Of Intense Brightness

"Be uncommon Christians . . . that is, eminently holy, self-denying, cross-bearing, Bible, everyday Christians." So James Brainerd Taylor (1801–1829) encouraged others to be, and so he strived to be himself. Of Intense Brightness reveals aspects of Taylor's uncommon Christianity by allowing the Princeton and Yale-educated evangelist to speak for himself. By means of forty-five selected and edited letters and journal entries of Taylor's (written from ages fourteen to twenty-seven), readers will obtain a unique glimpse into the inner workings of an evangelical Protestant spirituality that was, according to nineteenth-century Princeton Seminary professor Samuel Miller, "so uniform, that we had only, as it were, one face, and that of intense brightness to behold."

The activism of the 'up and doing' Taylor was fueled by the sweet 'communion with heaven' that characterized his spirituality. Francis Kyle's work in making the brief and inner life of someone who sadly is unknown today has much value., Many thanks to Francis Kyle for this most edifying anthology. It is sad but true: James Brainerd Taylor was an 'uncommon Christian.' My hope and prayer is that these selections from his grace-filled spiritual writings will be used by God to change this situation., James Brainerd Taylor inspires and encourages me as I sit in the same Nassau Hall where he lived, studied, and wrote. In Of Intense Brightness, Francis Kyle illuminates Taylor, a truly uncommon Christian and one to whom I and my fellow Princetonians are indebted for helping to establish an historical stronghold for Christ., So-called postmodernity could do well to retrace the steps of the little known James Brainerd Taylor. I congratulate Francis Kyle for putting the spotlight on a worthy luminary., Kyle has done the church a great favor by resurrecting the dynamic faith of an earnest young man whose devotion can still breathe life into a sometimes complacent church.

I. Francis Kyle III is a youth and college campus minister in Port Angeles, Washington. A graduate of Canada's Prairie Bible College and Toronto Baptist Seminary (M.Div., Th.M.) and a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, he is a Doctor of Ministry student at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. Kyle is the author of An Uncommon Christian: James Brainerd Taylor, Forgotten Evangelist in America's Second Great Awakening (University Press of America, 2007).