Story is a powerful medium through which we communicate daily, if not moment by moment. Whether it is watching a movie, a television show, reading a good book, or listening to a relative recount the family history, stories shape our lives and understanding of the world. Think about it. When something funny or frustrating happens to us during the day, we cannot wait to get home and tell our spouse about it. That is story. It conveys something about who we are. One of the most powerful forms of story is the biography, the story of the life of someone who is admirable. Maybe it’s a president, an athlete, a celebrity, or figure from the distant past, we all enjoy a good biography. There is something about human nature that enjoys learning about the lives of other people to see what made them who they were, what made them tick.
As we approach the Christmas season, I’m certain that you have a gift list that you have not yet completed. Let me submit that biographies make excellent Christmas gifts. One reason for this is that there is a reader in every family. Someone who is a self-professed bibliophile can be difficult to buy for because they have more books than one person can read in a lifetime. A good biography may be the perfect gift for such a person. Another reason that biographies may excellent gifts is because they tend to be longer and therefore come with a heavier price tag. Yet during the holidays we are willing to spend a little more for someone that we love and who we know will enjoy the gift. Additionally, biographies tend to also come in hardback with a dust jacket. These features add to the gift giving quality of the tome.
In this article I will share four biographies with you, all of which have been published in the last year or so. They include two U. S. Presidents, a missionary, and pastor. I am a firm believer that it is good to have hero’s, people that we admire and seek to emulate. It can be dangerous, however, to make a hero out of a person that is still alive because we don’t know how their story ends. All four of the subjects discussed below are now deceased, and we know the end of their story. While still human and frail, each of these life stories are worth emulating.
- Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation by Collin Hansen (Zondervan Reflective, 2023) – Published a few months before Keller’s death, Hansen’s biography marks the first biographical sketch of one of the twenty-first centuries greatest preacher and apologists. The influence of Timothy Keller cannot yet be measured. There are countless men and women who are serving in ministry who were influenced, in some way, by Keller’s ministry. Hansen traces Keller’s life and ministry from the perspective of understanding who and what influenced him. From his upbringing as a Lutheran, to his conversion during college, his marriage to Kathy, and his experience as an academic, all of these tributaries flowed into the man that many knew as a highly intelligent and winsome prophet of our age.
- Elisabeth Elliott: A Life by Lucy S. R. Austen (Crossway, 2023) – “Only one life, twill soon be past, only what is done for Christ will last.” These lines from a poem by C. T. Studd perfectly describe the life and legacy of Elisabeth Elliott. Known mainly for her work as a missionary in Ecuador alongside her husband Jim Elliott, she most certainly led a life submitted to the lordship of Christ no matter the cost. After her missionary work, Elliott went on to be a writer, and seminary professor influencing the likes of Timothy and Kathy Keller. Surviving two husbands, Elliott became acquainted with grief. Yet never waiver in her faith and mission. Lucy S. R. Austen provides an extended look into the life and legacy of a woman who serves as an example to us all.
- And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham (Random House, 2022) – It is an understatement that there is no shortage of written material on the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. More ink has been spilled on the sixteenth president, probably second only to Jesus. Why a new biography on then man who’s likeness graces the American five dollar bill? Meacham approaches the life and legacy of Lincoln seeking to discover the influences throughout his life that would make him become the Great Emancipator. Like each one of us, Lincoln was, as the saying goes, “a product of his raising.” He was raised in an anti-slavery Baptist home in rural Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Throughout his life, Lincoln was a veracious reader, reading anything he could get his hands on. He was a self-taught lawyer who sought political office and eventually achieved the highest office in the land during America’s darkest hour, the Civil War. He drew from the many influences of his life, up to that point and led the nation to abolish slavery, and preserve the Union. Yet it came at a great cost, his own life.
- An OrdinaryMan: The Surprising Life and History Presidency of Gerald R. Ford by Robert Norton Smith (Harper, 2023) – Not many people remember the presidency of Gerald Ford. He is almost an asterisk of history. A man who was not aspiring to be president, but was most certainly meant to take office and steady the nation during one of its darkest hours. Born Leslie King, Jr. his mother escaped an abusive marriage and made her way to Michigan where she eventually married Gerald R. Ford, Sr. Not formally adopted by his stepfather, his mother changed his name to fit the man who would become his father. Serving as a congressman in the House of Representatives for more than 25 years, Gerald Ford found himself in the middle of a fierce political storm when he was nominated to become vice president under President Richard Nixon when the sitting vice president (Sprio Agnew) resigned in disgrace in 1973. A short eight months later, Ford found himself occupying the most power office in the world when Nixon himself resigned in light of the looming Watergate scandal. Only serving as president for about two and half years, Ford was defeated for reelection by Jimmy Carter in 1976. Yet he became an elder statesman and continued to advise future presidents until his death in 2005. There is much that we can learn from the man who became the 38th president, and biographer Richard Norton Smith does a superb job of retelling the story of a man who served the nation with great resolve under impossible circumstances.
There are a many good biographies in print today. Some old, some new. The preceding selection provides a very small sampling of a few to note, and consider. Below you will find a list of additional recommendations that time did not allow to be included in the above discussion. Additionally, Reading For The Glory maintains an ongoing list of biographies in our Recommended Resources section. I encourage you to peruse our Biography page for more resources.
Additional Recommendations
- Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham (Random House, 2015)
- R. C. Sproul: A Life by Stephen J. Nichols (Crossway, 2021)
- Sojourn on the Veld by Bill Norton (Insight Press, 2022).
- C.S. Lewis: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet by Alister McGrath (Tyndale, 2016)
- Decision Points by George W. Bush (Crown, 2010)
- 41: A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush (Crown, 2014)
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