Books and Culture Archives

books-and-culture

It appears from an announcement in Editor John Wilson’s weekly newsletter that Books & Culture, a publication of Christianity Today, is coming to an end with the forthcoming November-December issue. A tweet on @booksandculture indicates that they will continue to publish in some form online until the end of 2017.

The warning signs that this was coming. The publication was nearly shuttered in 2013, but saved by pledges that at that time were supposed to keep it afloat until 2018, according to a Christian Century article at the time. The article indicates that Books & Culture has struggled financially throughout its history and been subsidized to the tune of between $1 and $2 million by the parent company, Christianity Today. Christianity Today itself has struggled with financial losses in recent years and shut down several other publications. It’s surprising that Books & Culture lasted this long.

Alan Jacobs, in his blog this morning, wrote this tribute to the magazine and its long-time editor John Wilson:

“For twenty-one years, Books and Culture has been one of the most consistently interesting magazines in the English-speaking world. I have often been surprised at the number and range of people who agree with me about that. Alex Star, a former editor of the New York Times Magazine and now an editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, once told me that he read every issue in full. Cullen Murphy, former editor of the Atlantic, told me that John Wilson is the best editor in the business.”

This was my own experience. I have been a subscriber through most of its 21 year history. Books & Culture featured a great stable of writers and reviewers discussing important books on just about every subject, many not by Christian writers, but addressing important questions about the human condition and human flourishing. I found it a wonderful complement to mainstream sources like the New York Times Book Review and others, and the writing of equal quality.

This may be why the review lasted as long as it did. Christianity Today in its beginnings reflected a vision of an evangelicalism with intellectual as well as theological heft, and Books & Culture certainly has continued that tradition. A blog post by long-time Christianity Today board member Fred Smith back in 2013 underscores this idea. He writes:

“I studied the writings of the first editors – especially Carl F. H. Henry. I pored over the original statement of mission. “Christianity Today has its origin in a deep-felt desire to express historical Christianity to the present generation. Neglected slighted misrepresented—evangelical Christianity needs a clear voice to speak with conviction and love ” and to state its true position and its relevance to the world crisis. A generation has grown up unaware of the basic truths of the Christian faith taught in the Scriptures and expressed in the creeds of the historic evangelical churches.” It slowly dawned on me that Books & Culture may well be the inheritor of that early vision and not simply a way of proving to an educated and sophisticated world that evangelicals were peers and intellectually formidable.

I suspect the decision came down to the reality that Books & Culture could not hemorrhage finances forever and no one with deep enough pockets and long enough commitment has come along to sustain its publication. But in this, I see several concerning realities:

For one, this reflects that the vision of Christianity Today’s founders has not caught fire today. Books & Culture from what I can tell averaged between 9,000 and 11,000 subscribers at best in a country of 320 million. It is likely that subscription revenues defrayed less than half its costs.
This suggests to me that a significant part of the Christian public has little concern with finding out about the best that is being thought and written today, and considering how our faith engages those ideas.
I also wonder how much this reflects the impact of the internet, where we can find all kinds of information for free. What this doesn’t take into account is how important good, curated sources of information including reviews are to informed reading. Within the Christian community Books and Culture was undoubtedly one of the best sources. It’s worth paying for such things. C. Christopher Smith’s Englewood Review of Books and Byron Borger’s Booknotes are valuable resources, as are the reviews in First Things. But none has the breadth of what Books & Culture offered or brings together so many talented writers.

Books & Culture offered reviews of thoughtful writing for those hungering for something more than the banal offerings that make most of the Christian best-seller lists. It offered resources for aspiring scholars in every field wanting to think more deeply and Christianly about their work. The death of this publication will leave us all impoverished. Thank you John Wilson, and all who wrote for B & C for enriching our lives for the past two decades. You will be sorely missed!

Someone asked this question on a recent post, and I don’t think I’ve ever talked about this directly. Finding books that interest me has never been a problem, in one sense. Finding time to read all the books I’m interested in is probably the challenge–and keeping up with other important things in life. But learning about my sources might be interesting for others, so here goes:

1. My most tried and true way of finding books is simply the local second hand bookstore (in our case, Half Price Books, of which there are several outlets in my home town). Often I do not go there looking for a particular book. My usual practice is that I have several sections (science, fiction, history, and religion) in which I particularly look. I also check out the bargain section–I’ve made some great finds of books I was interested in that I picked up for a song.

2. Of course, these trips are supplemented from time to time with library book sales and visits to other book stores.

3. I also attend some conferences related to my work. There is often a book table with books related to the conference theme and our broader work. Many of the academically oriented books, and those on higher education come from these book tables.

4. The organization I work with has a publishing house, InterVarsity Press. You may notice that a fair number of the books reviewed here come from them. We have the option to purchase new releases at a steep discount, and receive complimentary copies of some books related to collegiate ministry. I read these books because they deal with issues I’m interested in, often quite well. When that’s not the case, I feel free to say so. I am paying for most of those books, even if they are at discount!

5. Some of my books are e-books and I learn of these through three sources: Amazon via their Kindle Daily Deal emails, BookBub, which also emails about daily deals, and NetGalley, which is a website where bona fide book reviewers (in print or on blogs) can request e-galleys of new releases in exchange for posting reviews not only on their own sites but on NetGalley’s site, which provides feedback to publishers. Big danger here is that in the ease of downloading to a reader, you will acquire far more than you can read.

6. I follow reviews of others on Goodreads, in Books and Culture, the New York Times Book Review, First Things, and other periodicals that include reviews. Hearts and Minds Books “Booknotes” is another great source. I often look more at reviews than articles in some journals. Then I keep an eye out for a good deal on the books I’m interested in.

7. One of the things I’ve begun doing is requesting review copies of books I’m interested in reading and reviewing. Review copies are furnished at no cost but involve the commitment to read and review the book often within a 30 to 60 day period, send a copy of the review to the publisher that they can re-post, and to post a review on commercial media like Amazon. So you need to be a legit reviewer with a review platform like a blog. I suggest being sparing in your requests so that you can honor your commitment to review the book in a timely fashion.

8. Occasionally a book will be an “assigned” reading for work purposes. My usual reaction is, “Oh boy–I can even justify reading as a work-related activity!

9. Every so often, I stop by our local library. They have a section with their new acquisitions and this is one more way to learn about recent publications in areas of interest.

10. Finally, there are those books friends suggest or even give you and tell you you “HAVE” to read. I will if I’m interested. My son is a source of a number of these, and thankfully, he knows enough about my propensities to buy stuff that I actually AM interested in!

So there it is. Those are some of the ways I find out about books, and find the books I review. As I said, this has never been a problem in my “bookish” world. But maybe some of these ideas will connect you with new sources of learning about good books. Hopefully, it doesn’t open up new avenues of temptation!