John Stott: The Making of a Leader: A Biography, 1921-1960
Timothy Dudley-Smith
Former Anglican bishop of Thetford, England
InterVarsity
507 pages, $24.99

Part one of a biography of the most important English evangelical in the middle of the twentieth century. Exploring Stott's unpublished letters and diaries, Dudley-Smith tries to discover (among other things) why a multi gifted man, for whom the bishopric was an obvious career path, chose instead the life of a local pastor.

Tolkien: Man and Myth: A Literary Life
Joseph Pearce
Novelist and biographer
Ignatius
257 pages, $24.95

Looks at the life and cultural backdrop of one of this century's most popular writers. Pearce examines (among many other topics) Tolkien's orthodox Christian faith, as well as his estrangement from C. S. Lewis.

Wounded Prophet: A Portrait of Henri J. M. Nouwen
Michael Ford
British journalist and broadcaster
Doubleday
256 pages, $23.95

Ford provides a sensitive examination of Nouwen's childhood, family, career, writings, and personal anxieties, including a brief—and controversial—look at Nouwen's uneasiness about his sexuality.

Abraham Lincoln: The Religion of a President and the Ideas of His Time
Allen C. Guelzo
Professor of American history at Eastern College, St. Davids, Pennsylvania
Eerdmans
526 pages, $29.00

An intellectual biography of America's most celebrated president, with a special look at how Lincoln, though he did not commit himself to any organized religion, was nonetheless a man with profound moral and religious sensibilities. Along the way, Guelzo examines intellectual debates that ignited the Civil War, themes that are echoed in today's culture wars. Forthcoming in September.

Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and ...