In the Beginning Was the Song

Book cover of The Singer with original illustrations by Chicago artist, Joe Devalsico.
The Singer with original illustrations by Chicago artist, Joe Devalsico.

April is National Poetry Month! To celebrate, Wheaton Archives & Special Collections features Calvin Miller’s The Singer, a poetic allegory of the life of Christ, published by InterVarsity Press in 1975.

Along with original manuscripts of The Singer, SC 24: The Calvin Miller Papers includes extensive correspondence and other records that highlight Miller’s life and work as a pastor, artist, author, and professor.

Building on the rich Christian tradition of allegorical writing—from Medieval morality plays and Dante’s Divine Comedy to John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Hannah Hurnard’s Hinds’ Feet on High Places, and C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of NarniaThe Singer offers a vivid retelling of the Gospel story as a longform narrative poem.

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‘Oswald in His Presence’

Oswald Chambers, 1917. Photograph #SC112-068.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Oswald Chambers’ birth on July 24, 1874, in Aberdeen, Scotland. Chambers’ best known work, My Utmost for His Highest, has remained in print since its first publication in Britain in 1927. The daily devotional has been translated into over forty languages and ranks in the top ten of religious bestsellers in the United States, with millions of copies sold since the first American edition was published in 1935.

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