The marriage of Christianity to book publishing is a rather natural one.

Christians are people of the book, and were people of many books.

In fact, where the gospel spreads, literacy also spreads with it.

Reading and writing were core priorities for Christians, even from the very beginning.

And while the Greco-Roman world and the age of the New Testament was busy building and

populating elaborate temple structures, Christians were gathering in remote places and homes.

Far more concerned with reading epistles together, as an embodied metaphorical temple of God,

rather than establishing any sort of temple tourism of their own.

What we inherited from those very first Christians is not a list of places to visit, but a collection

of precious letters to read.

And that is a point well-made in Larry Hurtado's new book, Destroyer of the Gods, Early Christian

Distinctiveness in the Roman world.

But the story doesn't end there.

Fast forward to the Protestant Reformation, and there we find an innovative preacher and

monk named Martin Luther, who single-handedly took the printing press from an economically

perilous side industry to one of the central economic forces of his day.

With the press, Luther was able to first popularize theological works for the laity.

He translated the Bible into the language of the people.

He also mastered the art of writing in the vernacular of his day, and he mastered

a style of short form writing that exploded his popularity.

In every area it seems, Luther proved himself to be a publishing pioneer.

And that incredible story is now told in an excellent new book by historian Dr. Andrew

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