Books with author William W. Lace

Sir Francis Drake rose from humble beginnings on an English farm to become one of the country's most widely acclaimed heroes. As a result of his early exploits at what amounted to piracy in the Caribbean, he acquired great wealth and fame. He became a confidant of Queen Elizabeth I, a terror to the king of Spain, and an admiral in the navy that defeated the mighty Spanish Armada. As an explorer, Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world--the second ever to do so after Magellan--and his voyages uncovered much about the western coast of the Americas, the Pacific Northwest, the Pacific Ocean, and Cape Horn. Read in Sir Francis Drake how this man's career opened the way for more exploration by the English and was part of the foundation of British naval power.

William Law was one of the great mystics, clerics, and educators of the Church of England. Born in 1686, he was educated at Cambridge, eventually taking a teaching position there in addition to being ordained in the Church of England. He lost his position at Cambridge for being a Non-Juror (the Church of England being a state religion, clerics and others are required to swear oaths of allegiance to the monarch, and this Law could not do with regard to George I). He wrote the first work, `A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life', one of his best-known works, while in retirement as tutor in the Gibbon household (he was tutor to the father of the historian noted for the work on the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) in the 1720s.. He wrote the second, much shorter work, `The Spirit of Love,' in 1750s. The first is a major work of spiritual practice, rightly deserving the description as a `classic' or `masterpiece'. For a course we teach at my seminary, this book is on the list of spiritual classics one may choose to use for inspiration and spiritual reflection, and for good reason. Influenced by Law's readings from other mystics such as Thomas a Kempis, Johann Tauler and others, this book is full of mystic insight and practical wisdom. It was popular from the start, and remains an enduring classic of post-Reformation spirituality.