THE GOOD DOCTOR:
Philip Doddridge of Northampton - a tercentary tribute
By Alan C. Clifford
Charenton Reformed Publishing, 8 Le Strange Close, Norwich NR2 3PN
319 pages. £9.95 + £1.60 p&p
ISBN 0 9526716 3 8
Few people are better-equipped than Dr. Alan Clifford to write an account of the life and work of Philip Doddridge. Like the author of 'Hark, the glad sound, the Saviour comes', his biographer is a pastor/hymnwriter and a moderate (or genuine) Calvinist, whose interest in his subject goes back decades.
50 years ago Victor Murray wrote: 'The history of nonconformity in the middle years of the 18th century is the history of Doddridge and his influence.' Like the book where that appeared, edited by Geoffrey Nuttall, this marks a notable anniversary. Unlike it, it is the work of one man, who values his predecessors in the field, but clearly feels that justice has not yet been done to Doddridge the evangelical.
