Letter from the Editors: December 2012

Contemporary Church History Quarterly

Volume 18, Number 4 (December 2012)

Letter from the Editors: December 2012

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to relaunch our new-look journal this month, with a new WordPress platform and a new name: Contemporary Church History Quarterly. Both these changes come as a response to new developments in Internet technology, which have made possible this much more user-friendly format with several new features:

• Complete Archive: all Association of Contemporary Church Historians Newsletters (the monthly e-mail newsletters from John S. Conway) from 1995 to 2009, all issues of the ACCH Quarterly (March 2010 to September 2012) and all issues of the Contemporary Church History Quarterly (December 2012 onward) are available at this site. Just click on the “Archive” link at the top of the page to find the full list of back issues.
• Fully Searchable: all content from Contemporary Church History Quarterly (and its predecessor publications) is searchable both through the search engine on the right side of the page and through any Internet search engine (Google, Bing, etc.). All recent articles are also tagged, in order to optimize this searchability. Our previous web platform was not particularly searchable, and so we’re delighted that more readers than ever will find their way to our reviews, articles, news and notes about modern German and European church history.
• Read New Issues in a Single File: Some of our users have asked if we could provide new issues of the Contemporary Church History Quarterly as a single file they could read in one sitting, or perhaps print out for themselves. We have incorporated this feature into our new site–just click on “Download Journal” at the top of the page to go to a list of recent issues, each of which appears as a single pdf file.

In our quest to make the journal more user-friendly and easier to find on the Internet, we’ve also changed our name. Contemporary Church History Quarterly clearly describes what we do, and we think that will encourage those who find us through web searches to become regular readers. Subscribing is free, and instructions on how to do so are always visible on the bottom right hand side of the page.

I (Kyle Jantzen) would be remiss if I did not thank my colleagues Steve Morris, Mark Thompson, and Spenser Jones in the IT department at Ambrose University College for a great deal of technical help in the transition to our WordPress platform.

A wayside cross by a vineyard near Rüdesheim am Rhein, Hesse, symbolizing the protection of Jesus over the produce of the land.

The technical changes to our journal are matched by some exciting new developments on the editorial board. This month, we welcome two new editors to Contemporary Church History. Dr. Lauren N. Faulkner is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Her research centres on German Catholic clergy in World War Two. Dr. Kevin P. Spicer, C. S. C., is James J. Kenneally Distinguished Professor of History at Stonehill College in Massachusetts. His research revolves around Catholic clergy in the Third Reich, as well as Christian antisemitism and Christian-Jewish relations. Drs. Faulkner and Spicer join the rest of our fine editorial board: Dr. Victoria J. Barnett, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, USA; Dr. Doris Bergen, University of Toronto, Canada; Dr. Suzanne Brown-Fleming, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, USA; Dr. Andrew Chandler, University of Chichester, UK; Dr. John S. Conway, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada; Dr. Robert P. Ericksen, Pacific Lutheran University, WA, USA; Dr. Manfred Gailus, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany; Dr. Beth Griech-Polelle, Bowling Green State University, OH, USA; Dr. Matthew D. Hockenos, Skidmore College, NY, USA; Dr. Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College, AB, Canada (Managing Editor); Dr. Christopher J. Probst, Saint Louis University, MO, USA; Dr. Mark Edward Ruff, Saint Louis University, MO, USA; Dr. Steven Schroeder, University of the Fraser Valley, BC, Canada; and Dr. Heath Spencer, Seattle University, WA, USA.

As ever, we offer an interesting array of reviews and notes this issue, on Pope Pius XII, Bishop George Bell, Jewish Christians, German Free Churches, Religion in East Germany, and–roaming a little further afield–missionary work in the Middle East. We profile the research of a young Australian scholar, report on three academic conferences, and note a new journal issue devoted to the theme of German expellees after the Second World War.

On behalf of my editorial colleagues, let me wish you a blessed Christmas season and much joy over the holidays,

Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College.