April 29 1996

ARTICLE TOOLS

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In many ways the job of a book review editor resembles that of psychiatrists who work with the criminally insane. Like our clinically trained counterparts, we enter mental worlds that the ordinary person would find alien, repellent, incomprehensible. (Yes, angel books are still being written, many of them by repeat offenders.) Every unsolicited book that comes in deserves to be regarded with full imaginative sympathy--for at least 30 seconds. Then, in most cases, it will take its place on the giveaway shelf, next to "A Key to the Book of Revelation," by T. Ervin Veale, and "The Fall of Christian Standards in America," by Bernard R. Medford.

But what about the excellent books? We can't begin to cover them all. Once a year, in the Annual Books Issue, we make amends. Here, in addition to a generous helping of essays and reviews, you'll find the winners of CT's 1996 Book Awards (in this issue), honoring books published in 1995.

Although the format has changed over the years, an annual issue featuring significant books has a long history at CT. The other day, browsing in back issues, I happened on "The Year in Books" (Feb. 13, 1961). Under the heading "Choice Evangelical Books of 1960," I found a lightly annotated list of 25 outstanding books selected by CT's editorial staff. The 1960 list includes one classic--C. S. Lewis's "The Four Loves." That's a good record; 1995's list will do well to match it.

What struck me most forcefully in comparing the list of books from 1960 with the list from 1995 is the continuity between them. The essential questions have not changed, nor the answers. And yet each generation must write its own books.

In "Waking from Doctrinal Amnesia: The Healing of Doctrine in The United Methodist Church," by William ...