Should Evangelical Intellectuals Despair 'Books and Culture’s' Demise?

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Christianity Today

Religion, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.3 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2016

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After 21 years, Books & Culture will cease publication after the release of its November/December 2016 issue. "Publishing print in a digital age is hard. Publishing print that is thoughtful is even harder,” writes Christianity Today president and CEO Harold Smith in the last issue. “And as a result, all that red ink has sadly forced Christianity Today to end the exceptional run of this outstanding Christian thought journal with this issue." When Christianity Today created B&C in 1995, “some people thought Books and Culture was going to be sort of a culture war vehicle, like Chuck Colson but a little more intellectual,” said John Wilson, the first and only editor of the publication. “I honestly think that if it had been like that it would have been more financially viable, but that wasn’t the intention from the outset,” said Wilson. “…We weren’t a movement magazine.” B&C co-chair Mark Noll helped start the publication in 1994, the same year his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind was released. “I’m quite depressed about the state of the world as is reflected in its closing,” said Noll, a history professor at Notre Dame University, who believes the magazine thrived because of Wilson’s vision and expertise. “John’s singular ability in an age of polemics and partisanship and gotcha-journalism was to emphasis the long-term, to be thoughtful rather than reactive, to try to bring insight rather than onslaught,” said Noll. Noll and Wilson join Mark and Morgan to discuss where B&C’s departure leaves the evangelical intellectual world, the specific conditions that made the publication possible, and how Noll’s Calvinist convictions inform his attitude towards the closure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.
0:11.0	Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion.
0:14.5	Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at apologeticsky.com.
0:20.6	Thank you. Michael Del Rosario at Apologeticsguy.com.
0:29.3	Hey, this is Morgan Lee.
0:34.3	I'm an assistant editor here at Christian Wee today, and you're listening to Quick to Listen.
0:39.2	Today, I have the honor of introducing my new co-host, someone whose voice may be slightly familiar if you listen to last week's episode. Mark Galley, hey, Mark.
0:44.3	Hey, good to be with you. I still don't feel like a co-host. I feel like an assistant host.
0:49.0	Because you have so much more experience. Even this morning, I was going to your office asking
0:52.5	what I should and shouldn't do, what I, asking you what I shouldn't, shouldn't do. That's just the sign of a great leader,
0:57.7	not being afraid to ask for help. Anyway, Mark, today we are having the show to talk about the closure
1:04.1	of books and culture magazine. And why don't you tell everyone who's going to be joining us to kind
1:10.2	tease that out
1:11.4	and give our listeners some more information about that?
1:14.1	Well, I was really glad that we could, in addition to John Wilson, our books and culture editor,
1:19.6	get Mark Knowle to come on board because Mark is, and most many people know him as the professor of history at Notre Dame University.
1:26.3	He was at Wheaton before that. For better for worse, he's known by many people for him as the professor of history at Notre Dame University. He was at Wheaton before that.
1:27.7	For better for worse, he's known by many people for his book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind,
1:33.7	which he wrote in 1994, was a Christianity Day book of the year. And I thought it was particularly
1:37.6	important to have Mark on this show as a Journal of the Mind is closing. I'd like to hear what
1:43.1	Mark has to think about that. Welcome, Mark.
1:45.5	Yes, it's nice to be with you. You are, have been listed in Time magazine as one of the 25
	...

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