author
Charles M. Sheldon
1857–1946
Best known for the classic novel In His Steps, this American minister wrote fiction that turned moral questions into everyday choices. His work helped popularize the phrase “What would Jesus do?” and tied storytelling closely to the Social Gospel movement.
5 Audiobooks
In His Steps
by Charles M. Sheldon
Robert Hardy's Seven Days: A Dream and Its Consequences
by Charles M. Sheldon
The Crucifixion of Philip Strong
by Charles M. Sheldon
The High Calling
by Charles M. Sheldon
The Redemption of Freetown
by Charles M. Sheldon
About the author
Born in Wellsville, New York, in 1857, Charles M. Sheldon grew up in a minister’s family and later studied at Brown University and Andover Theological Seminary. He became a Congregational minister and went on to spend many years at Central Congregational Church in Topeka, Kansas.
Sheldon is remembered above all for In His Steps, first published in the 1890s. The novel asks how ordinary people might live if they seriously tried to follow the example of Jesus, and its central question gave enduring life to the phrase “What would Jesus do?”
Alongside his writing, Sheldon was associated with the Social Gospel movement, which pushed Christians to respond to poverty, inequality, and other public problems as matters of faith. He remained a well-known religious writer and speaker into the 20th century and died in Topeka in 1946.