Author Michael Bourdeaux
Publisher DLT £19:99 2019
Format hbk
ISBN 9780232534146
In years to come, this will undoubtedly become the standard reference work for anyone studying the way in which communism, especially during the roughly forty years of the cold war, persecuted and attempted to suppress religion in general and Christianity in particular. Michael Bourdeaux was the driving force behind the fight against such behaviour by the Soviet Union and its allies, which was recognised by the award of the Templeton Prize in 1984. This memoir shows clearly how utterly committed to his cause Bourdeaux became through the work of Keston College, which he founded. Arguably it also demonstrates that once communism became discredited from 1989 onwards, the movement had difficulty in redefining itself. Persecution of Christians has continued – but from other forms of totalitarian and/or autocratic government. Bourdeaux and those who have succeeded him seem from this memoir to have had some problem in defining their new enemy.
Almost half of this book is a delightfully engaging autobiography of a young man whose childhood coincided with the Second World War, and who went up to university in the mid-1950s. Certainly we see the development of Bourdeaux’s ideas and opinions, alongside wonderful descriptions of college life over half a century ago. Keston College is not founded until chapter 10 (of 20), and then the tone changes relatively suddenly. The book becomes the important source material that it undoubtedly is, but also becomes a much less readable chronology of the events in the life of Bourdeaux himself and of Keston College. There is a huge index of names – around 700 of them –the vast majority occurring from chapter 11 onwards, which works out at something like four per page. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Bourdeaux is trying, quite laudably but rather indigestibly, to mention anyone who ever had anything to do with Keston College. The consequence is an exceptionally long string of reports that X arrived, did this, and left, followed by Y and then Z and then nearly 700 others. Given his unique expertise, I would have loved to know more of Bourdeaux’s personal views than he is prepared to give. For example, he consciously avoids discussion of Vladimir Putin’s present-day populist authoritarianism, about which he might well have a really valuable insight. But of course all the conversations and discussions that are recorded here are directly from the memory of a participant who is now in his mid-eighties and thus have the force of primary source material. There may be defects in the presentation of this book; indeed a much longer one might have been welcome, but nothing can detract from this being a really important historical record.
ALAN WAKELY
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