The Life and Death of Evangelicalism's Little Magazine

For over two decades, Books & Culture has served as the house organ of the evangelical intelligentsia. On October 11, long-time editor John Wilson announced the magazine would close at the end of 2016. Since then many have responded to Wilson's terrible news, using words like grieving, loss, and lament. While historian Miles Mullin called it "one of the saddest days of my intellectual life," the writer and editor Gregory Wolfe noted that "American Christianity in the 21st century produced God's Not Dead 2 but could not sustain Books & Culture."

I first encountered Books & Culture in graduate school. As a regular reader and occasional contributor, I am sad to see it go. As a scholar of North American religion, I wonder what its demise means for the future of evangelical intellectual life.