Kevin Belmonte – författare

Dramatized in the major motion picture Amazing Grace, the story of William Wilberforce is the remarkable account of how one man’s vision, courage, and relentless pursuit of justice brought freedom to thousands and changed the course of history. “That the greatest and most successful reformer in all history is almost unknown today is a crying shame. Kevin Belmonte puts this right with his inspiring study of an inspiring life.” —Dr. Os Guinness, author of Unspeakable: Facing Up to the Challenge of Evil “An excellently researched and insightfully written biography … I applaud its sound scholarship and commend its perceptive insights into a great life.” —Brian Sibley, author of C. S. Lewis: Through the Shadowlands William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity is the definitive biography of the English statesman who overcame incredible odds to bring about the end of slavery and slave trade. Called "the wittiest man in England" by philosopher and novelist Madame de Stael, praised by Abraham Lincoln, and renowned for his oratorical genius, Wilberforce worked tirelessly to accomplish his goal. Whether you are an avid student of history, a pupil of prominent leaders of the past, or simply someone who reads for pleasure, you will love award-winning biographer Kevin Belmonte’s vivid account of the life of William Wilberforce.

He burst upon the fusty corridors of Victorian spirituality like a breath of fresh air, regaling the prime minister with his sense of humor, and touching the lives of seven presidents.

Who was this man? A sterling philanthropist and educator, D. L. Moody was also the finest evangelist in the nineteenth century—bringing the transformative message of the gospel before 100 million people on both sides of the Atlantic in an age long before radio and television. Thousands of underprivileged young people were educated in the schools he established. Before The Civil War, he went to a place no one else would: the slums of Chicago called Little Hell. The mission he started there, in an abandoned saloon, in time drew children in the hundreds, and prompt a visit from president-elect. Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

But all this is just to begin to tell the life of D.L. Moody. Drawing on the best, most recent scholarship, D. L. Moody – A Life chronicles the incredible journey of one of the great souls of history.

Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church. Some are familiar faces. Others are unexpected guests. But all, through their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires, uniquely illuminate our shared experience.

The author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, one of the most influential books in English literature, had little formal education. Born the son of a tinker, John Bunyan was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps. He was allowed to go to school for a few years and purchase a few books, but his apprenticeship in the family business took precedence.  Bunyan experienced his first sorrow in adolescence, when both his mother and sister died. It wasn’t his last.  Revolutions and wars were all around him, and he was jailed twice for preaching the Gospel. Yet amidst repeated imprisonments, civil war, and violent persecution, Bunyan crafted The Pilgrim’s Progress, a testament unlike any other to the triumph of the human spirit.  His simple cadences transformed the language, and his memorable characters became familiar to millions.  Bunyan became a public figure, a captivating speaker, and above all, a man known for his unrelenting trust in God.

The story of A. J. Gordon recounts an epic journeyone of faith, character, and pioneering vision. A sterling educator, philanthropist, and herald of heaven, he was a great soul, and his life a resplendent legacy. This impeccably researched biography brings Dr. Gordons world to life, charting his rise to international prominence and his work with great peers and friends like D. L. Moody. Born in rural New Hampshire, he was, in many ways, a renaissance man: an educator, philanthropist, author, magazine editor, antislavery advocate, trustee of Brown University, and the pastor of Clarendon Street Church in Boston. He also led groundbreaking mission work among Bostons immigrant communities, chiefly Chinese and Hebrew groups. - They cherished his work among them. In 1889, Gordon founded the Boston Missionary Training School to give underprivileged young people an education they would not have had otherwise. Tuition was free, and courses (taught by Ivy Leagueeducated instructors) were open to young men and young women of many ethnicities African-American, Chinese, and Hebrew students among them. Gordon stoutly weathered storms of criticism over this, but he persevered. His gifts as an author resonate still, and his many books are now housed in places like the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.

You may be aware that G. K. Chesterton authored influential Christian biographies and apologetics. But you may not know the larger-than-life Gilbert Keith Chesterton himself―not yet. Equally versed in poetry, novels, literary criticism, and journalism, he addressed politics, culture, and religion with a towering intellect and a soaring wit.

Chesterton engaged his world through the written word. He carried on lively, public discussions with the social commentators of his day, continually challenging them with civility, humility, erudition, and his ever-sharp sense of humor. Today’s reader can find the same treasures, for as Chesterton said, “What a man can believe depends upon his philosophy, not upon the clock or the century.”

In Kevin Belmonte’s fresh new biography, you’ll get to know the real G. K. Chesterton and his literary and cultural accomplishments. A giant of his time, Chesterton continues to live large in the imaginations of twenty-first-century readers.

Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church. Some are familiar faces. Others are unexpected guests. But all, through their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires, uniquely illuminate our shared experience.

The author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, one of the most influential books in English literature, had little formal education. Born in 1628, the son of a tinker, John Bunyan was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps. He was allowed to go to school for a few years and purchase a few books, but his apprenticeship in the family business took precedence.

Bunyan experienced his first sorrow in adolescence, when both his mother and sister died. It wasn’t his last. Revolutions and wars were all around him, and he was jailed twice for preaching the Gospel.

Yet amidst repeated imprisonments, civil war, and violent persecution, Bunyan crafted The Pilgrim’s Progress, a testament unlike any other to the triumph of the human spirit. His simple cadences transformed the language, and his memorable characters became familiar to millions. Bunyan became a public figure, a captivating speaker, and above all, a man known for his unrelenting trust in God.

A plainspoken follower of Jesus, Dwight L. Moody embodies passionate, unflinching obedience to God. It’s 1860, the eve of America’s Gilded Age. A man in a gray, woolen suit stands in a dilapidated building in Chicago’s “Little Hell,” a slum forgotten by the world. He is surrounded by grimy children, attentive and watchful in this makeshift school Moody established just for them.

They are waiting for Abraham Lincoln to speak. Why America’s greatest president and one of America’s most celebrated spiritual giants are among the poorest of the poor is just the beginning of D.L. Moody, a biography with a novel-like narrative style that unveils the eternal power one life can have.

This book reintroduces the unlikely accomplishments of a man desperate to obey God’s call and shows how one committed heart can impact the kingdom of God and the spiritual heritage of a nation.

We learn about life through the lives of others. Their experiences, their trials, their adventures become our schools, our chapels, our playgrounds. Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church through prose as accessible and concise as it is personal and engaging. Some are familiar faces. Others are unexpected guests. Whether the person is D.L. Moody, Sergeant York, Saint Nicholas, John Bunyan, or William F. Buckley, we are now living in the world that they created and understand both it and ourselves better in the light of their lives. Their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires uniquely illuminate our shared experience.

“For thousands of years, the hope of heaven has called to people through miracles. When we stop to consider their stories, God’s voice calls to us as well.”

In our age of constant innovation, technological achievement, and the sad tendency to see ourselves as the captains of our fate, we may be tempted to make little time for miracles, or give little credence to them. But to live our lives without a sense of the miraculous is to live impoverished lives. Our word for miracle comes from the Latin word mirari, “to wonder.” And well might we wonder when we consider the nature of miracles and their purpose.

It is here that a grand conversation beckons. God has been our help in ages past. He is our hope for years to come. To learn of holy events and people—supremely, to look upon the Savior—is to see the power of God, and how He has always sought to draw us to Himself. He is our eternal home. Miracles point the way there. 

Look at a night sky, studded with numberless constellations of stars. Each is a celestial shard of glory—bestowing glimpses of the eternal. Miracles in Scripture are like the stars. They, like the heavens, declare the glory of God. 

In these pages are scenes and lives touched by eternity, settings of almighty declaration, moments marked by deliverance, by mercy, or visionary unfoldings of God’s divine intent. 

Kevin Belmonte provides learned insight into the profoundly important history of miracles. Miraculous is a richly researched text of wondrous things that have taken place from ancient times to the present.