The Quiet Faith of Laura Ingalls Wilder
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The Library of Religious Biography, an invaluable series published by Eerdmans press, runs on a set of parallel tracks. Many entries concern figures best known for their religious influence, like Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, and Billy Graham. Other biographies take up subjects whose spiritual significance might be overshadowed by other achievements and distinctions, like Emily Dickinson, Robert E. Lee, and Charles Lindbergh.
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John Fry’s new study, A Prairie Faith: The Religious Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, falls into this second category. Fry, a history professor at Trinity Christian College, explores the quiet, unshowy brand of Christianity that shaped both the life and literature of the famed Little House on the Prairie author.
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Monika Hilder, an English professor at Trinity Western University, reviewed the book for CT.
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"In this multifaceted analysis," she writes, "Fry explores several questions, including the following: What sort of Christian was Wilder, who regularly attended church but never joined any as a member? How did her parents influence her faith journey? What should we make of the affiliation she and her husband, Almanzo, shared with Freemasonry? And how can we square her Christian belief with demeaning references to Native Americans and African Americans in the Little House series?
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"As Fry evaluates possible answers, he paints a vivid portrait of the American frontier as it changed over the course of Wilder’s lifetime, which spanned the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Readers learn about her experiences of traveling through the Midwest in covered wagons, living amid what Fry calls the ‘Christian landscape’ of the region’s small towns, and even discovering the emerging world of air travel.
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"Fry organizes the book chronologically, devoting detailed attention to each successive Little House book. Beyond the narrative itself, he includes a wealth of helpful material, including regional maps and an appendix on pastors serving in the churches of Mansfield, Missouri, where Wilder began her writing career and lived for most of her adult life.
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"Fry’s afterword, which describes his own journey in studying Wilder’s life and thought, is interesting in its own right. Having grown up on a farm in Western Pennsylvania, Fry has a deep affinity with and commitment to studying its history. One cannot help thinking that this background leaves Fry ideally suited to offer insights that scholars in more urban contexts might neglect."
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Evangelical Corrections and Overcorrections
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I’d be willing to bet that many evangelicals, like me, heard their beliefs derided as "fundamentalist" well before they ever discovered the historical provenance of that term.
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The kind of people who deploy it as a casual slur, in much the same unsophisticated manner as one would label Christian faith "weird" or "extreme," are typically obvious to the fact that, over a century ago, a group of Christians started identifying as "fundamentalists" because another group of Christians (the "modernists") were voicing skepticism about fundamental Christian doctrines, like the virgin birth of Christ or his bodily resurrection.
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But in my experience, a surprising number of evangelicals only learn this history later in life, if they learn it at all. This leaves them with a warped view of fundamentalism. Instead of holding nuanced memories of a movement that rightly defended orthodoxy before lurching into excess, they take a flawed but essential forerunner of modern evangelicalism and repudiate it entirely.
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In my Beckoning Nightstand column for the November/December issue of CT, I reflect on Richard Mouw’s book from a quarter century ago, The Smell of Sawdust: What Evangelicals Can Learn from Their Fundamentalist Heritage. Reflecting on the dynamics of correction and overcorrection that frame the interplay between evangelical and fundamentalist expressions of faith, I suggest three areas where I worry about the pendulum swinging too far.
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To quote one example, "I think we could stand to recover something of the fundamentalist emphasis on the eternal fate of individual souls.
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"Mouw writes of revivalistic altar calls ‘where people were encouraged to make deep and abiding commitments.’ He knows, of course, that emotional appeals can yield ephemeral professions of faith. He knows, too, that cathartic moments of conversion can’t substitute for regular church fellowship and patient discipleship. But he helpfully stresses the high stakes involved. It matters whether people get saved!
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"Obviously, evangelicals believe this. But in recent years, evangelical leaders have taken great pains to portray the cosmic scope of God’s redemption. God isn’t just gathering lost souls and depositing them in paradise. He’s renewing creation itself and reigning as King forevermore.
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"I want pulpits to ring out with this glorious message. But I cringe at the thought of dismissing a perennial source of existential dread—What happens after I die?—as selfish or unimportant. The gospel promises abundantly more than ‘going to heaven,’ but surely not less."
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In A Prairie Faith: The Religious Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, historian John Fry invites readers into a detailed exploration of the celebrated author of the Little House on the…
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In a fallen world, reform efforts never perfectly hit their marks. They address one problem only to sow the seeds of others. Or they so aggressively attack an infection that…
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This holiday season, we invite you to share comfort, quiet, or excitement with each person on your gift list. From beautifully illustrated Bibles and devotionals to novels and picture books,…
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As this issue hits your mailboxes after the US election and as you prepare for the holidays, it can be easy to feel lost in darkness. In this issue, you’ll read of the piercing light of Christ that illuminates the darkness of drug addiction at home and abroad, as Angela Fulton in Vietnam and Maria Baer in Portland report about Christian rehab centers. Also, Carrie McKean explores the complicated path of estrangement and Brad East explains the doctrine of providence. Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt shows us how art surprises, delights, and retools our imagination for the Incarnation, while Jeremy Treat reminds us of an ancient African bishop's teachings about Immanuel. Finally, may you be surprised by the nearness of the "Winter Child," whom poet Malcolm Guite guides us enticingly toward. Happy Advent and Merry Christmas.
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