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Welcome to the secret world of Christian books

CALL me old-fashioned, but I enjoy reading books. I know the under-25s live in anelectronic world, and would regard my respect for books as quaint, but I amseriously worried about the Christian literacy, not just of our nation, but also of our Church.If Christians aren’t reading Christian books, then who will? Some of us try to write books to feed the spirit, but we fear that they will be so little known as to be almostconfidential. Christian bookshops such as SPCK and STL/Wesley Owen have closeddown — only some of them reopening under other labels.Possibly the reason why the quantity of religious titles sold has not gone downappreciably in recent years is that the “four horsemen of the secular apocalypse” — Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, and Harris — have been selling by the bucketful.Obviously, there is a significant shift from the High Street to the internet. The sadloss of Borders and the burgeoning of Amazon are indicators of this. The number of bookstores in the Christian Group of the Booksellers’ Association has dropped to400.Of course, change is inevitable in this marketplace. It is no good being hopelesslyromantic about a lost Christian literacy, harking back to a time when people werehungry to read popular theology — although some of us remember John Robinson’s

Honest to God

selling like hot cakes in the 1960s. New ways of selling are bound todevelop, and Christian publishers have found Amazon, Eden.co.uk, and their ownwebsites increasingly effective as points of sale. Nevertheless, there are distinct downsides to this continuing revolution. Thedisappearance of Christian books from the High Street makes them seem esotericand cult-like. We want people to select from a range of available titles, not just goonline to buy the one that has got through to popular consciousness. We want peopleto browse, explore, and be attracted to alternative titles.Yet, even if we keep our Christian bookshops in the marketplace, these booksellersknow they are selling against a background in which less than one in ten regular churchgoers ever enters a Christian bookshop.IN THE midst of all this change, we need to remember that we are people of the book, and reading the Big Book (the Bible) and all the Christian books that haveflowed from it has a vital part to play in the formation of Christian lives and theshaping of churches.Reading Christian books is important for many reasons. It shapes an intellectuallycredible Church. It provides resources for our apologetics. It makes for more