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Grace note

Harvey Cox chose the title of a revival hymn for the title of his memoir, Just As I Am. Cox’s journey, which led him to the Harvard faculty, began in a small Baptist church in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Cox describes the revival dynamic he grew up with: the passionate sermon, the urgent “invitation”—“every head bowed and every eye closed”—to those who had not yet made a decision for Christ to come forward, the organ playing and choir softly singing, “Just as I am, without one plea, But that thy blood was shed for me.