Calvin Miller, pastor, professor and beloved storyteller, best known for The Singer Trilogy, a mythic retelling of the New Testament story in the spirit of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, passed away on the afternoon of August 19, 2012, due to complications after heart surgery. He was seventy-five.

Calvin Miller, author of The Singer Trilogy

A prolific artist and a writer's writer, Miller garnered respect and praise throughout his career from peers like Luci Shaw, Max Lucado and Philip Yancey. The Singer, published in 1975, sold more than a million copies and introduced the trilogy which includes The Song and The Finale. He was the author of more than forty books of popular theology and Christian inspiration, ten with InterVarsity Press, including such recent books as Letters to Heaven, The Path of Celtic Prayer, Letters to a Young Pastor and his memoir, Life Is Mostly Edges.

"IVP was proud to have put Calvin on the map of the publishing world with his surprisingly successful 'mythic retelling' of the gospel story," says Andy Le Peau, associate publisher for IVP and the editor of several of Miller's books. "I enjoyed sitting side by side with him as we worked through his prose, sometimes line by line."

In addition to his twenty years of pastoral service at Westside Church in Omaha, Nebraska, Miller was also a distinguished writer-in-residence and a great mentor to many students and leaders through his preaching and pastoral ministry classes at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, where he served since 2007. Calvin Miller, never one to multiply words, used just four to describe his rule of life: "Time is a gift."

A native of Enid, Oklahoma, Miller was a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1991 until 1998 Miller worked as a professor of communication and ministry studies and as writer-in-residence at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

"Calvin Miller's The Singer was a work of great biblical spiritual imagination," says Bob Fryling, publisher for IVP. "We will miss Calvin but his writings continue with beauty and wisdom."

Miller is survived by his wife, Barbara, and two children. Read more about Calvin Miller's life and work.