With the first public announcement that a biweekly journal of evangelical conviction was in prospect, Christianity Today attracted the spontaneous interest of thousands of ministers and lay leaders. That initial response gained swift momentum as assurances multiplied that a wide welcome would await such an evangelical medium.
Behind this initial issue stands a year of prayer, of decision, of planning. The fortnightly correlation of the Christian lifeline and the editorial deadline now takes the form of necessity as well as of opportunity and responsibility.
In design and typography, Christianity Today combines the classic heritage of the past with the best of the modern. The cover achieves this effect with its combination of the classic Dutch and Weiss initials. The feature articles, contemporary in interest, are set and captioned in modern type faces. For article headings, Deepdene will predominate, with the body of the article set in Fairfield, an easily legible book face not uncommon in religious magazines. In its choice of type faces Christianity Today had the counsel of Paul Smith, a leading West Coast type designer.
Christianity Today is printed on 40-pound eggshell paper. The first issue alone required 37,000 pounds-enough to reach, page by page, almost across the state of Texas, or from Cairo to Jerusalem to Damascus to Beirut.
Christianity Today enjoys excellent printing arrangements. Type is set in Washington, D.C., by the McArdle Printing Company. “Mats” cast from the type are rushed to Dayton, Ohio, where the McCall Corporation, publisher of national magazines, completes the actual printing and mailing.
Even before the last copy of Christianity Today is off the press, the addressing and mailing of copies is begun. The mailing schedules to various parts of the United States are so arranged that all readers receive the magazine virtually the same day.
Readers of Christianity Today are served by a staff of more than seventy evangelical correspondents around the world. Swift airmail service speeds their reports to the news desk.
Christianity Today uses the cable facilities of Western Union and other wireless services under the code name XTY. Telegrams are received direct at Christianity Today editorial headquarters through the Desk-Fax service of Western Union. Christianity Today also uses the Bell System national teletype service, using the TWX code number WA-555.
Besides the efforts of far-flung correspondents, readers of Christianity Today will enjoy vigorous articles by fifty contributing editors, as well as contributions secured from other significant sources. In the formulation of a consistent editorial style for a religious magazine whose tone is formal but not austere, Christianity Today has had the counsel of Miss Joan H. Wise, textbook editor in New York.
Advertising in Christianity Today is carefully screened. As Time magazine noted in a prepublication item, Christianity Today accepts only “culturally constructive” advertising copy, in addition to advertisements for standard products and services of special utility to minister and church.
Editorial, subscription and advertising headquarters are in the Washington Building where, from Suite 1014-1022, the editors daily look down Pennsylvania Avenue and glimpse the White House, Blair House, and other strategic centers of national life. Thus Christianity Today is a symbol of the place of the evangelical witness in the life of a republic.
Staff
Carl F. H. Henry, Editor L. Nelson Bell, Executive Editor J. Marcellus Kik, Associate Editor Larry Ward, Managing Editor George Burnham, News Editor
Contributing Editors
Oswald T. Allis (Wayne, Pa.) G. C. Berkouwer (Free University of Amsterdam) Andrew W. Blackwood (Temple Univ. School of Theology) Robert F. Boyd (Assembly's Training School, Pres. U.S.) Geoffrey W . Bromiley (St. Thomas Episcopal, Edinburgh) F. F. Bruce (University of Sheffield) Gordon H. Clark (Butler University) F. P. Copland Simmons (St. Andrew's Presbyterian, London) Earl L. Douglass (Princeton, N. J.) Edward L. R. Elson (National Presbyterian, Washington) William Fitch (Knox Presbyterian, Toronto) C. Darby Fulton (Bd. of World Missions, Pres. U.S.) Frank E. Gaebelein (Stony Brook School) John H. Gerstner (Pittsburgh-Xenia Theol. Sem.) Billy Graham (Montreat, N. C .) Richard C. Halverson (Intl. Christian Leadership) William K. Harrison (U .S. Caribbean Command) C. Adrian Heaton (Eastern Baptist Theol. Sem.) Philip E. Hughes (London, England) W. Boyd Hunt (Southwestern Baptist Theol. Sem.) Norman C. Hunt (University of Edinburgh) Clyde S. Kilby (Wheaton College) W. Harry Jellema (Calvin College) Harold Kuhn (Asbury Theol. Sem.) Robert J. Lamont (First Presbyterian, Pittsburgh) Roland Q. Leavell (New Orleans Baptist Theol. Sem.) Pierre Marcel (St. Germain En Laye, France) Clarence E. Macartney (Beaver Falls, Pa.) Duke Mccall (Southern Baptist Theol. Sem.) Samuel Moffett (Seoul, Korea) Arthur J. Moore (Bishop, The Methodist Church) J. Theodore Mueller (Concordia Theol. Sem.) Roger Nicole (Gordon Divinity School) Harold John Ockenga (Park Street Church, Boston) Stanley W. Olson (Baylor Univ. College of Medicine) J. C. Pollock (Templecombe, Somerset, England) Bernard Ramm (Baylor University) Paul S. Rees (First Covenant, Minneapolis) W. Stanford Reid (McGill University) William Childs Robinson (Columbia Theol. Sem.) Samuel M. Shoemaker (Calvary Episcopal, Pittsburgh) W. E. Sangster (Methodist Home Mission Dept., London) Wilbur M. Smith (Fuller Theol. Sem.) Ned B. Stonehouse (Westminster Theol. Sem.) John R. W. Stott (All Souls Langham Pl., London) James G. S. S. Thomson (Edinburgh, Scotland) Cary N. Weisiger III (Mt. Lebanon U.P., Pittsburgh) Faris D. Whitesell (Northern Baptist Theol. Sem.) Maurice A. P. Wood (St. Mary's Islington, London) Kyle M. Yates (Baylor University) Fred Young (Central Baptist Theol. Sem.)
Correspondents
Tom Allan (Scotland) Charles F. Ball (Chicago) George Bartholdy (Denmark) Jerry Beavan (Evangelism at Large) Trygve Bjerkrheim (Norway) Louis T. Bowers (Liberia) Wilhelm Brauer (Germany) Allen Cabaniss (Jackson, Miss.) Frank Colquhoun (England) L. David Cowie (Seattle) Calvin Chao (Singapore) Ellsworth Culver (Philippine Islands) A. Thakur Das (Pakistan) R. L. Decker (Kansas City) Boris Decorvet (Switzerland) Peter De Visser (Grand Rapids) James I. Dickson (Formosa) Cyril Dorsett (British West Indies) W. Harold Fuller (West Africa) J. Wayne Fulton (Miami) Roy E. Grace (Philadelphia) G. A. Hadjiantoniou (Greece) J. Lester Harnish (Los Angeles) Stuart Harrison (Peru) T.W. Hazelwood (Toronto) Langdon Henderlite (Brazil) Benjamin Heras (Spain) Robert Holmes (Ceylon) John G. Jetty (New York City) D. Koilpitchai (India) Elmer F. Kraemer (St. Louis) T. Leonard Lewis (Boston) Paul Lilienberg (Sweden) Marcus L. Loane (Australia) Robert S. Lutz (Denver) Ben J. Marais (South Africa) W. W. Marichal (Belgium) James A. McAlpine (Japan) Don McClure (The Sudan) W. A. McGill (Egypt) Tom McMahan (Columbia, S. C.) Roger B. McShane (Detroit) Herbert Mekeel (Schenectady) R. Strang Miller (New Zealand) William McE. Miller (Iran) Samuel H. Moffett (Korea) Benjamin Moraes(Brazil) John Morrison (Belgian Congo) William Mueller (Louisville) Robert Boyd Munger (San Francisco) Sidney W. Murray (Ireland) Donn C. Odell (Israel) J. Edwin Orr (Evangelism at Large) James Pritchard (India) W Stackford Reid (Montreal) W. Dayton Roberts (Costa Rica) J. Hervey Ross (Mexico) Benjamin Santana (Puerto Rico) James P. Schaeffer (Milwaukee) C. Ralston Smith (Oklahoma City) Gerald B. Smith (Minneapolis-St. Paul) Paul G. Stephan (Des Moines) Cullen Story (Lebanon) P. N. Tablante-Garrido (Venezuela) Clyde W. Taylor (Washington, D .C.) Paul E. Toms (Hawaii) Renato Tulli (Italy) Abe C. Van Der Puy (Ecuador) Vance Webster (Eugene, Ore.) Cary N. Weisiger III (Pittsburgh) Faris D. Whitesell (Chicago) G. Brillenburg Vurth (The Netherlands) Irvin S. Yeaworth (Cincinnati)
