Friday, January 30, 2009

James Brainerd Taylor in "World" magazine

In the January 17, 2009 (vol. 24, no. 1), issue of the national and biweekly World magazine--and under "Title tell-alls" in the "The Buzz: Books" section (page 20)--editor-in-chief Marvin Olasky (B.A., Yale; Ph.D., Univ. of Michigan) writes,

"Biographies tend to have clear titles: You can guess from I. Francis Kyle III's An Uncommon Christian: James Brainerd Taylor, Forgotten Evangelist In America's Second Great Awakening (University Press of America, 2008) that Taylor doesn't even have a Wikipedia article--but he should."

You can view the online page here. NOTE: A Wikipedia article on James Brainerd Taylor will hopefully appear soon. It is in the process.

World is the Christian equivalent to Newsweek or Time newsmagazines. It currenty has about 120,000 subscribers, plus online readers. It is a member of the Associated Press news service. Founded by Joel Belz in 1986, World's mission is "To report, interpret, and illustrate the news in a timely, accurate, enjoyable, and arresting fashion from a perspective committed to the Bible as the inerrant Word of God." The newsmagazine's title is based on Psalm 24:1 (ESV): "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein." World has an excellent and highly recommended website and blog.

The effort at preserving and reintroducing--via in print, online, and word-of-mouth--the early 19th-century Princeton University and Yale Seminary student-evangelist James Brainerd Taylor (1801-1829) and, more importantly, his 5-pillared Uncommon Christianity, to the early 21st-century global church, seminary and university continues. Taylor defined an "uncommon Christian" as an "eminently holy, self-denying, cross-bearing, Bible, everyday" Christian.