Evangelicals Now
Christian news worldwide
magnifying glass Search archives
home Home check the archives Archives Subscribe Subscriptions Advertising Information & booking of classifieds Adverts Find a local evangelical Church Find a church for the search engines and extremely curious! About us Contact us Site Map
Printable
Version

Catherine Booth

CATHERINE BOOTH
A biography of the co-founder of the Salvation Army
By Roger J. Green
Monarch Publications. 336 pages. £6.99
ISBN 1 85424 380 2

This is the story of a remarkable woman. Catherine Booth's enduring passion in life was to reach the world for Christ and her efforts to achieve that goal make inspiring reading.

Roger Green's carefully researched account of 'the mother of the Salvation Army' describes Catherine's unstinting endeavours to be a devoted wife, mother, preacher, teacher, writer and friend. Quotations from her correspondence and writings give a first-hand impression of her personality, concerns and the way her theological convictions developed. The reader also gets an interesting perspective on Victorian church history: including the roots of the Salvation Army (and the way their activities often shocked the Victorian world) and various aspects of Methodism, Congregationalism and Anglicanism.

Roger Green resists the temptation to idolise and aims to present a realistic portrait of her character and beliefs, 'warts and all'. However, his desire for complete historical accuracy results in a style that is sometimes rather laboured. Some readers (myself included) will not share Catherine's convictions about 'a woman's right to preach' or her anti-Calvinistic stance, nor the view that Catherine's major contribution was 'liberating thousands of women from the constrictions of a fallen culture' (p.16).

However, her contribution to the spread of the gospel and her wholehearted zeal for the Lord are undeniable. For me, the main challenges lie in her willingness to sacrifice for the sake of the gospel, the sheer volume of work she undertook, and her commitment to holy living and to studying the Bible. It is immensely encouraging to read about how God brought many thousands to Christ through the Salvation Army's bold and imaginative gospel work and it caused this reader to pray more fervently that He would do similar things in our lifetime.

Mary Davis