Point of View

We read biographies because worthy portraits of our fellow human beings help us to make sense of the world. We are especially fascinated by the lives of those who have made a difference in the world—whose mark remains visible even now. The lives of the famous and the infamous make for compelling reading.

As Benjamin Disraeli, a famous author as well as Queen Victoria's favorite prime minister, once remarked, biography is "life without theory." In other words, at their best biographies take us into the real lives of real persons as they were really lived. No life can be reduced to a written biography, of course, and no biography can consider all aspects of even a single life. Every biographer picks and chooses from the available data of a life. Nevertheless, we are drawn into these lives as we read compelling biographies.

Reading the biographies of persons whose lives represent a significant influence on the Christian church is especially enriching. Each of the biographies listed below invites the reader into an adventure that is both literary and theological. These are ten of the biographies I consider most important from recent decades. They are listed in chronological order rather than by ranked importance.

Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo: A Biography (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1967, revised edition 2000.

Brown's rendering of Augustine is essential reading for the Christian serious about the history of the church. His revised edition makes use of valuable materials discovered since the book's first edition was published in 1967. Rollins Professor of History at Princeton University, Brown reveals the genius of Augustine and takes us into his inner life and historical context. One cannot understand the Reformers without understanding the influence of Augustine on their theology and, specifically, their understandings of sin and grace.

G. K. Chesterton, Saint Thomas Aquinas—"The Dumb Ox" (New York: Doubleday, 1933/1956).

Chesterton's biographical portrait of Aquinas is masterful—as such because Chesterton wrote it as well as because it is about the most significant figure in medieval Christianity. This is a brilliant exercise in biography, and the most accessible way to understand Aquinas and his thought.

Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950).

If just starting to read Christian biography, start here. Bainton has written what must be the last century's most popular and accessible biography of a Christian figure—at least among evangelicals. Luther comes alive through Bainton's words, and in Here I Stand we find Luther in all his greatness, warts and all.

David Daniell, William Tyndale: A Biography (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994).

This is a remarkable biography of a remarkable man. As Daniell recounts, we all stand in Tyndale's debt in ways most of us never consider. A martyr for the faith, a translator of incalculable genius, and a life at the center of a great epoch—in William Tyndale we meet a man who literally gave his life for the furtherance of the Word. Incredibly, no biography of Tyndale emerged in the six decades prior to Daniell's work. His biography was worth the wait.

Alister E. McGrath, A Life of John Calvin (London: Blackwell, 1993).

Oddly enough, John Calvin has not attracted the same volume of biographical attention that has collected around Martin Luther. This is a lack that cries out for attention, especially given the grotesque distortions of Calvin's life and thought that prevail in so many quarters. Alister McGrath's A Life of John Calvin is the best biography available at present, and it is well crafted for both academic and non-academic readers.

George M. Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003).

Yale University Press continues its invaluable service in publishing the collected works of America's greatest theologian—a project that continues to amaze, volume by worthy volume. With George Marsden's biography of Edwards, the press has now published the most important biographical work on Edwards to be released in recent decades as well. The work is massive (How could it be otherwise?) and bold.

Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival, 2 volumes (Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Banner of Truth Trust, 1970).

Dallimore's biography of Whitefield is among the greatest in terms of sheer inspiration and the urgency of Whitefield's example. Lessons from Whitefield are worth this two-volume biography and more, and Dallimore takes his readers into the heart of Whitefield's life and ministry.

Robert Moats Miller, Harry Emerson Fosdick: Preacher, Pastor, Prophet (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).

A biography of the twentieth-century America's most notorious liberal pastor belongs on this list? Yes—precisely for that reason. Evangelicals need to understand why Modernism and Liberalism attracted so many followers, and what happened to the liberal churches and denominations as a result. All of the other figures on this list would be in agreement in judging Harry Emerson Fosdick to be a heretic—and they would be right. In his fascinating biography of Fosdick, Miller takes us into the culture and mind of liberal Protestantism through the life of its most influential preacher. Evangelicals reading this biography will recognize that many of Fosdick's most dangerous ideas are appearing once more, sometimes from the mouths and pens of some who claim to be evangelicals—as Fosdick also claimed to be.

D. G. Hart, Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America (Phillipsburg, New Jersey, P&R Publishing, 1994).

Gresham Machen is the perfect character to follow Harry Emerson Fosdick, for in Machen we find orthodoxy's greatest defender against the Modernist assault. D. G. Hart provides a brilliant analysis of Machen's life and impact in this interpretive biography. Most importantly, Hart places the life of Machen in the context of Machen's times and the crisis that conservative Protestantism faced in the early twentieth century—and in so many ways faces still.

Iain H. Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The First Forty Years, 1899-1939 and D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of Faith, 1939-1981 (Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Banner of Truth Trust, 1982, 1990).

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, for decades pastor at London's Westminster Chapel, was one of the greatest expositors of the twentieth century. Beyond this, he stood at the center of the century's great events and controversies. In Iain Murray's wonderful two-volume biography "The Doctor" and his ministry are presented and interpreted by one who worked alongside Dr. Lloyd-Jones and knew him well.

Read, learn, enjoy ... and suggest yet other biographies worthy of the serious Christian's attention and reading.

R. Albert Mohler Jr. is president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. This column is excerpted from his Weblog, available at www.AlbertMohler.com, and is used with permission.