William Wilberforce

By Tim Challies @ http://challies.com/

In February of 2007 a film titled Amazing Grace will hit theatres, though only in limited release (and I'd be surprised if it makes it to Canada at all). The movie deals with the life of "the world's greatest reformer," William Wilberforce.

Ioan Gruffudd plays Wilberforce, who, as a Member of Parliament, navigated the world of 18th Century backroom politics to end the slave trade in the British Empire. Albert Finney plays John Newton, a confidante of Wilberforce who inspires him to pursue a life of service to humanity. Benedict Cumberbatch is William Pitt the Younger, England's youngest ever Prime Minister at the age of 24, who encourages his friend Wilberforce to take up the fight to outlaw slavery and supports him in his struggles in Parliament.

Elected to the House of Commons at the age of 21, and on his way to a successful political career, Wilberforce, over the course of two decades, took on the English establishment and persuaded those in power to end the inhumane trade of slavery.

Not limiting himself to just abolitionist work, he dedicated his life to what he called his "two great objects:" abolishing slavery in the British Empire and what he called "the reformation of manners [society]." To this end, he advocated for child labor laws, campaigned for education of the blind and deaf, and founded organizations as diverse as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and the National Gallery (of Art). "Good causes," it has been said, "stuck to him like pins to a magnet."

It is not often that we see the life of a great Christian man potrayed in film. Because of the film Wilberforce will be the subject of several upcoming biographies. John Piper's short Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce will be available in January. I assume this is the same text that was published as a chapter in The Roots of Endurance. This was, in turn, based on Piper's biographical address at the 2002 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors. You can read or listen to the speech here. In February Zondervan will be publishing Kevin Belmonte's William Wilberforce: A Hero For Humanity. Also in February, Harper San Francisco is releasing Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery by Eric Metaxas. Regal Books will bring us Real Christianity: A Nation Was Blind Until One Man Made Them See, Bob Beltz's modern paraphrase of Wilberforce's original book about the authentic expression of the Christian faith.

You can visit the official site for the film at amazinggracemovie.com. While a trailer is not yet available, there are a couple of move clips on the site along with plenty of other interesting information.