How to Start a Protestant Magazine

Paleo Protestant Pudcast

The short answer is: go back to the early days of First Things and convince its founding editor, Richard John Neuhaus, not to convert to Roman Catholicism. Short of that, co-hosts, Korey Maas (Lutheran), Miles Smith (Anglican), and D. G. Hart (Presbyterian) consider why Roman Catholics have so many magazines and Protestants are limited to Christian Century, Christianity Today, and World Magazine (which is in a long winded way the successor to J. Gresham Machen's Presbyterian Guardian). The reason for asking is the recent founding of yet another Roman Catholic publication, Compact. It now joins the ranks of Crisis, National Review, American Affairs, Public Discourse, and The Lamp (among others). All of these are outlets for American conservatism as well as forums for frustrations with the liberal aspects of such conservatism. For anyone curious about the Roman Catholic presence in, if not creation of American conservatism, have we got a book for you. By the way, Roman Catholics also have America (a Jesuit magazine) and Commonweal (run by the laity) which produce thoughtful articles and reviews on church and society and more. So why can't Protestants match Roman Catholics? Sometimes confessional Protestants have produced publications, such as the Reformed Journal and Cresset. Evangelicals even tried a book review, Books & Culture. But in general, Roman Catholics seem to outperform Protestants in serious publications. (Sometimes, all confessional Presbyterians can muster is the Nicotine Theological Journal, a glorified newsletter.)

Listeners beware: the reasons available in this episode are messy and not always satisfying.

This episode's sponsor is New Balance's The 574.