Travelling Man: A tribute to the life and ministry of the Rev Dr Skevington Wood

Paul Taylor and Howard Mellor (eds), Wesley Fellowship and Cliff College, 1994, 126pp., £1.00, ISBN 1 898362 05 X

Dr Skevington Wood (1917-1993) was a Methodist minister, preacher and scholar. For seven years he was Principal of Cliff College in Derbyshire and he was the Wesley Fellowship’s first President. This is the only substantial account of his life, work and scholarship that has been published to date. The work is well done and it introduces us to one of the most significant evangelical voices in British Methodism in the second half of the 20th century. As well as the interesting and very readable account of Dr Wood’s life and ministry, the book also contains two of his important theological writings. The first is his fine analysis of Martin Luther’s hermeneutics, Luther’s Principles of Biblical Interpretation. The second is his Love Excluding Sin: John Wesley’s Teaching on Sanctification. The latter paper was the Wesley Fellowship’s first publication and a fine example of Dr Wood’s biblical and theological scholarship. Running to some 10,000 words, and with 131 references to John Wesley’s writings and important secondary authorities, Love Excluding Sin is, quite simply, the best and most convincing short exposition of Wesley’s ‘grand depositum’ that has been written. At the very special low price of just £1, this biography of Dr Skevington Wood is a remarkable bargain.