The Work
If was published in 1938 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (London). Amy Carmichael wrote it while confined to bed following a serious fall in 1931 that left her partially disabled for the remaining twenty years of her life. The book is slight -- approximately 60 pages -- and consists of 54 brief meditations, each structured as a conditional statement ("If I...") describing a characteristic of Calvary love, followed by the phrase "then I know nothing of Calvary love." Its apparent simplicity conceals a demanding and uncompromising standard of Christlike love drawn from 1 Corinthians 13, applied to the specific temptations and failures of those engaged in costly Christian service.
Biblical Engagement
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ("Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things") is the primary scriptural source for the entire book. Each of Paul's descriptions of love becomes the template for a meditation. "If love is not easily provoked" becomes: "If a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient, unloving word, then I know nothing of Calvary love." The concreteness of Carmichael's application -- the "jar" is a literal physical disturbance, a small unexpected bump -- moves Paul's abstract description into the texture of daily life.
1 Corinthians 13:5 ("Seeketh not her own") generates some of the book's most penetrating meditations. Carmichael applies the self-forgetfulness Paul describes to the specific temptations of missionary service: the desire for recognition, the resentment when others receive credit, the subtle self-promotion disguised as spiritual zeal. "If I covet any place on earth but the dust at the foot of the Cross, then I know nothing of Calvary love."
John 13:34 ("A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another") is the christological standard against which If measures all lesser loves. The "as I have loved you" is the crucial phrase: not love as a general human virtue but love shaped by and measured against the specific character of Christ's love for his disciples -- a love that went to the cross. "Calvary love" is Carmichael's shorthand for this christological standard.
Philippians 2:3 ("Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves") informs the book's emphasis on self-forgetfulness and the death of ego as the precondition of genuine Christian service.
Author and Context
Amy Beatrice Carmichael (1867-1951) was born in Millisle, County Down, Ireland, into a Presbyterian family. She came to faith through the Keswick Convention movement in 1886 and spent two years in Japan and a brief period in Sri Lanka before going to India in 1895, where she remained for the rest of her life without a furlough -- fifty-five years. She is best known for her work in Dohnavur, Tamil Nadu, where she rescued temple children from religious prostitution and established the Dohnavur Fellowship, a community for rescued children and their caregivers.
Carmichael's fall in 1931 -- she fell into a pit at a building site at Dohnavur -- fractured her leg and damaged her spine, confining her to bed for the remainder of her life. She continued to lead the Dohnavur Fellowship from her room and to write prolifically; If is one of more than thirty-five books she produced. The bedridden years, which she described in Gold Cord (1932), were in some ways her most productive: she wrote, prayed, and directed the Fellowship from her room, while being cared for by the women she had rescued.
If is written from within this experience of involuntary limitation and suffering. The book's emphasis on self-forgetfulness, on the death of the demand for recognition, and on the love that endures all things without resentment reflects not an idealized vision of virtue but a hard-won knowledge of its cost.
Critical Reception
If has been quietly influential rather than widely reviewed. It circulates in evangelical and missionary circles as one of those books that is "given" rather than publicly recommended -- passed from hand to hand among those engaged in Christian service who find its demands uncomfortably accurate. Jim Elliot, the missionary martyred in Ecuador in 1956, had a copy. Many women missionaries and Christian workers have cited it as the most convicting short book they have ever read.
Theological Significance
The book's theological contribution is its insistence that "Calvary love" is not a general human virtue but a specifically christological one -- a love that participates in the self-emptying of the cross. This is the Pauline kenotic theology of Philippians 2:5-8 applied to the daily life of the Christian worker. Carmichael does not offer a theoretical account of this love but a diagnostic instrument: a series of tests by which one can discover how far short of Calvary love one falls.
Legacy
If remains continuously in print and is particularly valued among women in Christian ministry, missionaries, and those engaged in costly service. Its influence on the spirituality of Amy Carmichael's broader circle -- the Dohnavur Fellowship, the Keswick Convention network, and the broader evangelical missionary movement -- has been substantial.
Reading Alongside Scripture
Readers should study 1 Corinthians 13 in its entirety (the great love chapter), Philippians 2:1-11 (the kenotic self-emptying of Christ as the model for Christian community), John 13:1-17 (the foot-washing, love enacted in humble service), Matthew 20:25-28 (servant leadership), and 1 John 4:7-21 (love as participation in God's own nature).
Further Reading
- Elisabeth Elliot, A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael (1987) -- the definitive biography. - Amy Carmichael, Gold Cord: The Story of a Fellowship (1932) -- her own account of the Dohnavur Fellowship. - Frank Houghton, Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur (1953) -- an earlier biography with much firsthand material.