Challies on Heroes

Tim Challies has been writing on the difference between heroes and celebrities this week.

Gregory Foster, a professor at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C, wrote on this subject recently. "Celebrities...are qualitatively quite different than heroes, markedly inferior to them in fact. The celebrity is nothing but a person of celebrity, well known for his well-knownness," he wrote. "Heroes, in contrast, are transcendent, mythic, seemingly superhuman figures who combine greatness with goodness. They may have charisma, presence, and 'gravitas'; they must demonstrate courage, vision, and character-selfless character. Heroes have stature, if not size."

I realized the importance of having heroes at the end of college. Two of my heroes who have "stature, if not size," are William Wilberforce and R. C. Chapman.