Christian history has many people who gave up what they knew and had in order to serve Christ. They left behind their former lives to follow Him, and sometimes, they lost their lives completely. William Dean Hamilton tells the story of 4 men who gave up what they knew to follow Christ, and paid for it, in Would You Do What They Did?

Covering Francis of Assisi, Thomas Becket, John Wesley, and Martin Luther, the book explains how each man decided to follow Christ, no matter what. Being disowned by family and friends, losing possessions, being accused of heresy, they were willing to endure all that, and more, to follow Christ.

Instead of being written in a straight-forward list of facts, it is written as creative non-fiction. Though most of what is in the stories is true, some details have been added or changed to improve the flow. Though this can be a put off to some, but the author includes notes at the end of each section to explain what was changed.

It is written in simple and easy to understand language and structure, it does a good job of relating basic facts. Being in story form does make it easy to read, in my opinion. Also, it is enough to give you a basic idea of what each man went through, but it doesn’t cover everything. That makes it good for people who are just starting out learning about Christian leaders from the past.

I received a free copy of Would You Do What They Did? from Bookcrash in exchange for this review.