Perspective

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We’ve been listening to you, our readers, and this is what we’ve heard.

First, we don’t visit you often enough. Four times a year is so infrequent that sometimes when a new issue arrives, you forget who we are.

We are responding to this complaint, made by many of our readers, by increasing our frequency. Beginning with this issue, Bible Review will become a bimonthly. BR will now come to you regularly every other month, six times a year.

Of course, that will significantly increase our costs, so we ask that you send us your renewal payments promptly to save us the expense of repeated reminders. We would also appreciate it if you would consider giving subscriptions to Bible Review as gifts. (Gift coupon appears on inside front cover.) A subscription to BR is a thoughtful, flattering gift for which anyone interested in the Bible will be most grateful. And the recipients will think of you each time a copy of BR arrives—every other month.

Some of you have also told us that you don’t need so many color photos of old masters’ paintings to illustrate the articles. We won’t eliminate them altogether, but we will keep the number down.

We are also planning to include more basic introductory articles and more general articles—again, in response to your requests. We hope to present a greater number of short articles as well.

All these changes bode well for the future, and we look forward to it with great excitement.

As for the past, we are pleased to tell you, on this page, of the special Citation of Appreciation we recently received from the Laymen’s National Bible Association.

But far more important is the support we receive from you, our readers. We are proud that we have added a new dimension to Bible study for more than 100,000 readers all over the world.

Please continue to let us hear from you. Tell us the good and the bad. We promise not to become inflated at the former, and we will try to improve the latter.

BR Receives National Award

Bible Review, now concluding three full years of publication, has received national recognition as “an outstanding publishing venture that makes an important contribution to better understanding of the Bible.” The Citation of Appreciation was given to BR by the Laymen’s National Bible Association (L. N. B. A). The hand-lettered scroll is awarded by the 47-year-old association to publications and individuals who give “outstanding service to the Bible cause.” The President of the United States and Mrs. Reagan have served as honorary chairpersons of the L. N. B. A.’s National Bible Week since Mr. Reagan’s inauguration in 1981.

After receiving the citation, Hershel Shanks remarked that “The significance of this award is that it recognizes that lay people are indeed interested in the insights and new meaning that scholars can bring to the sacred text—as long as the articles are written understandably, respectfully and sensitively. We are grateful to the Laymen’s National Bible Association, from President Reagan on down, for this high recognition.”

In 1945, publisher William Randolph Hearst received the first L. N. B. A. citation. Since then, each year, the association identifies and recognizes worthy contributions to the “Bible cause.”

Founded by a group of business people in New York City in 1940, the L. N. B. A.’s principal function has been to sponsor National Bible Week during Thanksgiving week every year. The association is an interfaith, autonomous body, expressing the corporate sector’s response to the spiritual dilemmas of our time.

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Attention Bible Scholars

As we become a bimonthly we welcome your suggestions for articles you wish to write or to recommend that others write. Think about turning your best Bible lecture into an article for BR. these articles may be as short as 1,000 words or as long as 5,000 words. Because of space limitations shorter articles are more likely to be accepted.

In addition to articles, we also welcome the submission of manuscripts for the following departments:

Illuminations: A fresh view of a piece of biblical text (about 1,500 words).

My View: A scholar’s perspective on teaching, faith, scholarship, the Bible and life, etc. (1,000–1,500 words).

Bible Quiz: 13 questions and answers about a book of the Bible, a biblical theme or person, a category of biblical interest.

Bible Lands: A geographical feature of the Bible: its biblical references, geology and topography, and historical importance (1,500–2,000 words).

If you have a department or article idea, send the first paragraph and a one-paragraph precis to Suzanne Singer, Managing Editor, 3000 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 300, Washington, D. C., 20008, or phone (202) 387–8888.

We’ve been listening to you, our readers, and this is what we’ve heard.
First, we don’t visit you often enough. Four times a year is so infrequent that sometimes when a new issue arrives, you forget who we are.