A Practical View - Wilberforce, William

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Résumé :
William Wilberforce's A Practical View is a searching Christian argument for sincere faith, moral seriousness, and the transformation of public and private life. Written by the British statesman and reformer best known for his leadership in the campaign against the slave trade, the book challenges nominal religion, social respectability, and outward profession when they are separated from conviction, repentance, charity, and active obedience. Wilberforce's concern is practical Christianity: belief tested in conduct, conscience, affections, duties, and the ordering of a whole life before God. The work contrasts conventional religious observance with what Wilberforce presents as real Christianity, pressing readers to examine the difference between inherited forms and inward renewal. Its force lies in the union of theological conviction and moral application. Faith is not treated as a decorative addition to polite life, nor as merely private sentiment, but as a governing principle that should shape character, family, service, reform, and responsibility. Originally published in 1797 under the fuller title A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians... Contrasted with Real Christianity, the book became one of the defining texts of British evangelical thought. This SMK edition presents an important work of Christian theology, religious ethics, evangelical history, and moral reform. For readers interested in William Wilberforce, practical Christianity, Christian living, eighteenth-century religious thought, Anglican evangelicalism, moral philosophy, and the spiritual foundations of social reform, A Practical View remains a vigorous and historically significant statement of faith in action....

Biographie:
William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was a British statesman, social reformer, evangelical Christian, and one of the most important public moral figures of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain. A long-serving Member of Parliament, he is best remembered for his leadership in the parliamentary campaign to abolish the British slave trade, a struggle that helped lead to the Slave Trade Act of 1807. His public career combined political persistence, religious conviction, humanitarian concern, and a belief that Christian faith must bear directly upon social responsibility.Wilberforce's influence extended beyond politics into the religious and moral life of Britain. Associated with the evangelical reform circle often called the Clapham Sect, he worked alongside figures committed to abolition, missionary activity, prison reform, education, and the moral renewal of public life. A Practical View became his most influential religious work, setting out the difference between nominal Christianity and what he regarded as living, practical faith. The book remains significant for readers of Christian theology, evangelical history, religious ethics, Anglican thought, and the moral foundations of reform movements....