I have been asked to open this issue of Faith in Focus with an article on biog­raphy as a literary genre. Now before you start thinking “oh no, how boring”, please let me explain. I am hoping in this article to give you a few pointers on how to read biography in general, and to help you gain a better understanding of things to look out for while reading. As Christians we need to exercise discernment when reading and it is my aim to help prepare you to do so with this article.

The Collins Concise Dictionary defines a biography as an account of a person’s life by another. This can mean any book written about anyone’s life, no matter where or when in the history of the world they lived. A biography can be written by anyone from any walk of life, no matter how qualified they are (or are not).

Before You Start⤒🔗

Now that you understand what a bio­graphy is, there are a few important ques­tions to ask before you start reading. The first of these is: Who wrote the book? Are they relatives or friends of the person they are writing about? Do they like or dislike the subject? Do they live at the same time or are they writing many years after the events they are describing? Do they have any qualifications? A book written about Adolf Hitler, for example, will sound very different if it was written by an associate or friend of his, a sur­vivor of one of the concentration camps or a historian fifty years later. Try to find out a little bit about the author before you begin reading.

Another important question to ask is: What is the author’s purpose? Every author has their own particular bias towards their subject and their own particular world view. It is helpful to ask who wrote the book, but also what was their purpose in writing? Do they want to present a factual account of events; or show their subject in a positive light as a force for good; or prove to the world what an evil person the subject was? Even when trying to present a factual account of events the author will be inherently biased towards either a positive or negative viewpoint of the person they are writing about and it is important to keep this in mind as you read.

As You Read←⤒🔗

As you read, bear in mind what you have learnt about the author and their purpose and keep a few more ques­tions in mind.

How much is known fact and how much is embellished? This may be a harder question to answer but there are a few easy tests that can help you with this. If there are conversations re­corded in the book in their entirety then there are only three options: Either the author knew the subject personally and has an excellent memory; or the con­versation was transcribed/recorded as it was taking place; or it is mostly/entirely made up. The same is true for speech­es: If the author does not have a foot­note or citation for where they obtained the speech transcript then it is safe to assume that it is partially or entirely fic­tional, although it may retain the sense or purpose of what the subject was trying to say. (Ancient historians such as Sueto­nius and Thucydides thought nothing of making up entire speeches and conver­sations in order to bring their subjects to life. If this is the case the biography may begin to stray into the realm of fiction.) Another easy way to check the fact to embellishment ratio is to look at the author’s sources. Have a look in the bibliography at the back of the book and see where the information for the book came from. If you are really keen you could cross check the information against another book written about the same person. If there are vast dispari­ties your biographical writer may be se­verely biased.

What style is the biography written in? Another test to try while reading is whether the biography reads like history or a novel. If it reads like a thriller or an action adventure or a romantic love story the author may have gotten a little carried away with the embellishment! This is not to say that it is a bad thing to read biographies that are written like this; they will no doubt be very enjoy­able and an easy read. However, if the biography does read more like a novel then remember to take what is written with a grain of salt and not as proven fact. Even if the biography reads like a history book and you think the author is doing a good job at staying impar­tial about their subject, remember to keep in mind their purpose for writing the book.

Is it a ‘life story’ or merely ‘cameos’? Not all biographies give the full life history of their subject. Depending on their purpose in writing they may skip over all or part of the subject’s child­hood, or pick and choose the areas of the person’s life that portray them in the most (or least) favourable light. If large portions of the subject’s life are skipped over with no explanation you may want to be careful about the author’s trust­worthiness.

The Collins Concise Dictionary defines an autobiography as an account of a person’s life written or otherwise record­ed by that person. The basic difference between biography and autobiography is obviously the author – an autobiography is written by the person themselves. This can have some positive results and also some potential drawbacks. I would like to look at the possible drawbacks first – of which one particularly stands out.

Is the author being honest? When I say ‘honest’ I mean that in both senses – honest with themselves and honest with the reader. If an author is in denial about certain things that he has done, or feels the need to continually justify his actions to the reader, he may not be honest with himself and therefore with you. A more subtle (and possibly more danger­ous) branch of dishonesty is putting in actions that are clearly wrong as simply a normal occurrence. If the author writes about a debauched, cruel and self-in­dulgent lifestyle as though there were nothing wrong with it, you should prob­ably be having second thoughts about reading the book. Hopefully of course this would not be a problem in Chris­tian biographies!

How much is left out? An author of an autobiographical work has much more scope than an author of an ordinary biography, as it is their own life they are writing about and they no doubt recall most of it! Therefore unless the book is enormous the author will have left out certain parts of their life. If they are honest they will hopefully tell you what parts they have skipped over and why. C.S. Lewis in his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, skips over a holiday in Normandy “as a thing of no account”. However he mentions the fact that it is being passed over and gives a good reason as to why – it is authors like this that you may trust as being honest with you.

There are a couple of very good reasons to read autobiographies. No one knows a person’s life better than the one who has lived it. If you are reading an autobiography by a Christian author and they appear to be honest in their reasons for their actions and what they choose to write about, it can be a very helpful book indeed. You gain insight into the emotional and spiritual reasons for the choices that they made in childhood and through into adulthood. You may gain a better understanding of how a person came to faith (depending on the book); and an appreciation of another’s Chris­tian world and life view and its impact on those around them. The facts in an autobiography may be more trustworthy, the tone more personal and the applica­tion to the reader more practical.

Children’s Biography←⤒🔗

There is another whole sub-genre of biographies that are written entirely for children to understand. These can also be immensely beneficial and may have a lasting impact on your child’s life. I still remember the simplified and abridged version of Corrie ten Boom’s life that I read as a child. Her astounding faith in such difficult times made an immense impression on me. Biographies written for children tend to be more novel-like in style and are more likely to be embellished. If the novel format helps your child to read a story about a man or woman of faith that they would not otherwise read, then encourage them to do so. Better yet, read it with them and talk them through the application to their own life. Real examples are better than fictional ones!

Biblical Biography←⤒🔗

Another sub-genre within that of bio­graphy is a section which could just as well be entitled “Biblical Novels”. There are a number of books that have been written about people in the Bible such as Rahab, Joshua, Moses and Tamar. These books are written with very little factual, biblical information to go on and yet an entire story has been made around it. The danger of these books is that they can colour your view of that biblical character for the rest of your life and yet 95 percent of it will be conjec­ture on the part of the author. When it comes to the lives of those in the Bible it is best to stick with the original source – God’s holy Word!

Conclusion←⤒🔗

To sum up briefly – when reading bio­graphies check up on the author, their purpose for writing and any possible bias they may have. Keep an eye on the style of the writing and potential embellishment as you read. Try to pick up on how honest the author is being with you (particularly if autobiographi­cal). Reading biographies, (particularly Christian ones,) can be both helpful and enlightening and I hope that this article will help you to read with understand­ing and discernment.