"He has been a constant reminder: you don't have to be cool, hip, or clever to be powerful. In fact, the sacred anointing is simply in another world from those communication techniques. His is the world I want to live in when I step into the pulpit."
Christopher Catherwood, grandson of Lloyd-Jones and author of Martyn Lloyd-Jones: His Life and Relevance for the 21st Century, begins his book by sharing this quote. He then goes on to say,
"Is that the world you would want to live in? If so, this book is for you as it describes not just the life but also the thought of a man whose regular preaching profoundly affected his hearers. As John Piper and others attest, becoming familiar with Dr. Lloyd-Jones could transform your life."
That is an awfully bold claim. But in this new biography, Catherwood is on to something. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was special - and he was special because he was stringently and spectacularly devoted to the Bible. And so getting to know "the Doctor," as he was affectionately called, through Catherwood's biography is less about discovering what Lloyd-Jones' favorite jam was and more about finding how his passion for Scripture is relevant to us today in all spheres of life.
Not that Catherwood doesn't provide us with details about the Doctor as a man but his "aim, however, is to show how profoundly relevant his life and thinking are to us as evangelicals in the twenty-first century. As the saying goes, if one is biblical, one is always relevant. Of few people is that more true than with Dr. Lloyd-Jones."
Catherwood's biography walks us through ten chapters of the Doctor and his theology. The first and last chapter stand as bookends that emphasize the relevance of this biblical British preacher who died in 1981. Then Catherwood traces Lloyd-Jones' life and global influence through two chapters before getting into individual chapters on his theology and how it applies to us today.
There is a chapter on the centrality of Scripture, a chapter on preaching, a chapter on life in the Spirit, and a chapter on community. There are also chapters on two of Lloyd-Jones more controversial views and issues.
I thought Catherwood did an excellent job achieving his aim. Because he focused more on Lloyd-Jones' theology, there was less of an obvious bias (not that Catherwood ever tried to hide that - he was pretty open about the fact that the Doctor was his grandfather). He tried to provide balance to some of Lloyd-Jones' controversy and always tried to draw the Doctor's beliefs back to Scripture. Even some of his odder beliefs were always based on his interpretation of the Bible, Catherwood faithfully argued. And I greatly admired that.
If you want to dig into the beliefs of this man who wrote such seminal Christian classics as Spiritual Depression and preached to millions of people in his life, check out Catherwood's biography.
And then do just what Catherwood would want you to do - go read some Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
Buy Martyn Lloyd-Jones here.
*I received this book through Crossway's Beyond the Page review system. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.