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I hate Christian bookshops. There are some, here in the UK, and there is one chain of shops (called Wesley Owen) throughout the country. I do not like them. I find the books they stock to be generally patronising to their audience. Some of these books are from British authors and some from America, but many of them severely irritate me.
It is not that I do not think there should be Christian books. I applaud the fact that most cities have somewhere where Christian books can be bought - from a specialist shop or a cathedral bookshop. Understandable, secular bookshops do not stock a wide variety of Christian literature, and so Christian bookshops provide a much needed service. Long may it continue.
My issue is with what they stock, not their existence. I would estimate that 80% of their stock is mindless, patronising rubbish. The "devotional" section is my particular bugbear. Often, the books there treat Christians like children, incapable of understanding or higher argument. Sometimes this consists of trite "inspirational" material, which has no point to it, that fails to interact with real issues. It need not be so. For instance, nuntobe has posted a story which engages with issues of bereavement and the problem of evil in an easy to read and engaging way. While told simply, the ideas are not so simple. The difference between that and books of devotions in Christian shopsis that that was an email forward - written by someone for others like themselves. Often, the books I see on bookshelves seem to have been written down to people, to give them a "feelgood" factor when, in reality, people generally prefer to have real issues addressed. With a feelgood factor if possible, naturally.
Another gripe I have is with popular theology and apologetics. Take Josh McDowell for instance. His books are widely popular for use in trying to convert people. Yet McDowell uses his information in a far too simplistic manner. It is not enough simply to put forward arguments while ignoring their counter arguments. It is dishonest to use Josephus as a witness for christ while ignoring the many disputes over the Testimonium Flavianum. By and large, people are not stupid, and deserve to be given all available information so that they may decide for themselves what to use. Otherwise we merely leave people open to attack.
Many Christian books seem to me to be like sugared water - they do not build you up. They may taste good for a time but leave you, in the end, unfulfilled. They are the sort of books that revolted me as a child - I'd rather read a polemic I disagreed with than something which ignored everything and was only designed to make me feel good.
To use more biblical language, the books in Christian bookstores are very much of the milk, and stop short of meat. Yet we are enjoined to take the meat, too. It should rather be that there are 20% of the facile material in bookshops but 80% of good, non-condescending books, covering both the basics and more advanced material, which are not afraid to address contentious issues.
We are to be as wise as serpents - not ignorant or self-gratifying. That means doing more than lulling the senses and feeding our more childish selves; it means dealing with difficult subjects in an adult way. Let the bookshops start stocking more of this material, and get rid of all the pap they sell.
1 Cor 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
© Dubhóc MacEògainn, 2005.