A few words on forewords 1

Having featured all the Lloyd-Jones forewords I have written an essay arising from them, delivered at the Evangelical Library. Here is the first part.

A few words about forewords – the shorter writings of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones The significant effect of the ministry of Dr D Martyn Lloyd-Jones on evangelicalism cannot be doubted. Since his death in 1981 his ministry has continued to have an impact by means of his recorded sermons and written ministry. This written ministry, like the recorded ministry, is chiefly in sermon form, especially his expositions of various books of the Bible. At the end of Iain Murray's official biography Volume 2 The Fight of Faith in Appendix 6 there is a bibliography. This begins with the main books then available but in sections 7-9 there are some shorter items – nine book reviews, miscellaneous items and a number of “forewords” listed in the eighth and penultimate section. Some 23 or 24 items are found there, an almost but not quite complete list. The exact figure is nearer 28. These “forewords” are not those he wrote for some of his own books but those he wrote for others.

Type of writing A foreword is a piece of writing, usually quite short (ideally a page or two), found at the beginning of a book, before the introduction, if it has one. It can be written by the primary author of the work but is often written by someone else in order to introduce the author and his work, seeking to establish credibility for both. A foreword does not generally provide the reader with any extra information about the book's subject but instead serves as a reminder of why to read it. A preface, by contrast, is always by the author of the book. A preface generally covers the story of how the book came into being or how the idea for it was developed; this is often followed by thanks and acknowledgements. It has to be said, however, that the two terms are often used interchangeably. Often, a foreword will tell of some interaction between the writer of the foreword and the story or the writer of the book. A foreword to a later edition of a work often explains in what respects that edition differs from previous ones. Unlike a preface, a foreword is always signed. According to one writer “by their very nature, forewords are rather light literary works designed not so much to draw attention to themselves but to the books that they draw attention to. Nevertheless when a full bibliography of a writer is drawn up a place will be found for forewords and similar pieces and sometimes these will even merit republication in their own right.”

Lloyd-Jones forewords Some of what we are calling Lloyd-Jones' forewords are technically not forewords but can be considered under that heading (two are called introductions, one a preface, one an “endorsement”). They were mainly written either to introduce books from the past or for people the Doctor knew personally. Written over a 30 year period, the first is from 1944, when the doctor was 45 (a biography of Donald Maclean by Professor Collins) and the last in 1976, five years before his death at the age of 80, for a modernisation of Bunyan's Holy War by Thelma Jenkins, a member at Westminster Chapel. They make an interesting set of writings, revealing, as they do, some of the pre-occupations of one of the leading evangelical preachers of his generation. We can divide the books in several ways. Eleven of them are books from the past. Another three or four deal with historical themes. Others in that same area are Peter Lewis' The Genius of Puritanism and Thelma Jenkins' book. Seven are largely biographical works. Several deal with the subject of revival and three are commentaries – Burrowes on the Song of Songs, Hendriksen on John and Haldane on Romans. Two are symposia by various writers. One of these is a joint effort with two others. The Welsh connection is prominent in at least four cases – Eifion Evans on the 1904 Revival and three translations from Welsh (Richard Bennett on the early life of Howell Harris, Mari Jones' book of parables – In the shadow of Aran and William Williams' work on the Experience Meeting). The last two of these were translated by his wife, Dr Bethan Lloyd-Jones. As for his medical background, the main work with a foreword by him in that area was Ideals in Medicine edited by V Edmunds and C G Scorer. The re-issues of the biography of Pastor Hsi and the work on Miraculous Healing by H W Frost reveal his interest in the subject of healing. Some contributions perhaps are less obvious, such as his foreword to John Wilmot's Inspired Principles of Prophetic Interpretation. What one finds in reading these forewords and similar writings is that several of the notes sounded in the wider ministry are also found in these shorter works and what I want to do here is simply to revisit some of these writings and remind ourselves of the important themes. Perhaps a good place to start is with the 1958 foreword to Haldane on Romans. Lloyd-Jones typically enjoys relating the story of what happened to Haldane in Geneva so many years before and the fact that he knew revival. Equally typical is a preference for Haldane over Hodge. He says that he always finds it very difficult to decide which is the better commentary on Romans, that of Hodge or that of Haldane. What decides it for the Doctor is that “while Hodge excels in accurate scholarship, there is greater warmth of spirit and more practical application in Haldane.” Later he says “one cannot read it without being conscious of the preacher as well as the expositor”. At the end of the foreword he says

What a distinguished French minister Dr. Reuben Saillens says of what became known as “Haldane’s Revival” can be applied with equal truth to this commentary: “The three main characteristics of Haldane’s Revival, as it has sometimes been called, were these: (1) it gave a prominent emphasis to the necessity of a personal knowledge and experience of grace; (2) it maintained the absolute authority and Divine inspiration of the Bible; (3) was a return to Calvinistic doctrine against Pelagianism and Arminianism. He adds “Haldane was an orthodox of the first water, but his orthodoxy was blended with love and life. God grant that it may produce that same “love and life” in all who read it.” A reading of the other forewords reveals that history, revival and these three issues are among those that lie at the heart of Lloyd-Jones' thinking. Besides these major issues two others are prominent and we will also look at these later.