Harry Emerson Fosdick
Harry Emerson Fosdick was one of the most influential Protestant voices of 20th-century America. A pastor, writer, and public intellectual, he became the face of liberal Protestantism during the nation’s great theological divide known as the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy. With clarity, conviction, and a deep belief in both faith and progress, Fosdick challenged the rigidity of…
Read MoreHarriett Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe remains one of the most recognizable names in United States history. Her seminal work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is often credited as a catalyst for the Civil War and stands as a monumental contribution to abolitionist literature. However, Stowe’s convictions transcended political discourse, delving into profound moral and spiritual realms. While her historical…
Read MoreAbraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln requires little introduction. Born in 1809 in Kentucky, he ascended from the obscurity of the frontier to the highest office in the land, navigating a path shaped by law, politics, and the sectional crisis of his time. As the 16th president of the United States, he bore the immense burden of leading the…
Read MoreRich Mullins
Rich Mullins was a Christian music pioneer, widely regarded for his songwriting and praise music compositions. Rising to prominence during the golden era of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) in the 1990s, Mullins became one of the most distinctive voices in the genre. His songs, including “Awesome God” and “Sometimes by Step,” became defining tracks not…
Read MoreBrennan Manning
“Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death will be part of your journey, but the Kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever.” Richard Francis Xavier Manning, better known to legions of faithful readers as author, speaker, and contemplative Brennan Manning, for whom grace was irresistible, completed his earthly…
Read MoreJohnny Cash
On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash, considered by many one of the 20th century’s most influential musicians, performed two shows inside California’s Folsom Prison. It was an appropriate choice for a performer known as a bit of an outlaw, recognized with a fondness for dark clothing that earned him the nickname “The Man in Black.”…
Read MoreWalker Percy
Walker Alexander Percy, a writer who was raised in Greenville, Mississippi, was born to Leroy and Martha Percy on May 28, 1916, in Birmingham, Alabama. His parents later had two other sons, Phin and Roy. Young Walker had a hard life. At the tender age of thirteen, his father, a successful lawyer in Birmingham, took his own…
Read MoreThomas A. Dorsey
Thomas A. Dorsey learned his religion from his Baptist minister father and piano from his music teacher mother in Villa Rica, Georgia, where he was born July 1, 1899. He came under the influence of local blues pianist when they moved to Atlanta in 1910. He and his family relocated to Chicago during World War…
Read MoreA.W. Tozer
While on his way home from the Akron, Ohio tire company where he worked as a teen, young Aiden Wilson Tozer overheard a street preacher say,“If you don’t know how to be saved…just call on God.” Upon returning home, Tozer climbed into the attic and heeded the preacher’s advice. In 1919, five years after his…
Read MoreReinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was born 21 June 1892 in Wright City, Missouri, to Lydia Hosto and Gustav Niebuhr, a minister of the German Evangelical Synod of North America. At age fifteen Niebuhr entered the Synod’s proseminary, Elmhurst College. Three years later he enrolled at Eden Theological Seminary, where he received his B.Div. and was…
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