Matthew Brennan writes ...
It seems there are no end of new books about the Christian faith. New titles are coming out of the Christian publishing houses all the time. The fact that there are more books being published begs the question, "are people reading more?" Is it an indication that the people of God are become more knowledgable about their faith?
Looking around the churches that I am aware of reading does not seem to be increasing and knowledge about the faith seems to be derived from those ubiquitous God channels. I wonder is there some Biblical principle that could be invoked to stop the church watching much that is worthless? I digress. It seems that just like tele-evangelists, the Christian publishing houses have their celebrated authors who produce another book that then is reviewed by the inner circle of Christian heavyweights and warmly endorsed. What if one of these men said something different like "this book is a poor imitation of the book written by ... ?" I am sure if we stopped and thought about it much of what is being published has been said in other books just as well but the publishing machine keeps felling trees and flinging out more paperbacks.
Why do the publishing houses waste so much money printing a title and then see the value of the book fall by 30% because they will not put in an index at the back of the book? I could cite several publishing houses in the UK but I appeal to them instead: please put an index in your books. You do not do honour to yourselves when you omit them.
We do not have all the time in the world and we cannot read all that is out there. Let us try to read and master a few of the great Christian authors like ... who do you suggest?
Friday, November 28, 2008
ON READING
Thursday, November 6, 2008
JIM RENIHAN IN IRELAND
Jim Renihan, professor at Westminster Seminary California, reports on his trip to encourage Irish churches here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
