What an interesting little book! I love books that take several faith heroes and in a chapter try to pique our interest. Mr. Needham aced that assignment. How or why he picked these twelve men is beyond me. I think he tried to pick from various epochs of church history, but beyond that I have no idea. I guess he picked mostly theologians, but then he threw in John Wesley who is remembered more for piety and revival. He even alternated the well known with the not so well known. The unusual setup notwithstanding, this book was a joy to read.

Mr. Needham is well equipped to write this book since he has produced the much larger “2000 Years of Christ’s Power”. I have not seen that work, but judging by this book, it must be a good one.

One little icing on the cake that I noticed is that he often surveyed their writings. That was especially helpful when covering someone not known to you. The only problem is that it might add many listings to your buy list.

While he judged every biographical subject by their adherence to Reformation thinking, he did dip outside those actual boundaries. That made for some of the most interesting chapters in the book. Theophylact (completely unknown to me) was one of the most engaging in this volume. It was so good that it made you wonder, why have I never heard of this guy?

He had some of the usual suspects as well. There was Jonathan Edwards, B. B. Warfield, and J. Gresham Machen among others.

He did really well in a short space of showing why these men are compelling to know, and to know more about. This book will not take you long to read, but mark it down in the pleasant category. 

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.