Skip to content ↓

Book Review: David Livingstone

Book Reviews Collection cover image

As I make my way through the biographies of famous Christians of days past, I came across David Livingstone. Interestingly, Livingstone is a man best known not for something he said but for something that was said to him. “Dr. Livingstone, I presume,” spoken to him by Henry Morton Stanley, is a phrase that has gone down in history. But for this phrase I suspect few people would remember Livingstone’s name.

Born in Scotland in 1813, Livingstone was converted to Christianity as a young man and, after studying theology and medicine, joined the London Missionary Society, becoming a minister. Though he desired to become a missionary to China, wars prevented him from travelling to that nation and instead he travelled to Africa and ministered to unreached tribes on that continent. This labor, a labor of love, consumed his life. He crossed the continent time and again, seeking to share the gospel, to map the continent, and to stop the slave trade. He sought to plant mission stations and to create opportunities for commerce that would provide industry in Africa that would prove more valuable than slaves. He was among the first Westerners to cross the African continent. He traveled until he was sixty years old when he finally fell ill and died in the wilderness. He received the great honor of being laid to rest in Westminster Abbey.

Livingstone was, in many ways, a flawed and tragic character. His ministry seemed to bear little fruit while he was alive. Though he was highly regarded as a man who loved the natives and sought to protect them from the slave trade, he witnessed few conversions and felt the weight of this apparent lack of success. While young he desired to be married so he could have a wife to share in his labors, and yet when he did marry, he left his family for extended periods of time, lasting even up to four years. And while he was blessed with several children, he barely knew them as his work so often kept him away. Eventually, when his wife was able to travel with him, she succumbed to a disease and died far from civilization. One has to wonder, legitimately I think, whether he ought to have married in the first place. It is painful to read about these extended separations.

Though flawed, Livingstone is an important character, perhaps more so than most people credit him for. He played a crucial role in the final abolition of the African slave trade and in the decision of the British to protect the natives. While this did not happen until after his death, it was a great triumph. David Livingstone: The Truth Behind the Legend by Rob Mackenzie tells Livingstone’s story and tells it well. It is easy to read and yet is deep and absorbing. Really my only complaint is that the book describes an area of the world with which I have no familiarity, and while there are several maps included in the book, I still found it very difficult to determine where Livingstone was and on what part of the continent he labored. A little more attention to geography would have been most helpful. Despite this, I enjoyed the book a great deal and found it made a good introduction to this legendary figure. I recommend it.


  • The Pursuit of Virtue

    God’s character is the essence of virtue. The heart of virtue is to know the Lord and to become like him, as a child resembles her father. That is the goal, privilege, and destiny of the redeemed. #Sponsored

  • When God Plants an Acorn

    When God Plants an Acorn, He Means an Oak

    We stood together on the crest of a hill, a gentle breeze rustling the meadow around our feet. The fields ran gently downward until they met a creek that gurgled happily in its course. A few years prior, an acorn had somehow made its way to the highest point of this hill, carelessly dropped there…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 28)

    A La Carte: Protestantism’s Catholic converts / How healthy is your pursuit of health? / God’s special calling on your life / Considering a Christian university? / Testing the teachings of Catholicism / Kindle deals / and more.

  • New and Notable

    New and Notable Christian Books for April 2025

    It is surprisingly difficult to find a list of Christian books that have been released in any given month—especially if you want that list to be filtered by books released through particular publishers. That’s one of the reasons why I close each month by coming up with my list of New and Notable books. I…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (April 26)

    A La Carte: Every pinch of pain has purpose / China closed Christian bookstores / Watch for the thing after the thing / For everything there is a time / Showers of blessing / What Pope Francis can teach us about preaching / and more.