As we come to the close of Year 2 in our adventure with the Great Books, I am both humbled and proud. I am humbled as I work to put thoughts together into a meaningful contribution to the great conversation. I am proud that I have nevertheless, managed to seem worldly and wise through membership in our book club. Many people assume you are intelligent when you request a book entitled “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.” They think you must be brainy if you gasp at the book sale as you come across a copy of Descartes. Humility and pride are themes in the autobiographies of John Bunyan and Benjamin Franklin as well. There are a few interesting similarities in the background summaries set forth by both men as they put to paper the story of their lives. They were both from work-a-day families with limited resources and slight education. Each challenged himself by reading influential authors, and subsequently, both became prolific writers. Each has had amazing influence. But their paths diverge quickly when they chronicle the ways in which they dealt with personal sin and vice in their life journeys.
Benjamin Franklin, in his autobiography, declares he was a poor boy from Boston and also makes it clear that his success was not fueled by family connections or inherited wealth, although it has been noted that he was not as bereft of connections and help as he portrays. Nevertheless, his formal education was meager, yet he challenged himself to read and rewrite classic literature and went on to become a prolific writer. In his autobiography, he focuses on his strengths — the glory of the self-made man.
In a similar vein, in his autobiography, John Bunyan, son of a Bedfordshire tinker, commented on his family lineage as being “of that rank that is meanest and most despised of all the families in the land”. It has been suggested that Bunyan reveals his humble origins in order to give credit to God for what he has become. Like Franklin, Bunyan’s formal education was meager, yet he also challenged himself to read such hefty works as the commentaries of Martin Luther and became a prolific writer of more than 60 books. In his autobiography he focuses on his personal weaknesses — to the glory of God.
In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, we find in the title where Benjamin Franklin placed himself. Front and center. In his autobiography he chronicled the power of self-discipline, self-determination, self-examination, self-assurance, and self-promotion as he presents the self-made man of the new nation. In his attempt to achieve moral perfection, he pursued acquiring the habitude of 12 virtues by sheer hard work. As each virtue was gained, Mr. Franklin kept track in the ivory leaves of a memorandum book. “On those lines I mark’d my faults with a black lead pencil, which marks I could easily wipe out with a wet sponge.” Literally and figuratively, he found he could wipe his own slate clean. How did this bold and arduous project end? In defeat. At the suggestion of a Quaker friend, Mr Franklin added a 13th virtue to his list. Pride. But this vice he could not conquer. “In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride….for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”
In Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, we are told even in the title, where John Bunyan placed himself. At the bottom. In his autobiography he chronicled his struggle against sin and the everlasting temptation to place himself on the throne of worship. He fought temptation again and again until eventually coming to an understanding of God’s grace. Even then he continued to wrestle with guilt. He could not wipe his slate clean. How did this struggle end? At the cross. Humbled. “I saw that I lacked a perfect righteousness to present me without fault before God, and this righteousness was nowhere to be found but in the person of Jesus Christ.”
Unlike Bunyan, It doesn’t appear that Franklin, ever plumbed the deceitfulness and treachery of his own heart. Franklin pursued virtue based on his desire to be a better person and relied on the abilities of the man rather than power of the Holy Spirit, so he stumbled in his original 12-step program to wholeness. Unfortunately for such a great man, his faith recognized God only as the centerpiece of his religion, impersonal and powerless,and therefore Franklin relied on his own wisdom. “So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.” Franklin embodied the very heartbeat of revolutionary America who would not bow to any king. Unable to humble himself and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, Benjamin Franklin is only who he says he is — a self-made man whose contributions to mankind are invaluable but whose legacy to us is the spirit of “self”. Benjamin Franklin proudly takes us on his life journey to Philadelphia.
On the other hand, Bunyan’s change came from the conviction of the Holy Spirit. He began to see “something of the vanity and wretchedness” of his wicked heart. In addition, he found “there was a great difference between the faith that is feigned according to man’s wisdom and that which comes by revelation from God into a man’s spirit.” Year after year he longed for peace and sought after truth using the Bible as his guidebook. Scripture was his roadmap to repentance. Through the account of his life’s journey, John Bunyan humbly presents a travelogue to the City of God.
Good book vs. bad book? Good man vs. bad man? I am learning that the great books are not so easily dismissed. The great conversation is not that simple. As we identify the faults and follies of those we read about, it becomes very apparent that there are more questions to ponder than answers to flaunt. Of course the vanity and arrogance of Ben Franklin seems foolish but unfortunately all too familiar. Uncomfortably so. Of course our heart’s desire connects with the struggle of Bunyan to understand grace and sin, but because each of us is living out our own autobiography, life is unfolding in real time where pride and humility continue to be at odds. Self reign vs. God reign. We do not do what we want to do, and do what we don’t want to do. These autobiographies challenge us to examine and confront our own pretensions. How do we confess our own moral lapses and less than virtuous propensities. Where does my help come from? Do I use a sponge and window cleaner on the whiteboard of my heart, or am I able to let the blood of Christ wash me whiter than snow. Where will my journey end? Where will yours?