Book Review: The Complete Green Letters

Title: The Complete Green Letters

Author: Miles J. Stanford

Publisher: Zondervan

Date: 1983

ISBN: 0-310-33051-3

Length: 320 pages

Quote: “God gives faith and repentance to each individual whom He selected. These acts are the result, not the cause of God's choice.”

“Westboro Baptist” Fred Phelps, the grim old man who rallied his handful of followers to go around shaking signs lettered “God hates you” at the public, was an extreme example of the school of Christian thought traced to the writings of Jean Chauvin, or Chauvain, or Calvin, and thus known as Calvinism. The Complete Green Letters is a more typical expression of Calvinism. Intending to calm people who may have real physical diseases that take the form of religious mania, the “Keswick school” of Calvinist Christian thinkers advise people to calm down and not worry too much about whether they are behaving like good Christians or not; either God will make them good Christians in God's own time, or God will not, and they can't do much about it.

I've never been convinced that Calvinism is what the Bible teaches, but then again I'm not sure what, if anything, the Bible has to say to sufferers from religious mania. For all I know, Calvinism may be just what they need—spiritually and physically...as long as it's not taken to the outrageous extremes of people like Fred Phelps.

So here, for what it's worth, is The Complete Green Letters. I find nothing helpful in them. Perhaps others will find something. I don't feel qualified to judge that. I recommend this book mainly to those studying the history of more liberal schools of Protestant thought, such as Keswick—here's a primary document of that history.

Miles J. Stanford no longer needs ten percent of the total price, so this is not a Fair Trade Book. It can, however, be added to the package with one or more Fair Trade Books under the $5 per book, $5 per package fee. Our addresses are at the very bottom of the screen.