I think this a lot when I read biographies of lesser-known but extraordinary people. Why are they lesser-known? Why don’t I know more about them?
That was my immediate thought upon reading the introduction to Kevin DeYoung’s new book, “The Religious Formation of John Witherspoon: Calvinism, Evangelicalism, and the Scottish Enlightenment.”
For the first half of his life, Witherspoon lived in Scotland, becoming a prominent writer and preacher. In middle age, he immigrated to the New World–still a British colony–and became one of America’s Founding Fathers.
If that were not enough, read this:
It would be another decade [after preaching in Scotland’s most prestigious pulpit] before Witherspoon emigrated to America to assume the presidency of Princeton, and almost another decade after that before his fame would grow as a Founding Father of the new republic. In time, Witherspoon would sign the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, help ratify the Constitution of the State of New Jersey, hold a seat in the legislature in New Jersey, and serve on 126 committees during six years in the Continental Congress. Just as critically, he would go on to personally instruct an entire generation of educators, legislators, and statesmen. A list of his Princeton graduates includes: 12 members of the Continental Congress, five delegates to the Constitutional Convention, one US president (James Madison), one vice president (Aaron Burr), 49 representatives, 28 senators, three supreme court justices, eight district judges, one secretary of state, three attorneys general, and two foreign ministers.”
I mean, on some level these are all worldly achievements. Almost certainly, Witherspoon himself would, in Pauline fashion, dismiss these accolades as loss for the sake of Christ. Neither do I want to gawk. I do not want to be impressed by celebrity.
And yet, upon first reading (and second and third), I still sit amazed. And still I ask, “Why didn’t I know about John Witherspoon?”
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