Читать книгу To Hear the Word - Second Edition - John Howard Yoder - Страница 5

In December of 1997, one of our publishers, Jon Stock, was in the middle of corresponding with John Howard Yoder about the final details of a new book to be titled To Hear the Word. Yoder’s untimely death on December 30, 1997, meant not only that the publication of the book had to be delayed—the first edition of To Hear the Word did not appear until 2001—it also meant that a number of questions about the final shape of the manuscript were left unanswered. This second edition of To Hear the Word has grown out of a conviction at Wipf and Stock that this important book by Yoder deserves a wider hearing, and that a revised and expanded edition of the book can contribute to that cause.

Acquiring a collection of essays by John Howard Yoder was a momentous event for Wipf and Stock Publishers back in 1997. A dozen years ago, Wipf and Stock was a fledgling reprint company. There was no “new book” program to speak of, we had not yet launched our flagship new-book imprint (Cascade Books), nor had we acquired Pickwick Press, which has since become Pickwick Publications—an imprint dedicated to academic theological scholarship. It says something about both the company’s aspirations and Yoder’s generosity that this project ever got off the ground.

However, in a number of ways the first edition of To Hear the Word reflects the company’s youth and inexperience at the time. There are numerous typos throughout the first edition—some small but several quite large. The typesetting falls far short of the company’s current standards, as do the cover design and other aspects of the book’s production. These shortcomings prompted us to initiate a new edition of the book. In the course of locating and revising the original files, three additional writings were discovered, together with evidence that Yoder had intended for these pieces to be included in the volume. The three pieces appear in this second edition as chapter 8, “Is Not His Word Like a Fire?,” chapter 12, “Straightforwardness about Jesus: A Hermeneutic Apologia,” and chapter 15, “Obiter Scripta, Reading Carefully: A Bibliography of John Howard Yoder’s Scriptural Studies.”

The publishers wish to extend their gratitude to members of the Yoder family, as well as to Michael B. Cartwright and Mark T. Nation for their collaboration on this revised edition. Cartwright and Nation strongly encouraged the inclusion of an earlier essay by Yoder, “The Hermeneutics of the Anabaptists” (1967), which appears here as an appendix.