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On page 186, the girls can find "Top Ten Great Christian Books." C. S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers haven't made the list. Top honors go to Witnessing 101 by Tim Baker and published by Transit Books. In fact, all of the top ten books have been recently published by Thomas Nelson, most of them through Transit Books.

Here's another curiosity: The eighth of the top ten great Christian books is titled Why So Many Gods? Its authors are Tim Baker and Kate Etue. Kate Etue is also the senior editor of Revolve. She was the one promoting the biblezine on CNN recently.

On page 231, in a blurb called "Issues: Religion," teens are told about "a cool book called Why So Many Gods? that will explain a lot of it for you." It's the same book that made the top ten list!

At the magazine I work for, things are a bit different. A top ten great books list containing only the recent books written by staff members could never be published. Or maybe it could—if the authors all paid for it, and if the list was clearly marked as advertising.

Of course, in Revolve, such rules don't apply. It's not a magazine. It's not a Bible. It's not even a study Bible, Whaley told me. It's "an inspirational and motivational Bible product."

The Word of God is not the only thing this product is selling.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Other media coverage of Revolve not mentioned or linked above includes:

Bible gets hip for girls | Slick 'Revolve' magazine gives teens dating advice, beauty tips — and the entire New Testament (The Tennessean)

Also: 'Fun' bible is a hit, local girls say (The Tennessean)

Also: What's inside 'Revolve'? (The Tennessean)

A New Testament for teens | 'Revolve' fuses beauty tips, dating with Scripture (Weekend Edition, NPR)

A new spin on the Bible (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Magazine brings Bible to teen girls (Knight Ridder)

Teen Bible repackaged in fashion mag format (Religion News Service)

Teens: Thou shalt read this (Newsweek)

Going to extremes | New generation of Bibles caters to teen market (The Journal Gazette, Ft. Wayne, Ind.)

Sells like teen spirit (New York Post)

Lifestyle magazines targeted at young audiences find religion (Forward)

Metafilter, a community weblog, has a long discussion about Revolve.

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September (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47