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'Zondervan' is an international Christian media and publishing company, one of the four businesses founded by Dutch-Americans that have made Grand Rapids, Michigan into the USA's "Christian Publishing Capital," alongside Eerdmans, Baker Books, and Kregel. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). Doug Lockhart was president and CEO until May 2007. Previous President and CEO Bruce Ryskamp is currently acting as interim Head until a permanent replacement is found.

Contents

History

Recent developments

Criticisms

Pradis

Notes

External links

History

Zondervan was founded in 1931 in the suburb of Grandville, Michigan by brothers P.J. (Pat) and Bernie Zondervan, who were the nephews of publisher William Eerdmans. The company began in the Zondervans' farmhouse, and originally dealt with selling remainders and reprinting public domain works. Within a couple of years it developed a list of its own, and began publishing Bible editions. The Berkeley Version appeared in 1959, and the Amplified Bible in 1965. The New International Version NIV New Testament was published in partnership with the International Bible Society in 1973, and the complete NIV Bible appeared in 1978.^[1]
Zondervan also publishes many other books by Christian authors and focusing on topics of interest to Christians, and in the 1970s it produced the best-selling US published book of the decade: ''The Late Great Planet Earth'' by controversial writer and evangelist Hal Lindsey. That book was one of several dispensationalist and anti-Communist works that the company brought out, and Pat Zondervan was one of several evangelical figures who received briefings from Henry Kissinger on instruction from Richard Nixon.^[2]
The publishing house is also known for inspirational titles: ''Joni'' by quadriplegic Joni Eareckson Tada is perhaps the best-known. Most recently, it has had great success with Baptist minister and author Rick Warren's ''The Purpose Driven Life'' and with Rob Bell, author of Velvet Elvis and presenter of NOOMA a series of short spiritual films.
Bernard Zondervan died of cancer in 1966, and his wife remarried William Jensen, a Grand Rapids anesthesiologist. Pat Zondervan died in 1993.

Recent developments

In 1988, Zondervan became a division of HarperCollins Publishers, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, joining the British Christian imprints of Fount and Marshall Pickering, which Zondervan oversaw for a while. Ownership by News Corporation has led to some controversy, and one executive attempted a buyout in 1992.^[3]
There have been a number of controversies surrounding Zondervan in recent years. The TNIV offended some Christian conservatives, and the take-over by HarperCollins meant that the firm now belonged to an organisation that also published books (such as Anton LaVey's ''Satanic Bible''), and some Christians found this offensive. See^[4] for an example.
In 2005, Zondervan senior marketing director Greg Stielstra published ''Pyromarketing'', which discusses book marketing. This reportedly caused a dispute with Rick Warren, who felt that it was inappropriate to associate the success of ''The Purpose Driven Life'' with marketing, rather than with spiritual explanations. See [3].^[5] Stielstra left Zondervan just prior to the publication of Pyromarketing.
Zondervan has also faced complaints about the use of Chinese printing facilities to produce Bibles.

Criticisms

Zondervan's position as a conservative evangelical publisher appears to have changed in recent years, as it sought to publish a wider selection of material. Criticism of some of its leading authors has come from fundamentalist organizations [4][5] . Dr. John F. MacArthur, who has had books published by Zondervan criticizes them for allowing anyone who calls himself a Christian to publish 'unbiblical doctrines'. [6][7]. However, the success of many popular authors within the evangelical Church such as Rick Warren, Rob Bell, Philip Yancey, Shane Claiborne and John Ortberg reflects the claim that Zondervan publish to 'meet the needs of people' [8].

Pradis

Zondervan's ventures into software sales have led to the emergence of another library format in the biblical reference world, 'Pradis'. While their own early software library offerings were either STEP-Compatible or able to use add-on STEP-Compatible works, or both, stagnation in the future development of the STEP Library format led to the development of a library using the Pradis system. While not open format, the availability for outside licensing and publishing makes it similar to the STEP Library and The Libronix Digital Library System, especially for users of religious software who want integration of various reference works, using one application to access and cross-reference them all. Further, by limiting duplicate applications running or loaded, system registries are kept cleaner, more works can be open and cross-referenced simultaneously, hard disk space is conserved, and it is conserved all the more where advanced compression algorithms (like Pradis boasts) are employed to store multiple large reference works. Pradis is not backward compatible to Zondervan's previous software.

Notes

1. James Ruark and Ted Engstrom, ''The House of Zondervan'', Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981.
2. Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett, ''Thy Will Be Done'', New York: HarperCollins, 1995, p.690.
3. Doug LeBlanc, "Zondervan, Word Look for New Owners", in ''Christianity Today'', 22 June 1992.
4. These sites attack Zondervan: [1][2]
5. "Pyromarketing" at ''God of Small Things''.

External links

★ ''The House of Zondervan'' by James E. Ruark

★ Zondervan