Editorial:
November issue
Maybe it’s a sign you’ve reached a
certain age when you start talking
about music and books from the past
with a misty-eyed nostalgia about the
‘good old days’, before bemoaning
the state of things at the moment.
I’m going to risk sounding like Eeyore and say that there are too
many Christian books these days. We
receive well over 100 new books
every month in the
Christianity office
and I have to admit I find it rather
wearing. I’ve lost count of the
number of times I’ve looked at a
book and questioned whether it
actually needed to be written.
I’m not knocking all Christian
publishing, by any means. There’s
loads of good stuff and new authors
being discovered and nurtured,
which is why we have an extensive
reviews section in the magazine.
But rather than just focusing on
what the latest book is, we want to
celebrate those books from the past
which have genuinely drawn you
into a deeper relationship with God,
or been completely life-changing in
some way.
I am eternally grateful to the
person who gave me a battered copy
of Philip Yancey’s
The Jesus I Never
Knew when I first became a
Christian and had no idea what I’d
got myself into. They told me not to
worry about anything, but just to
read this book. It opened my eyes to
who the real Jesus was, and made me
excited about following him. It’s 15
years old, so it’s relatively new, but
it’s one of those books that millions
of people would say has changed
their faith.
With this in mind, we’ve decided
to launch classic book and album
columns in this month’s magazine.
Do send me your suggestions for
gems we should include, and I hope
you enjoy celebrating the spiritual
treasures of our tradition.
The more eagle-eyed among you
will have spotted that last month’s
Congo feature contained a number of
errors, not least the subheading which
was about Vietnam. Geography might
not be our strong point, but we’re not
that bad. This was a draft version of
the feature and the wrong file was
sent to the printers. It’s gutting that it
happened – we’re sorry, we hope it
never happens again. You can read
the correct version of this feature
online at christianitymagazine.co.uk.
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