“There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God. Though we have our treasure-chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price.”
- Tertullian; Apology, Chapter 39

Tertullian’s late second-century defense of Christian assemblies contrasts pious, temperate Eucharistic celebrations with the expensive feasts and raucous drinking bouts of the pagans. The role of money is a key part of his advocacy: the early Christians take only voluntary collections, and use the money to help the poor and unfortunate. They refuse to charge anything for their open-handed services, ranging from burials, to food and shelter, to redemption money for prisoners and slaves. These Christ-followers’ overriding concern is for others: they “pray for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation.”

As for the Roman religions and mystery cults, “The Salii cannot have their feast without going into debt; you must get the accountants to tell you what the tenths of Hercules and the sacrificial banquets cost.” Tertullian saw the alternatives to Christianity as religions that have their price, but the Messiah’s people invest differently. They wouldn’t dream of buying and selling the things of God, but times and worlds and understandings change.

The introduction to the P.W. Ziegler Company’s 19th century Illustrated Catalogue of Selected Books and Bibles includes the following encouragement to its door-to-door salesmen: “A generation of Bible readers is constantly coming forward, so that you can readily see that Bibles are always in great demand, and that a profitable business can be done at all times.” Not to be outdone, the Massachusetts-based Bible publishing firm of J.G. Ford Company urges its reps to “UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF THE BUSINESS . . . You must depend on your ability to describe the work so as first to excite an interest in it, and then a desire for it.”

[For more on this, see The Bible and the People by Lori Anne Ferrell.]

Today, the innovations of Protestant market-driven freelancers are everywhere: from sales and marketing techniques (catalogs, advertising, creating “dummies” to pre-sell), creative pricing and distribution (selling by subscription to lock-in customers and keep each purchase at an attractively low price, circuit-riding preachers transforming into traveling product reps), niche product development (“Precious Promise Editions”, family tree Bibles, etc.), and even factory production of goods (Bible and book publishing led the way into the rationalization of mass production techniques). Many of the means eventually perfected in late-capitalist consumerist society were conceived in this earlier period when religion and business first began their serious courtship.

None of this happened as a result of anyone’s particular plan, but as so often within evangelical Protestantism, resulted from a religious laissez faire approach. Whole elements of the church’s mission were handed over to free-acting individuals and merchants, with the church politely told to “leave it be.” The result was to effectively reverse the claim of Tertullian as we buy and sell all sorts of the things of God. This is particularly true in the case of the Bible. To be fair, many fine Bibles have been produced to the benefit of many people under the care of this business interest, but when the driving motivation for developing, producing and distributing Bibles is monetary profit accessed through consumers, the entire enterprise gets shaped in particular ways.

Consumer culture is based on an appeal to selves and their desires. Consumers are regularly told that they and their likes and dislikes are the ruling center. In this environment, Bible publishing businesses are simply not free to do what in other circumstances they might believe is best for the Bible, for Bible readers, for the advance of a kingdom of self-deniers.

As for the Bible, it does not exist to please imperial selves, but to help usher imperial selves into a reality in which they are not the center. This introduction to a different reality, which no focus group is likely to endorse, is subversive of the premises of a consumer culture and is part of the mission of the gospel itself. For example, one cannot imagine a customer-driven product development process coming up with the Corinthian correspondence, or the letter to the Galatians, or the oracles of Jeremiah. If such an orientation could never have produced the Bible in the first place, why do we think it can serve it well now?

[New York Times: 40,000 copies of the Bible sold daily.]

The Bible mission cannot be given over to businesses without real consequences. Bishop N.T. Wright has helped us see that the Bible itself is part of God’s mission to the world. The Bible is not a mere description of the birth of the Christian community and its advancement of God’s reign in the world. Rather, when the stories and songs and wisdom of the Scriptures are shared with others they themselves help effect this advancement. If this is so, then the production and distribution of the books of the Bible are properly seen as part of the ministry of the Church. The care and keeping of the Bible belongs here.

Historically, the church has had specialized ministries within its realm for just such tasks. It could do so again. It is time for the church to reclaim its Scriptures for its own mission, motivated to translate, produce and share them not for monetary gain or market share, but simply to continue spreading the agape revolution throughout the world.

Imagine Bible publishing for outreach and spiritual formation without a profit motive, without the pressure of short-term financials demanding product performance with the threat of a pink slip ominously overhead. Imagine Bibles, not as commodities or products, but as spiritual gifts from God himself. Imagine multimedia iPhone and iPad Bible apps offered for free, welcoming readers into the strange new world of Scripture. Imagine locally-produced, illuminated Scriptures lovingly hand-crafted by the overlooked artists in the church’s midst, and then printed in small quantities for home congregations using print-on-demand technologies.

This model, driven by the fundamental belief that the things of God have no price, is a probable future if we will only grasp it. Let’s reinvent the scriptorium and bring the Bible home. Let it take its rightful place in the household of God and his mission.

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What is it about the Protestant movement in particular that made it such fertile ground for the growth of Bible-selling businesses? What can the Church do to maintain a sense of itself as something other than a consumer-pleasing entity?

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