Full Text:
The ASA Executive Council had twenty questions for me to answer in
writing, and many more in a personal interview. Considering as well my
curriculum vitae, references, and work to date with ASA/CSCA, the
council brought my name to the annual meeting as the new editor of PSCF.
The process was emblematic of the rigorous and good natured teamwork so
characteristic of ASA/CSCA and the production of this journal. There is
a small army of people that work diligently with marked expertise and
good judgment to make PSCF happen. Most of them are all but invisible to
PSCF readers. This editorial cannot mention each one crucial to creating
the journal each quarter, but here is a start.
It is Lyn Berg as managing editor who finds a way to winsomely
present the content in a certain number of pages on precise deadlines.
Esther Martin checks every word for the slightest error. In the midst of
all his other duties as executive director, Randy Isaac often supports
the journal--as, for example, in recent internal discussions of
copyright issues. Frances Polischuk tracks the accounts and mailing
list. Terry Gray and Jack Haas make PSCF available on the ASA website.
As to content, each year over forty reviewers explain and critique
the contribution of new books. It is the subject area editors, Patrick
Franklin, Arie Leegwater, Don MacDonald, and Robin Rylaarsdam, who find
these experts to evaluate the most relevant and important books out of
the hundreds of thou sands that are published each year. The resulting
reviews are honed to be well written, informative, and prompt. Franklin
comes to the task from his post as professor of theology and ethics at
Tyndale Semi nary in Toronto and will be moving this summer to
Providence Theological Seminary in Otterburne, Manitoba. Leegwater
taught chemistry at Calvin College and edited this journal. MacDonald is
a professor in the social sciences at Seattle Pacific University, and
Rylaarsdam is a professor of biology at Benedictine University. Franklin
takes the further step of coordinating the book choices since the
subject areas often interact. He then marshals the readied reviews into
categories to help readers find the ones that match their interests. He
also maintains a database of potential reviewers. If you would like to
lend your expertise to this helpful service of reviewing (and get free
books!), do send him your contact information and a brief description of
your expertise (psfranklin@gmail.com).
Essential to the journal are the twenty or so authors each year who
contribute articles that ring true, bring fresh insight, and fit our
journal's mission. Sometimes the required blind peer review
discovers a young scholar's first important insight for
publication. Often blind peer review recognizes yet further
contributions by accomplished scholars. We appreciate the luminaries
from a wide variety of fields and with contrasting views who have
written for us, including (not by any means an exhaustive list) Elving
Anderson, Robert Benne, John Hedley Brooke, Richard Bube, Francis
Collins, William Dembski, Calvin DeWitt, Owen Gingerich, Joel Green,
Malcolm Jeeves, Robert Kaita, Donald MacKay, George Marsden, J. P.
Moreland, Nancey Murphy, Ronald Numbers, Clark Pinnock, Alvin Plantinga,
Walter Thorson, Thomas F. Torrance, Charles Townes, John Walton, Bruce
Waltke, Jennifer Wiseman ...
Twenty-one editorial board members volunteer sage advice and
generously serve in the peer review process. Since PSCF articles are
usually to some degree interdisciplinary, each article considered for
publication requires several reviewers drawn from the interacting
disciplines. That requires the commitment of the editorial board and
many more scholars as well. Peer reviewers for 2011 are listed in this
issue with profound thanks. We will miss the ser vice, ending with 2011,
of editorial board members Charles Adams and Walter Thorson. Allan
Harvey, an engineer with the National Bureau of Standards, and Heather
Looy, an Alberta professor of psychology, have ably stepped in to carry
on that work.
For four years now, inspiring and holding it all together from
title page, masthead, and editorial, through articles and reviews, to
the always lively letters to the editor at the end of each issue, has
been Arie Leegwater. He has carried on the legacy of ever raising the
standards and service of the journal and is graciously following through
by finishing the edit ing of articles he started for this issue and
continuing as one of our book review editors. On behalf of the readers
of PSCF, I extend a heartfelt thank you to Arie for his skilled,
thoughtful, and effective work. The journal, ASA/CSCA, and we the
readers, are better for it.
The Christian tradition is the largest and most global people
movement in the world. Science is ever increasing in its influence. What
an opportunity to work where the two meet. Perspectives on Science and
Christian Faith is a strategic service, encouraging, testing, learning,
guiding that interaction. It is well worth the best attention and
contribution that so many give to make it possible. Thanks to all who,
by our Lord's grace, make it so.
James C. Peterson, Editor