In April of this year, Dr. Mohler wrote a nice piece on reading Christian biographies with ten excellent choices of his own. Last week, both Dr. Michael Haykin and Mark Driscoll chimed in with their favorite biographies as well. Here are the nine top biographies by Dr. Haykin:
1. Iain Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (2 vols.)
2. Faith Cook, Grimshaw of Haworth
3. Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore (Adoniram Judson)
4. Timothy George, Faithful Witness (William Carey)
5. Andrew Fuller, Memoirs of Samuel Pearce
6. Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield (2 vols.)
7. Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo
8. George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards
9. Iain Murray, Jonathan Edwards
Mark Driscoll shares his thoughts on reading Christian bio’s in reference to the upcoming Resurgence conference, Text and Context. Here is the video excerpt:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ_s-EMIAY0]
Driscoll names some great folks, including Lloyd-Jones, Whitefield, Edwards, Calvin, and Spurgeon. Speaking of Spurgeon, I finally picked up vol. 2 of his autobiography published by Banner of Truth. There are several bio’s on him out there, and I thought I’d provide you a list of some. Here’s some to check out:
C.H. Spurgeon Autobiography: The Early Years, Vol. 1
C.H. Spurgeon Autobiography: The Full Harvest, Vol. 2
The Forgotten Spurgeon by Iain Murray
Spurgeon: A New Biography by Arnold Dallimore
Letters of Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching by Iain Murray
Susannah Spurgeon: Free Grace and Dying Love
Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers by Lewis Drummond
Also, if you want to read rip-roaring Spurgeon, be sure to purchase his sermons from the New Park Street Pulpit which you can get for a great price–$34.99 at Monergism Books. These sermons from his early years in the pulpit and really encouraging to read. Oh, and here’s the Amazon link to Light and Heat: A Puritan View of Preaching by R. Bruce Bickel.
Lastly, I have decided to supplement the 2008 Puritan Reading Challenge with short biographical profiles of each author at the beginning of each month. I also hope to hunt down some quotes by others regarding the various authors which I will intersperse throughout that given month. Stay tuned in 2008 for a meet-and-greet with Puritans and those like Edwards, Spurgeon, and Lloyd-Jones who express their indebtedness.
Oh, be looking for a new bio of Spurgeon by Dr. Tom Nettles sometime soon too. ๐
. . . and one more on James P. Boyce–the founding prez of Southern Seminary.
Dude. If we keep buying ourselves Christmas presents like these, our wives may decide to mutiny. ๐
I have a couple of those Spurgeon biographies (the two small ones by Iain Murray you listed) and they got lost in the “started, not finished” dimension I told you about the other day! Perhaps with this Puritan challenge I can finally get off my “reading ADD” and actually finish a book for a change.
I had the same idea you did to put up a short bio. I’m also planning to put up an end-of-month review of the monthly book. Perhaps we could make a short compilation of those who profile the monthly author as well as encourage everyone to post a review. I’m going to post over the weekend suggesting how such a review ought to be done. I’m looking to do each book like this: review the book, personal reflections, ministry application, recommendations for readers from the content. The recommendations could be like a brief devotional for our readers to “take home” from the book, and hopefully it would spur them to read the book itself. But more on that later!
I started Sibbes last night and I think I’m going to try reading each chapter twice, once through without notetaking and again with notes. That way I can get through the chapter and then do some “serious” reading to capture things that stick out.
Perhaps I’m just overthinking this and geeking out a bit, but I seriously want to get over the past year and a half of “reading ADD.” ๐
Stephen,
I read Sibbes back in my Puritan class for school and started reading it again too this past week. It’s amazing how much more you get when you read it twice. I think I am going to try to facilitate some discussion on topics throughout his book, such as the covenant of redemption, pastoral use of the moral law, and the Spirit’s work in conversion. I think it could be really cool to kind of have an interactive reading with the heavenly doctor. ๐