By Kathy L. Gilbert*
May 29, 2007 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)

During World War II, the Rev. Leslie D. Weatherhead preached five sermons to his congregation in London to help his parishioners grapple with the concept of "God's will" during a tumultuous time in history.

The Will of God was published by Abingdon Press in 1944 and, 63 years later, more than a million people have been helped by his frank, sensitive and thoughtful approach to loss, sorrow and God.

The book recently was honored with a Platinum Book Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association for selling more than 1 million copies.

"Abingdon Press is honored to receive this award on behalf of a title that continues to resonate with readers over 60 years after its initial copyright," said Tammy Gaines, vice president of Abingdon Press.

A renowned Christian theologian, author, preacher and Methodist minister, Weatherhead had been published by Abingdon Press for 12 years before The Will of God went to print. He previously had written Why Do Men Suffer? and Thinking Aloud in War-Time, noted Mary Catherine Dean, executive director of publishing for United Methodist Publishing House.

"Still, a title such as The Will of God could be thought of as quite presumptuous," she said. Though the book came directly from the pulpit in the context of World War II England, The Will of God almost from the beginning seemed to be unrelated to war, she added.

In the first chapter, Weatherhead recounts a conversation with a friend whose wife had recently died. The man was a doctor and had been fighting for weeks for her recovery. The man remarked, "Well, I must just accept it. It is the will of God."

“Abingdon Press is honored to receive this award on behalf of a title that continues to resonate with readers over 60 years after its initial copyright.”–Tammy Gaines

From that remark, Weatherhead explores this notion by dividing the subject into three parts: the intentional will of God, the circumstantial will of God and the ultimate will of God.

"The theology is not simple, and yet it is broken down in a way that readers have found to be extremely helpful because it deals with what they intuitively know: Surely some things cannot be God's will (as I understand it). Please help me understand!" said Dean.
 
The Will of God was among publishing standouts in the 1940s and was published in a pocket-size edition by 1954. The book later appeared in an early large-print edition. It was released on two cassettes in the 1980s following Weatherhead's death in 1976.

"It has been in print continuously since its initial publication and has been a stalwart of the backlist for all those years," Dean said.
 
The current version is in large type and only 64 pages long. The entire text also is incorporated into the workbook Leslie Weatherhead's The Will of God: A Workbook, also published by Abingdon Press.
 
The Will of God is available from Abingdon Press in two formats-as a small paperback book (ISBN-13/UPC: 9780687008407) and as a workbook (ISBN-13/UPC: 9780687074822). It is available at Cokesbury Christian Bookstores, online at www.Cokesbury.com, at 1-800-672-1789 and through local bookstores.

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association recognized 10 books, including The Will of God, for outstanding sales achievement during the 2007 ECPA Management Conference on April 29 in Austin, Texas. Established in 1990 by the association, the Gold and Platinum Book Awards recognize outstanding sales achievement of quality Christian literature.

The association is an international nonprofit trade organization comprising nearly 250 member companies worldwide.

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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