• India: violence in Orissa
• The Commentary
  A secular funeral
• Where are the men?
• The graciousness of a great man
  How C.S. Lewis helped Kathy Keller to find Christ
• Depression: how churches and GPs can work together
• Thoughts on the Lakeland movement
• Reflecting on the Olympics
• Women bishops - really?
• Tutu and Tearfund
  Tearfund replies to concerns
• Monthly arts and media column
  God on trial - a contentious BBC2 drama reviewed
• Monthly column for youth workers
  Developing all the time
• Letter from America
  The real McCain?
• The Music Exchange
  Hairy weddings
• How Mumbo-Jumbo conquered the world & Quirkology
  Shelf life: Looking at secular books
• Alice Compain, 1934-2008
  Obituary
• The Third Degree
  UCCF: a vision for growth

other articles

• The God who draws near - An introduction to biblical spirituality
• Songs for the cross centered life (CD)
• Miss Pettigrew lives for a day
• Opening up Zephaniah
• The grace of giving (Didasko Files)
• The Shack
• Oxford - City of saints, scholars and dreaming spires
• Father, forgive
• The day is yours - Slow spirituality in a fast-moving world
• Jesus Christ - The Prince of preachers
• A body of divinity - or, The sum and substance of Christian religion
• Licensed to hug
• Micah's challenge - The church's responsibility to the global poor
• Lloyd-Jones - Messenger of grace
• Preaching with balance
• Israelite religions
• Running the race - Eric Liddell - Olympic champion and missionary
• John Stott at Keswick - A lifetime of preaching
• I can plod - Willliam Carey and the early years of the first Baptist missionary society
• Catch the vision - Roots of the Reformed recovery
• Planetwise - Dare to care for God's world
• Young, restless, Refored - A journalist's journey with the new Calvinists
• Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament

Olympic champion

RUNNING THE RACE
Eric Liddell — Olympic Champion and Missionary
By John W Keddie.
Evangelical Press. 256 pages
ISBN 978-0-85234-665-5

John Keddie appears to know more about Eric Liddell’s athletic performances than ought to be reasonably expected. His book is comprehensive about every significant rugby game Liddell played and every race Liddell ran in his golden sporting period between 1921 and 1925.

After these two opening sentences of the review I appreciate that you are on the verge of moving to another review unless you are something of a statistical anorak. Wait! Before you move on let me try and convey to you why the stats are not at all dull.

As you read the book you find yourself right in the thick of the action, feeling almost trackside as you watch this first class athlete in action. The best winger in Scotland in his generation and the finest runner in Britain leaves you breathless in the trail of his sporting performances. For any sportsman, this alone would be sufficient evidence to read the book. But there’s more!

Witness

What shines through the work is this athlete’s awesome desire to witness to his Saviour. Training, racing, witnessing and preaching are seamless in Liddell’s life. His passion for his sport is great, his love of Jesus Christ greater. The finest feature of Keddie’s work is that he doesn’t feel forced to make these two things mutually exclusive. The author leaves us in no doubt that Eric Liddell was determine to honour God by using the sporting gifts given to him and that he was determined to speak of Christ to anyone who would listen.

If you’ve a passion for sport and a love of Christ, this book will inspire you to press on and play for him and to tell people in the world of sport about Jesus Christ. If you don’t have a passion for sport, I guess you’ve long left this review!

Graham Daniels,
Christians in Sport