Eric Metaxas | |
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.jpg) Eric Metaxas at Socrates in the City in 2022 | |
| Born | (1963-06-27)June 27, 1963 (age 61) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author, talk show host |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
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| Website | |
ericmetaxas | |
Eric Metaxas (born June 27, 1963) is an American author, speaker, andconservative radio host. He has written three biographies,Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery aboutWilliam Wilberforce (2007),Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy aboutDietrich Bonhoeffer (2011), andMartin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World (2017). He also published a memoir,Fish Out of Water: A Search for the Meaning of Life (2021) as well as several books, includingIf You Can Keep it (2017) andLetter to the American Church (2022). He has also written humor, children's books and scripts forVeggieTales.
Metaxas was born in the New York City neighborhood ofAstoria, Queens and grew up inDanbury, Connecticut. He graduated fromYale University (1984, B.A., English).[1][2] While there, he edited theYale Record, the nation's oldest college humor magazine. Metaxas lives inManhattan with his wife and daughter.[3] He isGreek on his father's side and German on his mother's; he was raised in aGreek Orthodox environment.[4]
Although he was raised in the Greek Orthodox Church and has not formally left the denomination (saying he has "great respect" for it), Metaxas has attendedCalvary-St. George's Episcopal Church.[5][6] He has spoken atTimes Square Church.[7] Metaxas describes himself as a "Mere Christian" in the words ofC.S. Lewis. In 2007, he said his books "don't touch upon anything at all where Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians differ. They express just the basics of the faith, from a basic,ecumenical Christian viewpoint. They only talk about the Christian faith that they have agreement on."[5] In his bookMartin Luther,[8] however, Metaxas criticized the political power structures that had emerged from the medievalCatholic Church and that it was only withLuther that the "trueGospel" was rescued "from under its crushing welter of ecclesiastical and political medieval structures."[8]
Metaxas is the author of more than thirty children's books, including the bestsellersSquanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving[9] andIt's Time to Sleep, My Love, illustrated by Nancy Tillman.[10] His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages.
Metaxas's worksIf You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty andMiracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life are bothNew York Times bestselling books.[11][12]
Metaxas's biography of Wilberforce,Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, was the companion book to the2006 film.[13]
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy was named the 2010Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Christian Book of the Year.[14]Bonhoeffer is aNew York Times best seller, climbing to #1 in the e-book category.[15] It also won the 2011 John C. Pollock Award for Christian Biography awarded by Beeson Divinity School and a 2011 Christopher Award.[16][17] Although the book is popular in the United States among evangelical Christians, Bonhoeffer scholars have criticized Metaxas's book as unhistorical, theologically weak, and philosophically naive.[18] Professor of German history and Bonhoeffer scholarRichard Weikart, for example, credits his "engaging writing style," but claims Metaxas has a lack of intellectual background to interpret Bonhoeffer properly.[19] The biography has also been criticized by Bonhoeffer scholars Victoria Barnett[20] and Clifford Green.[18] Despite these widespread and substantial criticisms of his work by experts on Bonhoeffer, Metaxas' book has been praised by popular magazines as a "weighty, riveting analysis of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer" which "bring[s] Bonhoeffer and other characters to vivid life".[21][22]
Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World became aNew York Times bestselling book in October 2017[23][24] and claimed aNew York Times Editor's Pick in December 2017.[25]Carlos Eire gave the book a full page review in theNew York Times, stating, "Metaxas knows how to tell a story and how to develop characters, and this talent makes his narrative at once gripping and accessible." But he also accused Metaxas of doing naiveWhig history, portraying Luther as "a titanic figure who single-handedly slays the dragon of the Dark Ages, rescues God from an interpretive dungeon, invents individual freedom and ushers in modernity."[26] Catholic church historianJohn Vidmar writes that Metaxas ignored more than a century of scholarship on Luther in order to write a "sweeping and largely uncritical endorsement for Martin Luther." In order to reach his conclusions, Vidmar writes, "Metaxas needs to misunderstand, denigrate, and then caricature centuries of human effort and achievement in language that is colloquial, casual, and often flippant."[27]
If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty, released June 14, 2016.
Seven Women, released November 2016.[28]
Seven More Men, released in April 2020, is the sequel toSeven Men.[29]
Is Atheism Dead?, released October 19, 2021, is a response to the 1966TIME coverIs God Dead?.[30]
Fish Out of Water: A Search for the Meaning of Life, released February 2, 2021.
Letter to the American Church, released September 20, 2022.
Other writing has been published in theAtlantic Monthly,The New York Times, andThe Wall Street Journal.[31][32]
Metaxas is a prominent supporter ofDonald Trump.[33][34] In 2019, Metaxas published two children's books calledDonald Builds the Wall andDonald Drains the Swamp in a series called "Donald the Caveman". Other characters in the book include those Metaxas has called "an angry little girl who looks a little bit likeAOC" and "an angry, crazy old man who looks a little bit like a guy namedBernie."[35] In a November 2019 interview withFranklin Graham, Metaxas said that "screaming protesters" to Trump were "almost demonic".[36][37]
After the2020 presidential election, Metaxas endorsedDonald Trump's claim that the election was tainted by voter fraud,[38] predicting on Twitter: "Trump will be inaugurated. For the high crimes of trying to throw a U.S. presidential election, many will go to jail." Metaxas also told Trump on Metaxas's radio show that "Jesus is with us in this fight" to overturn the 2020 election. "I'd be happy to die in this fight," Metaxas added.[39][40] In an appearance onCharlie Kirk's show, he repeated the claim saying, “We need to fight to the death, to the last drop of blood.”[41]
Amid theCOVID-19 pandemic, Metaxas told his followers not to get the vaccine.[42]
In April 2015, Metaxas began hostingThe Eric Metaxas Show. The show is a two-hour, daily, nationally-syndicated radio program broadcast from theEmpire State Building in New York and syndicated by theSalem Radio Network.[43] Notable guests have includedDick Cavett,David Brooks,Kirsten Powers,Kathie Lee Gifford,N. T. Wright,Peter Hitchens (brother ofChristopher Hitchens),Jimmie "J.J." Walker,Andrew Garfield,[44]Maria Butina,[45]Milo Yiannopoulos,[46]Ross Douthat,Tony Shalhoub,Morgan Freeman,Jeff Allen,Senator Rand Paul,Joseph Fiennes,Darryl Strawberry, andSuzy Welch.[47]
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Metaxas is the founder and host of a New York City event series called "Socrates in the City: Conversations on the Examined Life," where he interviews thinkers and writers, and is labeled as a forum on "life, God, and other small topics" in Metaxas' book about the series.[48] Guests to SItC have been the likes of, and not limited toFrancis Collins,Malcolm Gladwell,Sir John Polkinghorne,Kathleen Norris,Richard John Neuhaus,Dick Cavett,N. T. Wright,Jean Bethke Elshtain,Dm. Alice von Hildebrand,Peter Hitchens,Sir Jonathan Sacks, andCaroline Kennedy.[49][50]
In the late 1990s Metaxas wrote BreakPoint radio commentaries for formerRichard Nixon aide andPrison Fellowship founderCharles "Chuck" Colson. Upon Colson's death in 2012, Metaxas, along with John Stonestreet, became the voice ofBreakPoint, which now airs weekdays on 1350 outlets across the country.[51]
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On February 2, 2012, Metaxas was the keynote speaker for the 2012National Prayer Breakfast.[52] Metaxas has testified before Congress about the rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S. and abroad, and he spoke at theConservative Political Action Conference in 2013 and 2014 on the issue of Religious Freedom.[53][54][55]
Metaxas was awarded the Becket Fund's Canterbury Medal in 2011 and the Human Life Review's Defender of Life Award in 2013.[56][57] Metaxas has received honorary doctorate degrees fromHillsdale College,Liberty University,Sewanee: The University of the South,Ohio Christian University, andColorado Christian University.[58][59][60][61]
On August 27, 2020, Eric Metaxas was at Trump'sRepublican National Convention acceptance speech on the White House lawn. Afterwards, Metaxas left the White House with a crowd of people, entering streets where protesters had been staging demonstrations. Video footage (shared on Instagram and later removed) showed anti-Trump protester Anthony Harrington biking past a group of Trump supporters, yelling "Fuck Trump, fuck you!" As Harrington passed by, Metaxas punched him in the head.[62]Metaxas later admitted punching Harrington because Harrington was verbally abusive and he "felt threatened." Harrington disputed this characterization, stating, "He attacked me. I wasn't threatening or intimidating. I was on a rented bicycle," and that he may pursue a civil case against Metaxas.[63][64][65]
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