Susanna Wesley by Sandy Dengler

As an introduction to some thoughts on Susanna Wesley, we feel it necessary to define some terms. Ms. Dengler writes Christian biographies for young children. By definition, a biography is an account of a person’s life. The word “account” indicates a factual and accurate recounting of real incidents and experiences which occurred during the life of the person who is the subject of the book. The author might also offer to the reader some additional insight gained by extensive research all of which could not be catalogued in the book. However, in a real biography, this is always done with the intent of helping the reader gain a greater understanding of the factual events in the life of the subject.

Though it is billed as such, Susanna Wesley by Sandy Dengler does not fit the definition of a biography. We will attempt to determine what it is and what it is not in this article. It is billed as “Christian reading” for young people. However, we think that you will see from the direct quotes that we have provided below that it does not really fit that billing either.

Ms. Dengler’s treatment of Mrs. Wesley’s life not only maligns her character, but it also distorts one’s picture of the historical period and its customs through her anachronous treatment of them. Rather than write a biography, in our opinion, Ms. Dengler has used Mrs. Welsey as a label or a cover for a book which is her own fictional invention. This invention is simply a plank for her own personal views of womanhood—views which are in sharp contrast to the way that Scripture treats this subject.

This debilitation of godly womanhood is accomplished in the reader’s mind through fabricating events rather than through relating facts. This fabrication is most often accomplished through implying what Mrs. Wesley was thinking. Could anyone living now know what Mrs. Wesley was thinking about during the experiences of her life? —even if many of those experiences had not been also fabricated? Yes, Ms. Dengler has used the life of Mrs. Wesley for a backdrop, however, we think that a few quotes from her book will show that she has not used it well.

On page 13 we find: “Better thirteen than on the brink of marriage. Enjoy your sunshine, Elizabeth. Too soon you’ll be confined to the house scrubbing floors and birthing babies,”—certainly not the attitude of the woman in Proverbs 31. And page 15 says, “No, Susanna did not want to be burdened with a large family. Arrows in the quiver might be a blessing to the father of the house but certainly not to the one who did the work.” As we can see “arrows in the quiver” is only part of the idea expressed here, as Psalm 127:3-5 states, “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.” The same passage states that the fruit of her womb is a woman’s reward from God, Himself.

Such use of biblical passages undermine the reader’s view of the Bible and one’s will to follow its teachings. Yet, these occurrences are not real parts of Mrs. Wesley’s life at all. They are only thoughts that the author is implying that Mrs. Wesley had. But since the author never heard Mrs. Wesley think these thoughts, they can only be fictional concoctions. We have only picked some of the more glaring examples, and this is only by page 15. What must an impressionable young mind be thinking already at this point?

Page 16 once again declares to us the thoughts of Mrs. Wesley. It says, “She also had determined to limit or possibly forgo her childbearing. She might even postpone marriage, maybe forever. Who needed conceited men, anyway?” Perhaps Ms. Dengler might consider that women living in Mrs. Wesley’s century did not have the birth control options available to women today. It is impossible to determine that Mrs. Wesley ever entertained such thoughts, given the facts of her life and the size of her family.

It is these groundless implications of Mrs. Wesley’s thoughts that we feel malign her character. However, such sentiments are scattered throughout this “biography.” It almost seems as though Ms. Dengler intended to take what some consider a paragon of child rearing and use what would be expected by parents to be an encouragement in that area as a means of destroying any sense of adherence to biblical principles in that area of life in the minds of the young readers.

Now, though this is supposed to be a children’s biography, Ms. Dengler decides to reveal some rather intimate, and yet unnecessary, details concerning the sexual relationship of the Wesleys. Details? Not really. Actually they are more fabrications. It cannot be known whether Mrs. Wesley ever entertained the thoughts found on page 115: “She refrained from slamming the study door behind her, but she closed it firmly. How dare he! And to try to force her lip service by threatening to withdraw his marital duties?" Right is right, and principles are principles. Susanna had never shirked her responsibility toward either right or principle. Nor would she now. She stomped upstairs.

She took her time preparing for bed. She still had most of her slim figure. Her face showed a few lines that hadn’t been there before, but one must expect that at thirty-two years of age. No gray marred the rich raven color of her hair yet.

"No, there was no reason to suspect Sam’s interest might be flagging because his wife had turned flabby and frumpy.” Even if there were some way to know that this had occurred, would we consider it fit for grade-school children to read?—Christian children no less?

Page 127 is interesting. “To almost smell his closeness, to watch his hands move, to hear his voice—it tantalized. It stirred her. Didn’t he feel anything? Was everything gone between them? Apparently. At least she wasn’t pregnant again.” Even if these thoughts were real, is this what parents are looking for in a biography for young children?

Does Ms. Dengler always know what Mrs. Wesley was thinking? Does she ever know? It is almost unforgivable that she would write such things, yet it goes on. The book reports that the Wesley’s had a fire in which their home was destroyed, Ms. Dengler reports in detail how Mrs. Wesley was naked as she escaped the fire. To our knowledge there is no documentation of any such details, and never has been. Knowing what we know of the period—that women wore floor-length nightgowns as well as night caps when they dressed for bed—makes it even more unlikely that any such thing ever occurred. Yet, even if it had, once again, is it necessary to draw attention to this in a book aimed at children?

Finally, Mrs. Wesley probably did have some feminist, or at least rebellious, tendencies. She was not the perfect, unreproachable role model that some portray her to be. None of us are perfect, especially when we are young, and she was not different from the rest of us. However, we feel that this author exploited her faults well beyond reality.

The facts are that as a young girl of thirteen, Susanna left her father’s church to attend the Church of England. She no longer felt the need to listen to her godly father, but felt she was smart enough to decide which church was correct. Which of us would allow our children to decide at age thirteen what church held the correct beliefs? Susanna was wrong in choosing the Church of England. Her life bore this out, and her son, John, became a nonconformist preacher just like her own father.

Ms. Dengler has taken this woman’s life and set her up as a role model, actually a subtly reversed role model, exploiting all the wrong things in her life, and writing in many more that never existed. This, like many contemporary Christian biographies, is really worse than fiction, because it is presented as truth.

Ms. Dengler also wrote a “biography” of John Bunyan. Reading it is a disappointment, at least until one realizes that that is not who John Bunyan was at all! A comparison between her book and John Bunyan’s own autobiography will reveal that Ms. Dengler has done the same thing to his life that she has done to Mrs. Wesley’s.

There are accounts that are poles apart. One instance is Mr. Bunyan’s marriage. Ms. Dengler’s account was a complete fabrication designed to add spice to the story, and had no basis in truth. Having an actual account with which to compare confirms what we suspected about the validity of Ms. Dengler’s accounts of Mrs. Wesley.

As one last afterthought, we talk to people who state that they only allow their children to read biographies. They feel safe in what they are giving their children to read because they think that they are safeguarded by the idea that their children are only reading facts. Nothing is as good a safeguard as knowing the author, or, even better, what is in the book.

As we can see, many “biographies” are simply not true. Secondly, even in a biography containing facts, how many ideas has the author mixed with those facts—ideas to which your children should not be introduced. Proper reading for young people is about ideas and concepts—not facts. Facts will never be more than a small part of any reading picture. Assuming that biographies are factual is not always accurate. Even when a biography is basically factual, assuming that it is acceptable is still often inaccurate. There are many concepts, ideas and notions that have no part in the Christian life—especially at an early age, even if they are introduced by facts.

Selecting a child’s reading material is a fairly intricate process. Blanket rules will not really work. It is about finding good things to read. For the Christian, good reading material uplifts one’s spirit to a desire for a closer relationship with one’s Redeemer, and encourages quality of character consistent with that concept. Whether it is fact or fiction does not really matter, if it has this effect. However, much reading material has exactly the opposite effect, even if it may be factual. The guiding of our children’s minds is an awesome responsibility.