Some quick research told me that over 15,000 books have been written about Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. Over 15,000! That was too much information to work with in thinking about this particular Ponderings. But I did find a blog by a guy who'd read twelve biographies of Lincoln--and that provided me the angle I was looking for.
I won't look at all twelve of these biographies--a brief glance at three will illustrate my point.
One of the best known is a six volume set by the great American poet Carl Sandburg--the first two volumes published in 1926; the other four in 1939, which won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. The blogger stated that it took him more than a month to read the nearly 3300 pages, and he concluded that "Sandburg’s combined works are impressive in scope, but uneven in focus and he often has difficulty separating the important from the trivial . . . [o]ne almost gets the sense Sandburg expected to be paid by the page". This particular biography seemed to attempt to be almost too thorough.
Another that I actually have read is Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln". It was published in 2005, and the 2012 movie "Lincoln" (directed by Stephen Spielberg, for which Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar for his portrayal of Lincoln) was based in large part on this particular book. Goodwin had her "angle" in writing this bio--as the blogger states it, "Goodwin’s rationale for the book was Lincoln’s decision to select his presidential rivals for key positions in his cabinet. The story of their relationships with each other is marvelously well-told". Of course, this focus meant that other parts of Lincoln's life were much less fully explored: "Unfortunately, left behind in the effort to write a book focused on Lincoln’s cabinet is adequate emphasis on Lincoln’s youth and pre-presidency; the reader is rushed through these years". I guess that even in 750-plus pages you can't cover everything.
The last I will discuss is one published in 1915, Lord Charnwood's "Abraham Lincoln". The blogger states " By far the most interesting and insightful portion of this book is its first sixty pages. Here, Charnwood reviews for his presumably British audience the history of the United States up to the time of Lincoln’s presidency". Although the blogger states that these sixty pages " are worth reading by anyone interested in US history' it seems clear to him that this author, a British baron, saw the need to explain to his anticipated audience--who had not lived the American experience--some of the key details of US history.
Three biographies about Abraham Lincoln, undoubtedly containing many common details--hard to ignore the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, and the two magnificent Inaugural Addresses, not to mention the assassination. And yet each has a different "angle" on the story; a different focus within the story of Lincoln's life. Having read Goodwin's bio, I know that she states clearly what the angle is she's exploring--it's even in the title. I don't know if Charnwood does, having not read his.
The author of the Gospel of John clearly tells us the purpose for writing that particular Gospel (even as some of the Gospel is a bit more intricate, and therefore less clear, in its prose). The first chapter announces "the true light that was coming into the world"--the Word that was in the beginning with God and through which everything was created, now made flesh and dwelling among us--Jesus. And the next to the last chapter states clearly in John 20:30-31: "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name." These signs, these works of Jesus, these things that Jesus spoke of, did, and happened to him, are all written so that we may come to believe in him as Savior, we might therefore have life in his name. This is why.
John 21:20-25
20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’ 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ 22 Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!’ 23 So the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’
24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
John 20:30-31
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.