The Song

by Calvin Miller

Book Overview

The Singer quickly became a favorite of evangelists, pastors, artists, students, teachers and readers of all sorts when it was originally published in 1975. Retelling the story of Christ through an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877847851
• ISBN13: 9780877847854
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: IVP Books
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great Retelling of an old Tale

This is the second book in The Singer Trilogy and it is an amazing book of poetry. This book is the retelling of the book of Acts from the New Testament in a narrative poem. Miller writes in such a way that you cannot help but wonder if the Spirit helped guide the shaping of these books. Many of the unique characters from the first book are back: The World Hater - Satan, The Healed Madman - Anthem, and others. This story tells an epic tale in a powerful way. Miller is a wordsmith who weaves a tale that you cannot put down and will not soon forget. He writes explicitly Christian fantasy in the books in this series. He is also well known for his non-fiction and his Christian life application books. The Song is also excellently illustrated by Chicago artist, Joe DeVelasco. The drawings done in pen and ink style add to the power of the story by transporting you into the events, and bringing the characters alive. No matter how many times over I reread these books, they are always fresh and new, and draw me into the story of Christ in a different way. They are true classics and a treasure for any bookshelf. Each time I pick these up and reread them, I find a deepening of my relationship with Christ, and of my prayer life - for every time I do so, I am spontaneously drawn into prayer while reading them and for days afterwards. Miller also has a Symphonic Trilogy that retells different stories from the book of Genesis. The two I owned were A Requiem for Love and A Symphony in Sand. As far as I can tell, there are also two stand-alone books by Miller in this style, that are often compared to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Lewis's Narnia. They are The Valiant Papers, an account of a guardian angel's experiences, and The Philippian Fragment, the retelling of the book of Philippians from the New Testament. I have owned most of these and lent them out to not be returned. I now have The Singer Trilogy, Valiant, and Singer Trilogy 3-in-1 hardcover. Over the next few weeks I will review those I still have, but cannot encourage you strongly enough to pick them up if you find them in a used bookstore. They are all great.

Less allegory of New Testament, more allegory of centuries of Christianity

While "The Singer" was a pretty close Gospels allegory, this book spread quickly beyond the book of "Acts" through the letters from the Apostles, and into the early martyrdom stories of the following centuries. There are also very clear references to the Holocaust. Unfortunately this collapsing of centuries makes the story a bit less powerful to me because neither Anthem nor Everyman could have lived through all the events they did but then again it is merely an allegory, right?