many of us would think that Ryle chose well in deciding to exclude him.

If a reader decides to buy one of the two booklets, not both, the first should be chosen on the grounds that a fair deal of the material finds its way into the second.

The cover of the second booklet 'speaks': there are three portraits - Calvin, Luther, and Doddridge. Yes; all three are Protestants, but Doddridge does not have the stature of the other two. Both booklets make it clear that Doddridge's Calvinism excludes belief in particular redemption. Doddridge is to that extent unorthodox if you take the mainstream Reformed view. This reviewer deplores the swipe at John Stott and J.I. Packer - ironically in a section proclaiming the virtues of Doddridge's Protestant ecumenism.

D. J. Stephens,
Liverpool