114 - John R. Mott, 1865-1955: A Biography

John R. Mott, 1865-1955: A Biography
By C. Howard Hopkins
Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1979. 8 16 pp. $22.50.

What do I not owe to John R. Mott? People who remember his speeches and conversations will recognize the characteristic idiom of that rhetorical question. Then Mott would remind people of his. and their, debts to others in the diverse world of Christianity. My debt to him is immense. Without him, there may not have been the twentiethcentury ecumenical movement to which many of us have devoted our lives.

Thousands, indeed millions, of people have been variously influenced by the 65 years of his evangelical and ecumenical lay ministry. Yet they do not know to whom they owe the happier condition of the church today. In this time of swift changes, collective memories are short. This book is an indispensable reminder of our ecumenical roots.

Catholics should read it to discover how, during seven decades, the climate was prepared for the Second Vatican Council, even though

115 - John R. Mott, 1865-1955: A Biography

Mott had relatively little association with Catholics. The Orthodox, with whom he had much association, will learn how a Methodist layman from Iowa was captured by Orthodoxy, then to capture the respect and affection of Orthodox leaders in all patriarchates. Evangelicals will recognize how a fervent Christ-centered witness became a call to mission and social justice, and how this man's ardor inevitably drove him to build up the world-wide ecumenical community. Liberal Protestants will see the evangelical and pietistic fervor of his liberalism. For Christians in general, this book will be an exciting, awesome discovery.

It is unfortunate, however, that relatively few outside the circles of committed ecumenists may be likely to read it. As Hopkins admits, it is a book about a hero. Mott was indeed a hero for thousands of students, laity, and church leaders of his time: but most of them are now dead. And the number of those who knew him is fast diminishing. Therefore, this biography should engage the attention of any reader. But does it" Probably not. It is, sadly, written for the in-group.

His biography is not a full-length portrait, but a narrative chronicle. We are told much of Mott's numerous journeys to campuses, conferences, and countries. (Even if there had been jet planes in 1900, accounts of these trips would be dizzying.) But we observe him, rather than share his own thoughts and feelings. In this narrative, we miss the personal presence of the great man himself.

The author's research is superb, accomplished over fifteen years with the help of Mott's proteges family descendants, librarians, and archivists. He found far too much data even for 703 pages of text. And no person of his long era had so many personal friends in so many lands as he did. Yet even within such a restriction of space, the book constitutes a rich and indispensable source for church historians.

Mott's achievements make pygmies of us today. In his day, he was for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the church what empire builders have been in politics and fabled tycoons in industry His was a "crusade for Christ" which--without invidious comparisons to the medieval crusades or Billy Graham--was worthy of the name. And his confidence in the truth of the gospel for all humanity and the reconciling power of God in Christ was unmitigated until his fiftieth year. Confronted by the horrors of the first world war, the mutual slaughtering of the young generation he loved, the YMCA task assumed under his own supervision for the relief of soldiers and prisoners, as well as the apparent breakdown of the ecumenical network of the World Student Christian Federation, he became a chastened but not disillusioned Christian. This trauma only increased his motivation in the twenties to rebuild and strengthen the ecumenical structures of Christian mission and church unity. To the WSCF and the YMCA he added the International Missionary Council and eventually the World Council of Churches to his organizational trophies.

Mott has often been compared to St. Paul in the persistence of his evangelistic and missionary activity. And the comparison has a certain

116 - John R. Mott, 1865-1955: A Biography

aptness, but with differences. St. Paul founded churches, Mott organized Christian associations and trans-denominational structures for mission. St. Paul worked with those who were not "wise according to worldly standards … powerful … of noble birth"; Mott moved among the elite declined university presidencies, secured funds from friends in big business, was confidant of five Presidents, and everywhere received by heads of state. St. Paul was arrested and beheaded; Mott crowned many nations' decorations with the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet both were ambassadors for Christ in God's ministry, of reconciliation.

Hopkins manages to treat Mott with restrained respect, not adulation. And his narrative conveys the impression of truth. though I did note a handful of errors.

Last year, while in residence at the College of Preachers at the Washington Cathedral, I attended service regularly in the Bethlehem Chapel. Next to it is the grave of John R. Mott, the stone wall marked by the insignia of the six ecumenical bodies for which he was founder or leader. I often called the attention of passing persons to this stone. Few, even among clergy, knew his name. If I could induce them to read this book, they would gain a heightened appreciation of what undeviating discipleship can really mean.

J. Robert Nelson
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts