For the past four years I have dubbed each summer ‘the summer of biography.’ ‘What do I do during the summer of biography?’ you ask. I read biographies. I try to pick a theme each summer. For instance, one year was a tour of the Great Awakening. I read biographies of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley. Another was the summer of the Inklings. I read biographies of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Another was a summer of Catholic classics: Augustine and Francis of Assisi.
This summer, I actually don’t have a theme, but I do already know two books that I hope to read. First up is Iain Murray’s Evanglicalism Divided, which is a history of the changes that took place within evangelicalism in the last half of the 20th Century with particular focus on Lloyd-Jones, Stott, and the like. After that I am, Lord willing, going to read Alister McGrath’s biography of C.S. Lewis (which my wife bought for me as a gift).
I’ll start writing on Evanglicalism Divided in the next couple of weeks. Until then, consider making this your own ‘summer of biography.’
This sounds like a neat idea. There are some really remarkable biographies out there, but I’ve found that the author of the biography is as important as the subject — sometimes a bad biographer can ruin the lifestory of a great man. 🙁
I think some of the best biographies I’ve read recently were the two volume biography of Hudson Taylor, written by his son, and Kevin Belmonte’s biography of Chesterton. Also, Tolkien’s were good, though they don’t quite count as a biography, I suppose.
I had not thought of reading a Chesterton biography this year; I may add the one you mentioned to my list this summer.