As someone who was for a time a branding guy, I am very aware of how important the naming of things is. The working title for this book, Tota Scriptura, did a good job of signalling that it is a book about Scripture, and since it isn’t the usual sola Scriptura, it did well to signal that it’s about altering our received assumptions. The publisher wasn’t keen on it, however, and to be honest, I wasn’t sad to see it go, even if for no other reason than that I don’t like Latin.
I had some minor quibbles with the emphasis implied by the title that the publisher chose and so I took the liberty of making a catchier counter suggestion, going with By The Book as the main title and the subtitle below. The publisher’s team met again and decided to keep the best elements of each of our suggestions. I can announce then, I think not prematurely, that the title is:
Redeeming Evangelical Hermeneutics: Why a High View of Scripture Aims Too Low.
I’m very happy with it. It gets all the million-dollar words in there that properly position it within its academic and ecclesial domains, but the subtitle hopefully adds some intrigue and provocation. I think it does well to tell the reader that if we’re tackling some of evangelicalism’s most untouchable doctrines, it’s not to reduce faith in Scripture but because Scripture points us even higher.
Cover design is apparently next, so I am excited to share that with you when the time comes.
