Interview: Living on the Edge

TG Q. Why do you write books?

J. As tools for others to use in their own Bible study and preaching. Two other books of mine currently available are ‘Sleeping In The Dust‘, and ‘Rightly Dividing The Word‘.

TG Q. What is your latest book? Why that title?

J. The title of my latest book, ‘Living On the Edge: challenges to faith’, reflects the most serious challenge facing our community. Informal surveys report many Christadelphians feel on the edge of abandoning their belief in God. In Australia there is an openly recognized problem of Christadelphians between 18 and 35 losing their faith and becoming atheists.

TG Q. In a sentence or two, what is this book about?

J. Upholding and defending our beliefs and values, and proving they are relevant to the modern world, is very difficult without the kind of evidence evidence which non-religious people will find convincing. This book aims to provide that evidence.

TG Q. Why did you write this particular book?

J. Because so many people kept asking me to. Every week I receive emails from people asking for help addressing the issues covered in this book, and putting all my research into one resource will clearly help a lot of people. I’ve already received pre-orders for 30 copies of the book.

TG Q. How did you go about writing it?

J. Since 2007 I’ve been writing articles regularly on the subjects covered in this book, and posting them on a couple of blogs I own, as well as on Christadelphian email lists. The responses have been very encouraging. In 2009 I decided to write a book which would develop those articles further, and incorporate additional research and writings I have produced as a result of my own personal Bible study and preaching.

TG Q. What are the chapters in it called and in a sentence or two what are they about?

J. The main section headings are ‘Living on the edge of certainty’, addressing doubts about our beliefs, ‘Living on the edge of credibility’, addressing the challenge of defending our beliefs and preaching to other religious people and atheists, and ‘Living on the edge of society’, addressing the challenge of belonging to a tiny Christian community with beliefs and values typically rejected by modern society.

TG Q. How long is the book?

J. It’s 600 pages long in standard US trade paperback format (6×9 inches), including a 100 page bibliography.

TG Q. Who is it aimed at?

J. Anyone interested in evidence supporting belief in God, faith in the Bible, and trust in the gospel. It’s especially aimed at anyone losing their faith, or finding it hard to present and defend their faith credibly to non-Christadelphians (religious or not). Although written mainly for our community, I have included an introduction for non-Christadelphian readers. I hope the book will help introduce them to our community and our understanding of the gospel (which some of them may even share).

TG Q. Will any of it be controversial?

J. The book upholds the views of the earliest Christadelphian commentators on issues such as the relationship of Science and Scripture, the age of the universe and the earth, whether the flood was local or global, and the authorship of various books of the Bible. That will be controversial for those who disagree with the pioneers, or who are unaware of views held by our earliest expositors. However, I aim to minimize controversy. For example, since evolution is a highly divisive issue in our community the book does not address it at all.

TG Q. How are you publishing it? How much is it? Where do people get it?

J. It will be printed locally in Taiwan, and posted internationally; see http://facebook.com/LOTE.book for additional details. The price will be US$15 per hardcopy (a free eBook version is included with every hardcopy), and it will be launched on a crowd sourced funding site (http://fuudai.com/).

TG Q. What is crowd-sourcing and why did you choose that route?

J. Crowd sourced funding involves presenting a project with a budget to the public, and inviting people to pledge funds for the products or services the project offers. Fundraising takes place over a limited time (30 days is typical), at the end of which the project may or may not have raised enough money to cover its budget. No one is charged any money if the project fails to raise its budget. I chose this route since I do not have a publisher for this book, which means I need to pay for the printing myself up front. Crowd sourced funding is a safe way to see if I can raise the capital for an initial minimum print run of 500 copies.