We love books. For those for whom a picture is worth a thousand words—or a very short book—note the picture of John Wilson’s office. Wilson, a Christianity Today editor at large (and the editor of Books & Culture), is clearly the Master, Guru, and Saint when it comes to collecting, reading, and loving books. But that does not mean God can’t use us minor-league bibliophiles in the hallway.
If we editors read all the books mentioned in this issue, we would be pretty smart people. As it is, we ask the judges for our annual book awards to read every book we send them, but we send only five. We have already culled out dozens of other nominees beforehand. Sometimes that’s easy, sometimes it’s not. People complain there are too many rubbish books published in the Christian world. That’s true. But there are also too many good books published in our world for any one person to keep up with.
Still, a few of us at CT don’t think there are enough books in the world. Ted Olsen, Stan Guthrie, and yours truly are currently the most prolific, but (heads up, publishers!) there is quite a bit of untapped talent on this hallway.
Speaking of Stan and books, Stan is playing a large role at this year’s Evangelical Christian Publishers Association conference, one of those behind-the-scenes organizations concerned about quality and integrity, in this case, of Christian publishing. The association’s annual Book Expo will be held in Dallas March 20-22, and will feature over 140 authors. Stan is organizing a number of workshops in which authors like Lee Strobel, Donald Miller, and J. I. Packer will discuss the topics “Does the God of the Bible Exist?” “Living Christianly,” and “What Is the Gospel?” among others. Check out ChristianBookExpo.com for more information.
It’s just another way that we at CT encourage readers to read, study, and inwardly digest the written word.
Dinesh D’Souza began his column, “Unconventional Wisdom,” last issue. D’Souza is familiar to many of our readers, especially because of his best-selling book What’s so Great About Christianity. A devout Roman Catholic and former policy analyst in the Reagan White House, D’Souza has been called one of America’s most influential conservative thinkers.
Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is not as well-known, but we suspect she will be before long. She is an unapologetic Missouri Synod Lutheran (she named her column “Throwing Inkwells,” an allusion to the time Luther is said to have hurled one at the Devil). She has written—with verve and insight—for the website Get Religion and The Wall Street Journal and National Review. Her first column is on page 52.
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