Some thirty college and university libraries now make CHRISTIANITY TODAY available on microfilm (a service provided by University Microfilms Inc., 313 N. First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48107). Across the years this magazine has won its way as a thought journal; our readers are interested, not merely in entertainment or polemic, but in a vindication of the truth.
Some people live their whole lives just around the corner from the world of truth. Yet active engagement in the realm of ideas is one of man’s unique privileges.
The other night I was thumbing through the Great Books Syntopicon, that eight-year achievement by 100 scholars at the cost of $1,000,000. (When first projected, its cost was estimated at $60,000; someone apparently had a wrong idea about the price of publishing.) What a good dictionary is to the world of words, the Syntopicon is to the world of important ideas. From this idea-index to the “great books,” any student can discover whose ideas he has been using and—if he reads long enough—what ideas he ought not to be caught with.
Although the Bible is not included in the set of “great books” (literate readers were presumed to own a version of their preference), the Great Book is nonetheless “idea-indexed” (along with the Apocrypha). The Bible has its say, in fact, on virtually all the Syntopicon’s 102 “great ideas.” Anyone who thinks revealed religion requires a “ghetto”-epistemology should ponder this challenge to get into the “great conversation” of our times.
Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.
Our digital archives are a work in progress. Let us know if corrections need to be made.
Annual & Monthly subscriptions available.
- Print & Digital Issues of CT magazine
- Complete access to every article on ChristianityToday.com
- Unlimited access to 65+ years of CT’s online archives
- Member-only special issues
- Learn more
More from this Issue
Read These Next
- TrendingAmerican Christians Should Stand with Israel under AttackWhile we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
- From the MagazineWhat Kind of Man Is This?We’ve got little information on Jesus’ appearance and personality. But that’s the way God designed it.españolFrançais
- Editor's PickIf This Ain’t Country, Expand Your CanonBeyoncé’s right. Whether listening to Cowboy Carter or reading theology, diversity is a good thing.