If you want to understand and appreciate The Life and Labor of
William Wilberforce, one of the wisest things you can do is to
read his own book, A Practical View of Christianity first, and
then read biographies. The book was published in 1797 when
Wilberforce was 37 years old and had been a member of the
British Parliament already for 16 years. The book proved
incredibly popular for the time. It went through five printings
in six months and was translated into five foreign languages.
The book makes crystal clear what drives Wilberforce as a person
and a politician. And if you don't see it first in his book,
chances are you may not find it clearly in the biographies. What
made Wilberforce tick was a profound Biblical allegiance to what
he called the "peculiar doctrines" of Christianity. These, he
said, give rise, in turn, to true affections – what we might
call "passion" or "emotions" – for spiritual things, which, in
turn, break the power of pride and greed and fear, and then lead
to transformed morals which,