Theology for the People

As you may recall, I had a bit of a job transition this summer. After spending several years at sparkhouse, a division of Augsburg Fortress, and seeing the Animate series to completion, I got a month-long respite to finish my book. Then, after Labor Day, I joined Fortress Press as senior acquisitions editor.

Fortress Press has a long and distinguished history. Of late, like all publishers, the leadership of FP has had to make choices about how to move forward efficiently. The foci over the last several years has been theology, biblical studies, and reference works. These were good choices it seems, for Fortress has countered industry trends and grown significantly. For example, the number of titles released per year has doubled, to over 100, in just the past five years.

I’ve been tasked with launching something new. Fortress Press’s expertise has been in what you might call “top shelf” theology. That is, the monographs and reference books that FP has published are monographs and reference books that truck in the most sophisticated academic ideas. FP has mastered that type of publishing.

I’ve joined the team to launch a line of books that’s more mid-shelf. Theology without all the footnotes, without the jargon, without the aspirations for tenure. You might call it “popular” theology. We’re calling it, Fortress: Theology for the People.

We’ve got big announcement coming on the eve of AAR/SBL, at the Homebrewed Christianity Live 3D Podcast. If you can’t make it to that event, follow Theology for the People on Twitter, and we’ll simultaneously break the news there.

If you’ve got an idea for a book in this line, I’d love to hear from you. Remember, these books are theology in the first instance. That is, we’re not doing leadership books or memoirs or church growth. We’re doing theology, but we’re doing it for the people.