A native of Delaware, John Johns was educated at Princeton and taught Hebrew in the school's seminary.  From 1849 to 1854 Johns served as President of the College of William and Mary and restored the faltering institution to a sound footing.  Although from the north, Johns sided with the South during the Civil War, where he comforted the dying on battlefields and urged that Union prisoners be humanly treated.  After the war, Johns, although crestfallen at the Confederacy's defeat, became a leading figure for reconciliation.  He had a longstanding interest and involvement in the Episcopal Church and in 1862 succeeded William Meade as Bishop of Virginia. In 1868, he was elected Professor of Pastoral Theology in Virginia's Episcopal Seminary, where he virtually re-founded the seminary, and served until his death in 1876.  Offered for sale is the first full-length biography of Johns:  John Sumner Wood, The Virginia Bishop, A Yankee Hero of the Confederacy (Richmond;  Garrett & Massie, 1961).  The author was an attorney (member of the Maryland and District of Columbia bars).  Not being an academician, Wood was not bound by the profession's canon and presents what can be considered a hagiography, as opposed to an unbiased rendering of John's life.  From the book notes:  "In his approach, Mr. Wood has not followed conventional methods of writing, but presents his case mush as a lawyer would his legal brief."  Wood has inscribed and signed the work.  His inscription points to his approach to Johns' Life.  Further, he uses John's life to express a personal view, writing:  "My goal is in the preface."  Here he explicates: "I am not interested in one John Johns merely because he happened to have been a spectacular and vigorous Episcopal Bishop.  What I want this biography to illustrate, through the medium of Bishop Johns, is that mankind's greatest national force is the intangible Christian output of its dedicated spiritual leaders.  Socialism, the ownership of all property by the state, is materialism and no more.  Democracy gives mankind the freedom to correct the abuses of capitalism by evolution and also to enjoy the blessings of Christ-like thoughts, ideals and goals in work, play, love and worship.”  Hardcover with mylar protected dust jacket; 1st, 187 pp, numerous b/w ills. Dust jacket moderately age worn; front and back end pages, title page, and outside of edges foxed; internally good (7+ on scale of 10).   

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