A Man Called Peter.

The widespread interest in religious issues was evident in popular books with religious themes in the early part of the decade of the 1950s. In 1950 the words of the late Peter Marshall, Mr. Jones Meet Your Maker, continued on the best-seller list. In 1951 his widow, Catharine Marshall, published A Man Called Peter, a popular biography of this former chaplin of the U.S. Senate. For nearly three years the book was on the best-seller list, and more than one million copies were sold.

Peale.

Other nonfiction books with religious themes attracted large numbers of readers. In 1952 the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, continued his run of best-sellers with The Power of Positive Thinking, which sold 971,336 copies in the next three years.

Sheen.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen confirmed the popularity of his...