Five minutes ago we were barbecuing bananas over it now we’ve fashioned it into a shape and are thinking that it provides the meaning for our lives. It is ‘dumb’, as Isaiah describes the idol that we make out of a piece of wood. The visual is immediate and uninterpreted. We turn to what can be immediately seen and worship it instead. Rather than seeing in the creation evidence for the invisible God, and honouring and thanking and listening to him, we turn away and suppress that truth. Our rejection of God is a rebellion against him who cannot be seen, and a turning to the worship of created things that can be seen. The ‘humiliation of the word’ (as Jacques Ellul described it) is a feature not just of modernity but of history. It has always been humanity’s besetting sin. This is why that little thing called idolatry-the worship of a visual representation of the divine-is condemned so widely and vigorously in the Bible. People have always preferred the immediacy of the visual. This is true, but only in so far as it is a description of every age. It’s a cliché to say that we live in a visual age where people prefer to watch rather than to read. The first is a theological belief in the power of the word. It’s precisely because of a strong conviction about the value of Christian books that I’ve spent my ministry life writing, editing and publishing them. ![]() But it has certainly been that way with me. Perhaps it was-maybe the banana passion came first, and then the desire to grow them. ![]() I’m not sure that a conviction about the all-purpose benefits of bananas was the reason my grandfather spent his life growing and promoting them. What else would I say, as a life-long Christian writer and publisher? I feel rather like this in arguing that the road to spiritual health is paved with Christian books. What else would you expect them to be but blindly and joyously pro-banana? But perhaps the banana lobby could be forgiven for overlooking this. It always struck me that having a road paved with banana peels was also quite possibly dangerous to health. Having those base convictions frees us to be extraordinarily flexible about things that are of secondary nature.īut onto this week’s post, which is about bananas and Christian books. Now, we have certain base convictions which are terrifically important to us. We are very serious people, with a serious intellectual and moral agenda in a world where these things are treated somewhat as though they don’t matter as much. And indeed some of the flack we get, as a Church-with complaints about the way we behave and the way we speak-are simply a misunderstanding. A conservative, to my mind, is someone who takes matters through to the foundations and is convinced about the foundations. He said he liked the label and accepted it (I had to transcribe the press conference for work, so I still have it filed away!). You reminded me of when PFJ became Archbishop (when I’d been working at Anglican Media for just over a year), and the media picked up on the label ‘radical conservative’ that had been applied to him at some point. Geoff Robson, who has taken over much of the editorial work I used to do at Matthias Media, got in touch to share a great quote from Peter Jensen. If you think your book supports our mission, we’d love to hear from you.Before we get to the subject of why Christian books are so vital, a follow up from last week’s post about being a ‘conservative’. We want to expand God’s kingdom and would be honored to be your book publisher. In fact, because we’re a Christian publisher, we exist to equip the church to reach more people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. This means that when you publish your book with us, you’ll get a quality book that you can be proud of as well as encouragement, prayer, and years of Christian publishing experience behind you. We’re not just a self-publisher, we’re focused on helping you achieve the Great Commission. We’re the only Christian book publisher reaching millions of visitors every month through our websites and helping promote your book beyond your own church. ![]() which owns over ten websites including, , and more. THE TOP CHRISTIAN SELF-PUBLISHING COMPANYĮquip Press is a division of Outreach, Inc.
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