The keys to publishing a well-read magazine are many. The writing must be crisp and clear. The graphics need to catch the eye of the browser. Articles should speak to important issues with which readers struggle. Our editors search for authors, artists, and augurs who can deliver each of these crucial elements.
But CHRISTIANITY TODAY has one further hoop through which all articles must jump: theological accuracy and integrity. For this indispensable ingredient we rely on our panel of senior editors.
Our senior editors come from different sectors of conservative evangelical Christianity. For example, co-executive editor George Brushaber is president of Bethel College and Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. His doctorate from Boston University is in philosophy. Kenneth Kantzer is a Harvard-trained theologian who teaches at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. And Oxford-educated J. I. Packer is a systematic theologian from Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. Each brings a perspective to our quarterly senior editors’ meetings that strongly complements the others.
To enrich the process further, we occasionally ask new scholars to serve while old familiar friends take a break. Two new members recently joined the panel: Dennis Kinlaw, president of Asbury College in Asbury, Kentucky, and Richard Longenecker, professor of New Testament at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto.
After a summer of such movie sequels as Ghostbusters II, Star Trek V, and the third Indiana Jones film, it seems appropriate that Dennis should rejoin the senior editor panel. During his initial term in 1985–87, his warm spirit and cogent comments never failed to add to the substance of our meetings, and those still on the panel from those years eagerly welcome him back.
In addition to his duties as president of Asbury, Dennis is president of the Francis Asbury Society and a member of the Christianity Today, Inc., board. An ordained United Methodist minister, he did his graduate work in Mediterranean Studies at Brandeis University.
Richard Longenecker brings a Canadian presence to our panel. He taught at Wheaton College, Wheaton Graduate School of Theology, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School before assuming his current post in 1972. He has written five books: Paul: Apostle of Liberty, The Christology of Early Jewish Christianity, The Ministry and Message of Paul, Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period, and New Testament Social Ethics for Today. He has written commentaries on Acts and Galatians and numerous articles in professional journals.
Richard did undergraduate work at Wheaton College in archaeology and history, and his doctorate is from the University of Edinburgh.
His Edinburgh degree in a sense helps to maintain the European flavor of the panel since one of our members whose term just ended, John Akers, also studied there. During his term as a senior editor, John brought a perspective born of both an academic career and years of service as a special assistant to Billy Graham. John’s influence has been a positive force, and we are grateful for his expertise.
We would also like to thank Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen for her time and skills. Mary contributed more than a Canadian perspective (a role to be filled somewhat by Richard Longenecker). Her expertise in psychology and theology helped us focus several major projects, including materials on codependency and homosexuality.
Our next senior editors’ meeting will be held this month, and the agenda has filled up fast. Articles on mainline renewal movements, animal rights, and our relationship to Judaism need to be discussed. And we need to brainstorm new ideas.
But getting together a group of good minds and committed spirits to discuss journalism, graphics, needs in the community—and, of course, theology—never fails to be a rewarding experience—for us and, we hope, the readers of CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
TERRY C. MUCK
