Handel's Messiah

Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah by Charles King (2024, Doubleday, New York; 335 pages).

The author masterfully weaves together the stories of a number of people who made a significant contribution to the production of Handel’s Messiah.  He is skillful also in setting these stories in the broad historical context.  The book is an engaging, informative and satisfying read. Unfortunately, the author denies the truth of the biblical texts, reducing them to a mere expression of the human aspiration for meaning in the midst of life’s struggles.  He ends his introduction with this summary: “The Messiah’s form is a Christian story of God’s plan for humanity’s salvation.  Its substance, however, is the struggle to think ourselves toward hope.” (p.20).  The truth is that the substance of the texts of Messiah is the same as its form.  That is, the only way to “think ourselves toward hope” is by faith in the Person and work of the Messiah.  The author presents Messiah as man’s attempt to save himself rather than the Scriptural testimony to man’s need and God’s provision of a Savior.  It is unspeakably sad that he fails to see Christ in Messiah.  

Kit Swartz Pastor Emeritus RPC Oswego