John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace

I have read 3 biographies of John Newton and this is by far the best that has ever been written. Historical references and evidence were referred to and where they can be found in England. This book has effected my life and I continue to order it from the store.com to send as gifts.
I also find the store.com as the best source of used books. They are not only economical but in great condition and make wonderful gifts.
Loretta Waterbury

Newtons life is what makes this book good. The writer in a detailed manner gives us very inside details, perhaps a few more than needed but it cannot be accused of not being thorough. Challenged by this man's life for Christ.

I’ve read a lot of historical biographies in my time, and this has to be one of the very best. It really is stand-out excellent for a number of reasons.

Newton’s life is fascinating. A rebellious, hard-drinking young man, he was pressed into service in the Royal Navy where he stood head and shoulders above his fellows as … an extreme blasphemer! Never one willing to take orders, he was repeatedly beaten. He then served on a slave ship and was involved in this cruellest of trades. While on the high seas, he saw the light and became converted to Christianity, which saw a complete turnaround in his character. Eventually he became an ordained minister and went on to write the famous hymn Amazing Grace.

However, even the most interesting life can appear dull and dreary in the eyes of a poor biographer. Thankfully Newton has a master in Jonathan Aitken. He has a wonderfully clear, under-stated yet engrossing style which makes you want to read on. And as Aitken himself has been through a similar religious experience (read his equally excellent ), you feel you are in the hands of someone who understands Newton completely. A highly recommended, readable and re-readable biography.

Though the author clearly intended this biography to be inspirational, he writes with verve and clarity and never descends to hagiography. The book includes some repetition and (to my mind) too many block quotations and a bit much editorializing. Nevertheless, Aitken has written a fine study of Newton that held my interest from beginning to end. I never realized what an influential figure Newton became in late nineteenth-century evangelicalism. Undoubtedly he and his circle would be amazed (and probably amused) to discover that two hundred years after his death, he was known largely for writing the hymn "Amazing Grace."

Jonathan Aitken has written an excellent biography, one of the best Christian biographies I have read. Newton is a great subject for a biography for he had a long and amazing life. Aitken is well qualified to write about "From Disgrace to Amazing Grace". He writes with style. His chapters are refeshingly short and to the point. The story is thrilling with "many dangers, toils and snare". One looses counts of the dangers from which the young Newton escapes. It is the story of a great sinner who was found by a great Saviour. Aitken tells the tale with real spiritual as well as historical undrstanding of his subject so that in concluion he can point the reader to spiritual lessons to be learned from Newton's life. For example. God's timing is not ours. Newton had to wait six years from applying, to be finally ordained as an Anglican minister. His marriage is an exemplary and touching story. Newtons spitiuality and prayer life are a real challenge. Aitken shows how faithful and inovatory Newton was as a pastor and how he helped many, especially his best friend William Cowper. Without Newton there would have neem no great poet only a forgotten suicide. Similarly, without Newton we would probably not have has Wilberforce, politician and reformer. Aitken also tells the story of Newton's famous hymn, its composition and rise to fame. Aitken faithfully relates Newton's faults too. His support of the American rebels had to be withdrawn but one is led to understand why many in England, especailly non-conformists, were suppporters of the rebels. Newton was an eirenic man who eschewed party labels and associated with Christian irrespective of denominational labels. This is a great biography and I hope we will have more from this fine Christian author.

What I got most from this book was the gracefulness that saving grace gave to John Newton. In an age of fracture among English Protestants he managed to keep himself (barely) within the church of England while maintaining great friendships & fellowship with his fellow ministers of several different denominational backgrounds. He even vocally opposed riotous mobs rampaging against Catholics by a recognition of men who were most certainly God's own among their ranks. He lovingly corresponded with a very liberal minister for some time, rather than debating him, and eventually saw him won to the truth & greatly used by God. He showed great hospitality to many, continually opening his home, which enabled him to reach many of the well-to-do & led him to his dear friendship with & saving from suicide of the great poet William Cowper. He was sensitive to the practical wisdom of how to lead a church, preaching about an hour so as not to bore or let his congregation be distressed about their meal cooking at home.

I was encouraged by the frank assessment of his spiritual struggles & the fact that it took him many years to wrestle with the practical out workings of his faith. For instance, he thought nothing of the common practice of receiving basically a bribe in his job prior to being ordained until John Wesley preached about ethics at work. He continually struggled with what many good men probably struggle with: am I idolizing my wife & putting her before God?

I was also impressed with how he was either helped by, or later he used the influence of prominent & wealthy Christians to further the kingdom of God. His ordination was secured by the intervention of one such. He encouraged William Wilberforce to use all his parliamentary talents for God's glory & the good of mankind. He also made sure that the first ship of convicts headed to the colony of Australia had a chaplain, because he cared even about their souls. It just made me realize again how good it is when God blesses Christians with wealth & power & they use it rightly, to further the gospel's cause.

The book was well written and quite interesting. A very good biography that I'd recommend to anybody who asks, but not so great that I'll rave about it without prompting. Especially interesting to anyone considering entering the ministry.

of the slave-ship captain turned Christian abolitionist. The thing that I really loved about this book was the same thing I loved about Metaxes' biographies of Bonhoeffer and Wilberforce. The religious aspects concerned Christian ethics and did not involve magical thinking and the touting of very questionable miracles like in the much less credible autobiographies, God's Smuggler and Heavenly Man. This biography of Newton, as with the Metaxes' biographies mentioned above, simply show a man brought to know deep compassion and love for his fellow humans through the means of Christian ethics. A good read and a good message.

I have been involved with church music ministries for the last 15 years, and I don't think that six weeks have past without either performing, or being asked to perform the most popular hymn ever written: Amazing Grace. This song has been featured in almost every hymn collection published since its inception, and as of today, itunes has 150 different versions available for download. With such popularity you would think the hymn's enigmatic writer, John Newton, would be more celebrated today.

I hope that will change with a new biography written by Jonathan Aitken entitled, "John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace." Like most people, I knew Newton was a seafaring slave trader in his younger years and that he had a remarkable conversion experience at sea during a terrible storm, but I didn't realize that his life was the kind of epic adventure you would normally associate with a Cecil B. Demille movie.

Aitken's biography is one of the most compelling historical books I've had the pleasure to read. It is thorough, well researched without being dry, and written by a man who knows something about "being lost but found," since Jonathan Aitken became a believer while serving time in prison for perjury in an infamous London trial. Throughout the pages of Newton's life you are confronted with a man that knew the depth of his sin, but by God's grace, lived to preach, write and sing about God's forgiving grace found in Jesus Christ.

Wow...wow...wow! That isn't a very eloquent review, but it fits. As a pastor, songwriter, musician, and aspiring writer I now have a new superhero -- John Newton. Thanks to the author Aitken I have been introduced to an incredibly gifted and anointed man of God. The book is extremely readable, written in brief chapters that stand alone yet are interconnected. The impact of this book and Newton's legacy are going to be seen in my life for years to come. Thank you, Mr. Airmen, for the book. Thank you, God, for Mr. Newton.

John Newton's famous hymn, "Amazing Grace", becomes so much more meaningful after better understanding his life history. This biography was well-written and full of primary sources including Newton's letters and diaries. I found the author's writing style to be engaging on many levels, and I appreciate the effort he took to tell John Newton's story accurately. And what a story it is! Full of brokenness, adventure, struggle, and redemption. Excellent read - highly recommend it.

What I Enjoyed:

Aitken does a wonderful job of putting together the life of Newton into a beautifully weaved story. One of the literary features that makes this work shine is the inclusion of Newton's letters. Sometimes it feels as if Newton is writing his own biography. One of the temptations in writing a biography is to portray the subject without many flaws and often times almost above human status. Part of the beauty of Newton's story is that he was such a great sinner. The more that we can see Newton as a great sinner the more it points to Christ as a great Savior. Aitken keeps Newton human.

What I Disliked:

In as much as Aitken shines on displaying Newton as a great sinner, I felt that in expressing latter half of Newton's statement ("...Christ is a great Savior") Aitken dropped the ball. Newton would be disappointed to find that a biography on himself did not have at its center the magnificent work of Jesus Christ. One standard I apply in reading biographies is this: after reading the biography, do I want to learn more about the man or am I driven to know Christ more. After reading this, I want to know more about John Newton. That is not altogether bad but a very important part of the story played a flat role. Newton was the main character when it should have been Jesus. Because of this we miss discovering what it was that made Newton tick.

Should You But It:

Nonetheless, it is a great work on John Newton and will serve the reader well. My hope is that it only introduces the reader to Newton and inspires you to pursue more of his work, because therein one might see and savor Jesus Christ. Should you buy it? Yes. Should it be the only Newton book in your collection? No.

Jonathan Aitken does a fantastic job of bringing John Newton to life again. Newton is best known today as the author of Amazing Grace. But he had a far greater influence on the western world. He was the prime mover behind the British political movement to outlaw the slave trade.

Aitken shows that Newton did not believe in the modern wall of separation between church and state. Neither did he believe in the modern prohibition against legislating morality. Rather, as a pastor, he actively campaigned to impose his morality on British law. He demanded, on moral and religious grounds, that Parliament end the slave trade. And he recruited one of Parliament's rising stars -- William Wilberforce -- to lead the charge from within the legislature.

Aitken tells a great story about Wilberforce's reluctance to remain in Parliament. He was discouraged by the slow pace of the abolition movement -- losing every Parliamentary vote for years. In December of 1785, Wilberforce wanted to quit politics and become a pastor. Newton firmly advised Wilberforce to remain in politics and serve God as a Christian statesman. Thereafter, year after year, Newton and Wilberforce worked together to build a consensus to outlaw the slave trade, and finally outlaw slavery itself, throughout the British empire. They opened the floodgates of freedom for the rest of the world.

Today, many "enlightened" voices tell religious conservatives that morality and religion are private matters, to be kept untainted by the pollution of politics. Some like Dr. Greg Boyd actually assert that politics is demonic, and that Satan owns the nations of the world. (That would surprise the Psalmist, who declared that the earth and the nations are the LORD's!)

If John Newton were here today, he would sharply reprove this defeatist mentality. God has all authority in heaven and earth. If the church perseveres, it is unstoppable, and the gates of hell cannot withstand its advances. God's amazing grace will overcome today's great moral evils, if we do not lose heart and disengage from society and government.

Carole Joy Seid recommended this book - and I am delighted that she keeps presenting it! What a great read. Aitken outdid himself. The reader weeps with the boy whose mother dies and stepmother rids herself of him, and despises the slave trader - while on a journey following this man who he is so much like us and extraordinary since he listened to the call on his life...

Wow... what a wonderful surprise this bio turned out to be. I wasn't too sure at first if I wanted to commit to reading a biography on a 18th century preacher but I'm glad I decided to do so. Yes, Newton was a man of God and clearly lived out his faith in a powerful way that helped change society for the better. But what I found more revealing about this bio is how much I could relate to the life of John Newton, apart from his faith, as recorded in his daily living. Well worth the read even if you do not believe the same things that Mr. Newton did.

While the previous reviews have covered much of the material, I must add a few more comments. I found the book incredibly hard to put down yet a book I did not want to breeze though but to absorb its contents. The man's like swung as a pendulum from perhaps one of the most wretched young man to a mature man of God. If you have any interest in early church history or just enjoy a great biography of one of history's most dedicated men, then you will want to put this book on your must read list.

I enjoyed the book very much. It is certainly most interesting. There were a few places I would have preferred a bit less detail, but realize it was just over my head and other people probably enjoyed that. I would recommend to for anyone.

I really knew nothing about Mr Newton except that he was a former slave ship captain and that he wrote "Amazing Grace". This book was a great encouragement as Mr Newton's story of grace and redemption plays out. Highly recommended.