Washington’s summer doldrums were interrupted by the McGovern-Eagleton pas de deux, again by the Senate’s effort to cut off money for the war in Viet Nam, and later by the Republicans’ mass exodus to Miami, one place that is even less desirable than Washington in summertime.
Now we wouldn’t want to say that our CHRISTIANITY TODAY staff has been suffering from summer doldrums also. Despite the August presence among us of our British editorial representative, self-affirmed collector of Magnificent Grievances (in a delightful style that J. D. Douglas-readers know well), we’ve read and written, dictated and debated our way through the summer with our customary good cheer. Nevertheless we welcomed the bright news that Montreat-Anderson College dedicated its new library-learning resource center in honor of Dr. L. Nelson Bell, our founding executive editor and “Layman” columnist for sixteen years. At seventy-eight Dr. Bell leads a more active life than many people at fifty-eight.
Perhaps the most crucial issue in Christianity now is the trustworthiness of the Bible. An essay I wrote on this will appear in the forthcoming Zondervan Pictorial Bible Encyclopedia. But I wanted to share my views with readers of CHRISTIANITY TODAY now, because of recurring battles at this point in institutions and groups generally considered evangelical. The essay will appear in two parts, this issue and next.
