What are we reading in Oz?

It seems the new Briefing is getting into the analysis business, so I thought I’d have a go in regards to Christian literature in Australia.

But before you read on…

  • What do you think would be the most popular genres?
  • Whom do you think would be the most popular authors?
  • How influential do you think reformed theology might be on the general Christian book scene? (Guess a percentage of reformed literature among the most popular titles.)

Last year, Koorong, the major and dominant Christian book chain in Australia, releases what it calls its Long List. In it, the company says it is

gathering together all the titles we think have had the greatest impact on the Christian landscape over the past few years

So it’s not actually a list of their bestsellers, although I am sure sales volume must be one large influence on the list, along with perceived significance in the broad Christian communities they serve. I’d guess these customers are mainly protestant, but ranging from reformed, through other evangelical, to charismatic, pentecostal, emergent and liberally inclined (though I notice they also sell Orthodox study Bibles).

This year, they’ve updated and refined their list, and so I thought I’d analyse the Koorong Long List 2011 (pdf).

Firstly, here’s their categories, with the ones I’ve focused on in bold and a few brief comments on other categories I know less about.

  1. Top 100 General Interest Books
  2. Top 10 Youth Titles
  3. Top 50 CDs
  4. Top 10 CDs for Children (glad to see this includes 2 CDs from Colin Buchanan, one from Emu Music, and one from Sovereign Grace)
  5. Top 10 DVDs for Children
  6. Top 10 Audio Books
  7. Top 10 Church Resources
  8. Classic Bible Bestsellers (NIV prominent, closely followed by NKJV, then ESV & NLT)
  9. Top 20 Academic Reference Titles
  10. Top 10 Theology Titles
  11. Top 10 Church Life Titles
  12. Top 10 Bible Story Books (glad to see this includes both The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones and David Helm’s Big Picture Story Bible)
  13. Top 20 DVDs
  14. Top 10 Inspirational & Gift Books

Top 100 General Interest Books

I categorised the books on this list into various categories (realising others would make some different judgments, of course). Here’s the results, in descending order, for most popular genres:

  1. Biography x 15 (e.g. Son of Hamas – Yousef, The Heavenly Man – Yun/Hattaway, Faith Like Potatoes – Buchan)
  2. Relationships and Family (i.e. marriage/parenting) x 14  (e.g. Have a New Kid/Husband/You by Friday – Leman, Love and War – Eldredeges, Married for God – Ash)
  3. Self-help and Personal Development x 13 (e.g. The Five Love Languages franchise – Chapman, Purpose Driven Life – Warren, various Meyer titles, You Can Change – Chester, The Peacemaker – Sande)
  4. Apologetics/Evangelism x 11 (Reason for God – Keller, More than a Carpenter – McDowell, Case for Christ/Faith – Strobel)
  5. Christian Fiction x 7 (The Shack – Young, anything by Francine Rivers!)
  6. Devotions & Prayer x 4 (a couple from Joyce Meyer; a couple more could also perhaps have been classified into this category)

I guess “theology” is too broad to fit as a neat category, but really, J.I. Packer’s Knowing God was just about the only general theology book to make the top 100 list, although others dealt with particular topics like Piper’s Desiring God or Keller’s Generous Justice.

Perhaps “discipleship” could have been another smaller category, with honourable mentions to Stott’s The Radical Disciple, or Carson’s Basics for Believers.

Now here’s my list of the authors who appear the most (= most popular?) on the Top 100:
  1. Joyce Meyer x 7
  2. Francine Rivers x 5
  3. Tim Keller x 4
  4. Kevin Leman x 4
  5. Garry Chapman x 3 (sadly our Chappo – John – does not appear anywhere here!)
  6. John Bevere x 3
  7. Bill Hybels x 3

There’s a number with 2 listings including: Cloud & Townsend, Eldredge, C.S. Lewis, Lucado, Strobel, Piper, Yancey, & Yun.

However, I am pleased to say that Matthias Media had two books in the Top 100! And much as we don’t like to play favourites, personally I would struggle to think of two better MM candidates than those they chose:

On the other hand, I am sad to see nothing by MM’s Phillip Jensen or John Chapman on the Top 100 list, because it is hard to think of two more influential Christian leaders and preachers in the Australian reformed evangelical church scene over the last couple of decades, who have also made a significant impact overseas (especially in the UK). But perhaps their most significant books were published earlier.

My estimate is that only 15% of books on the Top 100 come from authors who are clearly and definitely reformed in theology. Maybe another 10-15% could be characterised as evangelical and strongly Bible-driven in their theological positions and methods, without being reformed. (Some authors I do not know enough about to characterise, but being a keen reader and follower of what’s around, I suspect I would have heard of them if they really fitted the reformed basket.)

But over all, excepting the apologetics/evangelism category, the focus seems to be decisively on man rather than on God.

Top 50 CDs

Briefly, the most popular/influential artists by frequency of listing in the Top 50 CDs in the Koorong Long List are:

  1. Hillsong x 4
  2. Chris Tomlin x 3
  3. Casting Crowns x 3
  4. Michael W Smith x 3 (now there’s what I thought was a blast from the past, which just shows how ignorant I am of the Christian music scene)

Sadly from my point of view neither Emu Music nor Sovereign Grace were anywhere to be seen! Unsurprisingly, there’s a fairly strong charismatic well being drunk from here.

Top 10 Church Resources + Top 10 Church Life Titles

Better news here, with Matthias Media scoring 20% of the total in the Church Resource list, featuring two of our best-selling tools for ministry (the sort of thing ‘trellis and vine’ thinking drives us to produce and use):

Tim Keller (Reason for God course) and John Stott (Bible Studies e.g. on Romans) also get a guernsey in this Top 10!

John Stott and Chester/Timmis each have a book in Church Life section, so once again at least 20% are from a reformed perspective. (In fact, though I don’t know his books at all, it seems that Gary Gilley might also partly fit this category with a dispensational twist.)

Elsewhere on this list, there are church growth, church consultant, and emergent type authors, especially Viola (x 3).

Top 10 Theology Titles + Top 20 Academic Titles

It’s far better news for reformed theology here.

9 out of 10 – 90%! – of the featured Theology Titles are from reformed authors: 3 for Carson, 2 for Packer, 1 each for John Stott, Bruce Milne, Driscoll/Breshears, and Grudem (although the last two could be classified as reformed charismatic).

The tenth on this list is Tom Wright, who though not reformed, is certainly at least not fairy floss.

There are lots reference works – Bible dictionaries, commentaries and atlases – among the 20 on the Academic list, including the tried and true New Bible Dictionary and New Bible Commentary.

Of individually authored works on the list, most also concern Bible overviews or interpretation. Gordon Fee occurs three times (twice with Stuart), and Graeme Goldsowrthy twice, along with Vaughan Roberts’ God’s Big Picture, so biblical theology gets a good guernsey.

Observations

In the general books category, I would struggle to recommend more than 25% of the books on the list as solidly evangelical.

Reformed theology has strictly limited influence (15%) and Keller is the only reformed author of significant general popularity (although I am surprised not to see Piper a bit further up that list).

And as I said above, it is a very man-centred list: full of biographies, self-help, relationships, and how-to books. What a tragedy that there’s almost nothing of substance on who God is, what Christ has done for us!

The big questions here for me are:

  • How much does this reflect what people in our reformed evangelical churches are reading? That is, are they reading more books that their pastors might prefer them not to read, at least not without a biblically critical mindset?
  • Or does it simply mean that the reformed, evangelical segment of the broader Christian book market is not very big?

Somewhat strangely, the situation improves in the church life and resources section, with a higher percentage of authors I would recommend. And it’s much, much better in the theology section, with 90% of authors being solid and reformed.

This is a complete reversal of the situation in the general book category. So my questions here are:

  • Does this mean it’s largely only those of a reformed theology who are interested in (or capable of) producing solid theology?  Since this seems unlikely (we know Arminian and charismatic authors can produce solid theology, even if we disagree with them)…
  • Does this mean solid theology from these other sources are not often very compelling or persuasive reading? Or…
  • Does this mean that it’s really only people from reformed backgrounds who are interested in reading solid theology?

I guess my conclusion is that it makes me all the more determined to play a big role in actively recommending good books and authors and not just leaving it to my congregation members to grab what’s popular or eye-catching in the catalogues.

Solid theology is stretching, and more than ever in this instant, distractible, digital age, we will have to work hard at encouraging people to read long and deep.

What do you think?

7 thoughts on “What are we reading in Oz?

  1. Hi Sandy, this is a helpful analysis. I like the way our church here in the UK promotes good books. We have a small bookstall, which is very visible each Sunday during morning tea. The bookstall consists of a selection of the very best solid theological books. There’s usually only one copy of each book. The primary purpose is not to make oodles of cash (although of course we do sell a few books and do make a little profit). The primary purpose is to remind people of the best books week by week, and let people browse them if they wish.

  2. Thanks for the analysis Sandy — although I can’t help wondering how much the ‘long list’ reflects the books that the sales guys at Koorong want to sell (or think they can sell best).

    I think it’s true that (speaking generally) we don’t promote good books and good authors in our churches as frequently or effectively as we used to.

    Time to bring back the book of the month?

  3. Tony, something I’ve done as a variation on book of the month – and I am expecting some people in books sales and publishing will stone me for this – is wait for a book store to have a 20% off internet sale (normally last about 6-7 days) and then I choose 5 or 6 titles I want to recommend. I make sure the book shop’s online store shows plenty of the titles I am recommending in stock.

    Then I recommend the books via my church email group I maintain, and on the Sunday during the sale period.

    In the email, I provide a brief description of what the book is and why I recommend it and sometimes a link to a review on Challies or Justin Taylor or here if there’s one.

    Then I ask people to order the titles they want in the quantity they want. I put these conditions on the service.

    (i) I must have your order by the following Sunday.
    (ii) You must pay me in cash – with the correct amount – in an envelope, with your name clearly marked by the following weekend;
    (iii) If the order is sufficiently large that it qualifies for the larger 25% discount, the surplus in receipts will be put towards give away evangelistic or ministry resources.

    Here are the books I’ve featured in the 3 or 4 times I have done it…

    The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges
    God’s Big Picture by Vaughan Roberts
    Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis
    The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
    NIV Giant Print Bible (seniors really appreciate this one big time!)
    NVI – NIV Bi-Lingual Parallel Bible (Spanish-English)
    CUV – NIV Bi-Lingual Parallel Bible (Chinese-English)

    The Goldworthy Trilogy by Graeme Goldsworthy
    Concise Theology by J. I. Packer
    The Living Church by John Stott
    The Jesus Storybook Bible
    ESV Study Bible (Believe it or not, Tony!)
    Desiring God by John Piper

    Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D. A. Carson
    Holiness by J C Ryle
    Kings Cross by Tim Keller
    According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy
    Let’s Talk about Parenting by Tony & Judy Willis
    Know and Tell the Gospel by John Chapman

    Because a few of these books are now what I think is called back list or better, classic, they are published in mass market paperback form, and they have sometimes been under $5!

    But even the new titles are good value with 20% off.

    I think this has been even more effective than just a general bookstall.

  4. First of all, as an American I had to scratch my head over giving someone “a guernsey” and “fairy floss.” As a knitter, I could only come up with a Guernsey sweater for the first, which would be a very good reward indeed. Then after picturing fairies flossing their teeth with super-extra-fine dental floss, I finally came up with “pixie dust” as our equivalent for the second.

    Seriously, if a survey was done in the US of a large Christian book chain store I wouldn’t show up on it because I buy almost all of my theology and “Christian living” books by Reformed authors on the web from the bookstore of Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia. Also, in the past couple of years I have become a customer of Mathias Media via the internet. There are some other online stores that specialize in Reformed and Puritan authors that I use, too. There might be many other Reformed Christians like me who don’t shop at the popular Christian book outlets, which would explain why Reformed books didn’t make a very good showing on those lists you shared above.

  5. Judy, as an Australian who is currently spending some time in the US I sympathise about confusion over common words being used oddly or strange idioms! A “guernsey” in common Australian is the top part of the uniform worn by someone playing on a football team. To give someone a guernsey is to “give them a go” at something (from the situation where someone is chosen to play in a particular game.) And “fairy floss” is the light fluffy sugary thing on a stick you get at fairs- its main characteristic is that it is sweet but not in any way nourishing and soon forgotten.
    I was interested to read that you get your books online. I am living in Philadelphia at the moment and wanted to buy a new ESV, but so far have had no joy finding an actual physical Christian bookstore in this big city. I have been told by a couple of people that online is the way a lot of people buy Christian books these days in the States, which surprises me.

  6. Great to hear from you Judy, and thanks for commenting. Unfortunately for us Downunder in Australia, Westminster don’t ship outside of North America.

    We have a good local evangelical reformed bookstore, which has an online presence namely Reformers’ Bookshop.

    Still it was sobering to see how marginal reformed literature was in the wider Australian Christian scene, many of whom would see themselves as evangelical, and certainly as being biblical.

    And Neil, thanks for translating, although I had some good fun when I googled pixie dust, and was reminded of Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, some new product that helps regrowth on wounded limbs for soldiers, an IBM techie product and some home & bathware gifts!!!

  7. Following on from Sandy’s post, the original article is hardly representative of what people are reading, keeping in mind the following points;
    1 Online buying has taken off in Australia, so isn’t it reasonable to assume that this also applies to purchase of Christian books?
    2 If we consider Reformed books, and unsurprisingly you use lotsa “sadlys” Sandy, I think these readers are fairly astute and would use bookshops like MM, Reformers, or find the book title they want online at dare I say it, the Book Depository.
    3 I agree with Tony’s comment on Koorong’s stocking policy.
    Finally, I like your book sales program for the congregation Sandy and I will try this at our cong using the 5+ pricing of MM

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