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A Tender Lion: The Life, Ministry, and Message of J.C. Ryle
John Charles Ryle became the undisputed leader and spokesman of the evangelical party within the Church of England in the last half of the nineteenth century, and his works continue to be read by evangelicals of various denominational stripes more than a century after his death. Accordingly, he is often portrayed as "an old soldier" of a heroic cause. While this view of Ryle holds some merit, it often obscures the complexity and dynamism of a most remarkable man.
In this intellectual biography, Bennett Wade Rogers analyzes the complicated life and times of a man variously described as traditional, moderate, and even radical during his fifty-eight-year ministry. Ryle began his ministerial career as a rural parish priest; he ended it as a bishop of the second city of the British Empire. In the time between, he became a popular preacher, influential author, effective controversialist, recognized party leader, stalwart church defender, and radical church reformer.
In this intellectual biography, Bennett Wade Rogers analyzes the complicated life and times of a man variously described as traditional, moderate, and even radical during his fifty-eight-year ministry. Ryle began his ministerial career as a rural parish priest; he ended it as a bishop of the second city of the British Empire. In the time between, he became a popular preacher, influential author, effective controversialist, recognized party leader, stalwart church defender, and radical church reformer.
400 pages, Hardcover
Published January 29, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 4, 2021
This book is a very accessible and scholarly biography that works hard to situate J.C. Ryle in his historical moment. I found it extremely helpful.
Ryle was a leading Evangelical pastor in the Anglican Church, at a time when such a movement existed in the church of England. His work on Holiness is an absolutely great book that talks about the important things and warned against the excesses of the Keswick movement (kessick, not keswick: see my review of Victory in Christ). He also fought the ritualist movement in the Church of England (distinct as the author notes from the Oxford movement), textual criticism, and incipient secularization. His own son tragically adopted some textual criticism (I forget how heretical it was), and it caused an uneasy tension in their relationship.
Perhaps the more interesting thing was his role as a bishop in the Church of England. I myself, being presbyterian, emotionally prefer a disestablished church for libertarian reasons, as well as fear of nominalism in the Church. However, Ryle interestingly, although fiercely committed to need for every individual to be personally converted, believed firmly in the Church of England's ability to reach a broader number of people than a disestablished church. He showed a brotherly spirit for disestablished Christians, but he clearly thought the establishment was better, in part due to the stipend system which did not depend on congregants (but is this what Paul advocates in 2 Cor?). In our times and in Roman Catholic times, this is extremely hard to beleive, but still there may be good things in an top-down big tent church; I feel like the PCA is kind of the closest parallel nowadays.
One of the interesting things about this book is that Bennet Rogers does not make value judgments about many of Ryle's endeavors. For instance, I don't know whether Rogers is a more strict or looser or Calvinist, or what he thinks of Ryle's work in the church of England. So if you're looking for a very careful work of scholarship on this man, this is the go-to book.
Ryle was a leading Evangelical pastor in the Anglican Church, at a time when such a movement existed in the church of England. His work on Holiness is an absolutely great book that talks about the important things and warned against the excesses of the Keswick movement (kessick, not keswick: see my review of Victory in Christ). He also fought the ritualist movement in the Church of England (distinct as the author notes from the Oxford movement), textual criticism, and incipient secularization. His own son tragically adopted some textual criticism (I forget how heretical it was), and it caused an uneasy tension in their relationship.
Perhaps the more interesting thing was his role as a bishop in the Church of England. I myself, being presbyterian, emotionally prefer a disestablished church for libertarian reasons, as well as fear of nominalism in the Church. However, Ryle interestingly, although fiercely committed to need for every individual to be personally converted, believed firmly in the Church of England's ability to reach a broader number of people than a disestablished church. He showed a brotherly spirit for disestablished Christians, but he clearly thought the establishment was better, in part due to the stipend system which did not depend on congregants (but is this what Paul advocates in 2 Cor?). In our times and in Roman Catholic times, this is extremely hard to beleive, but still there may be good things in an top-down big tent church; I feel like the PCA is kind of the closest parallel nowadays.
One of the interesting things about this book is that Bennet Rogers does not make value judgments about many of Ryle's endeavors. For instance, I don't know whether Rogers is a more strict or looser or Calvinist, or what he thinks of Ryle's work in the church of England. So if you're looking for a very careful work of scholarship on this man, this is the go-to book.
December 30, 2024
Tremendously encouraging for pastoral ministry.
December 15, 2022
While I believe Murray's biography of Ryle remains the most enjoyable, Rogers' is the most robust I've read so far, especially as regards Ryle's place within Anglicanism. Soaring and soul-edifying at times, academic and analytical at others, the book's value is sustained in both these aspects though one may wish it read as warmly all the way through.
April 30, 2019
Bennett W Rogers provides us with a considerable and laudable work on J.C. Ryle - the Victorian Anglican evangelical pastor, author, church-statesman, and bishop. Rogers' book (2019) is the most recent scholarly work on Ryle. No serious study of Ryle, evangelicalism, or, for that matter, Victorian Church history will want to give this book a miss! We are indebted to Rogers!
The footnotes alone are worth the price of the book, in my opinion. Rogers' earlier work on Ryle is his Ph.D. (from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary). This work provides in-depth resources: bibliographically and historically. The chapters dealing with Tractarianism and, especially, Ritualism as well as the Dissenters movment are eminently valuable.
As mentioned, this book - a commendable theological and historical study of Ryle in his context - is based on the author's Ph.D. thesis. Consequently, the writing style of the book is, frankly, dull at some points (Rogers' repeated use of the ordinal 'first', 'second', 'third'... is characteristic of Ph.D. theses but tedious). For this reason, I fear the book will be off-putting to the reader who, having heard of Ryle or read some of Ryle's still-in-print books wants to read about Ryle 'the man'. I cannot help but think this is a fault of the editors at Reformation Heritage Books not Rogers. Rogers' otherwise invaulable work on Ryle fails to offer an inviting biography of 'the tender lion'. This is a shame because Rogers, as said above, provides us with a considerable and laudable theological and historical study of one of Anglicanism's and evangelicalism's greats!
The footnotes alone are worth the price of the book, in my opinion. Rogers' earlier work on Ryle is his Ph.D. (from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary). This work provides in-depth resources: bibliographically and historically. The chapters dealing with Tractarianism and, especially, Ritualism as well as the Dissenters movment are eminently valuable.
As mentioned, this book - a commendable theological and historical study of Ryle in his context - is based on the author's Ph.D. thesis. Consequently, the writing style of the book is, frankly, dull at some points (Rogers' repeated use of the ordinal 'first', 'second', 'third'... is characteristic of Ph.D. theses but tedious). For this reason, I fear the book will be off-putting to the reader who, having heard of Ryle or read some of Ryle's still-in-print books wants to read about Ryle 'the man'. I cannot help but think this is a fault of the editors at Reformation Heritage Books not Rogers. Rogers' otherwise invaulable work on Ryle fails to offer an inviting biography of 'the tender lion'. This is a shame because Rogers, as said above, provides us with a considerable and laudable theological and historical study of one of Anglicanism's and evangelicalism's greats!
October 18, 2023
This was a very interesting an helpful biography about a figure in church history whose writings are known by many, but his person and life known by few. He is a bit of an enigma, rarely showing his personal side or humanness. But by many who were close to him, they described a completely different side to the orderly and sometimes controversial persona that was attributed to him in public. He truly was both a lion and lamb.
Ryle didn't fit into any "camp" and I really admired reading about how he held fast to his conviction to stay in the church of England and try to reform it from the inside-out, while many others were leaving. It was a hard decision, and since he held to mostly Calvinisitic, Dispensational, and Puritan theology he was hard-pressed to win over many in the diocese. But, he continued on for his whole life, battling for truth and against ritualism.
The book was very helpful and the only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars is because the middle to late sections were a bit hard to trudge through, as it detailed mostly arguments and contentions that Ryle laid out in his time as bishop. They were helpful for knowing what he thought and how he acted, but they read like a proper essay instead of a captivating biography. The first part of the book was very captivating and moved along quickly. I especially appreciated the focus on his love of songs and hymns as well as tracts.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend to anyone!
Ryle didn't fit into any "camp" and I really admired reading about how he held fast to his conviction to stay in the church of England and try to reform it from the inside-out, while many others were leaving. It was a hard decision, and since he held to mostly Calvinisitic, Dispensational, and Puritan theology he was hard-pressed to win over many in the diocese. But, he continued on for his whole life, battling for truth and against ritualism.
The book was very helpful and the only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars is because the middle to late sections were a bit hard to trudge through, as it detailed mostly arguments and contentions that Ryle laid out in his time as bishop. They were helpful for knowing what he thought and how he acted, but they read like a proper essay instead of a captivating biography. The first part of the book was very captivating and moved along quickly. I especially appreciated the focus on his love of songs and hymns as well as tracts.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend to anyone!
October 8, 2021
Overall a pretty good read. Very hot and cold, though. Some parts of the book were so terrific and well done, but some parts clearly read like an academic paper, which is fine, but just didn’t encourage me to keep reading. Chapter 4 of this book might be one of the best chapters of any book I’ve ever read - it is about Ryle’s defense of the faith against controversies of the day, and it’s so fascinating and encouraging. That was definitely the highlight. The footnotes are insane. The footnotes are basically their own book, with length explanations and quotes from all over the place. This is without a doubt the most researched and well put together Ryle biography I have seen, but again, it is fairly academic and I wouldn’t say it is a page turner at all. But if you like Ryle, I think you will appreciate this book.
October 29, 2022
I used to read the shorter Ryle works as a kid and did not appreciate them as much as I do now. This biography will give you just about everything one would need to checkmark the tenets of a biography, but it does heavily emphasize the doctrine that Ryle held and how that undergirded his entire ministry. That was one of the more beneficial aspects of this shorter work that I appreciated.
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July 3, 2019I have thoroughly enjoyed reading A Tender Lion. It is a rich study on the life of J.C. Ryle that is very reader friendly. I highly recommend it!
July 10, 2025
An in-depth biography of J.C. Ryle. Helpful in highlighting lesser known aspects of his life and ministry.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews