L.A. Episcopal Bishop to Be Chairman : Borsch Helps Set Up Publishing House

Fearing a continuing decline in works of “serious theology,” the scholarly new Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles has spearheaded the formation of a publishing house linked with SCM Press Ltd., Britain’s leading theological publisher.

Bishop Frederick Borsch, a New Testament scholar who has written or edited 12 books, will serve as the chairman of Trinity Press International, which was given a start by a $1.5-million matching grant from Trinity Episcopal Church in New York.

50 Books a Year

Initial plans call for 50 books per year, beginning with a list of 21 titles to be published in the fall by the British publisher.

Announcement of the venture was only recently made, but the project was organized by Borsch last year during the time between his January election as bishop of the Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese and his June installation.

“It was a crazy thing for me to do,” said Borsch, citing the complications of moving from Princeton University to Los Angeles and preparing to lead the diocese of 152 churches in six counties.

An accumulation of events spurred him to act anyway, he said. Borsch said he was “very upset” when the Episcopal Church sold its publishing house, Seabury, in 1983.

Since then, some houses were reorganized as a result of denominational mergers. Westminster and John Knox--Presbyterian houses--are being combined, as are the Augsburg and Fortress presses within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Fortress Press, formerly based in Philadelphia and linked with the relatively liberal Lutheran Church in America, moved to Minneapolis early this year to consolidate with Augsburg, whose works are mostly designed for church curriculums.

Harold Rast resigned late last year as senior editor of Fortress to become publisher and director of Trinity Press International’s U.S. offices in Philadelphia. Rast claimed in an interview with The Lutheran magazine that scholarly books “do not have a favored status” in the consolidated publishing house in Minneapolis. A spokesman for Augsburg Fortress replied that no one line of books should have a favored position.

New Testament Scholars

Trinity Press plans to publish works by New Testament scholars E. P. Sanders and Helmut Koester, Jewish history specialist Marc Saperstine, German theologian Jurgen Moltmann and Anglican theologian John Macquarrie.

SCM has an impressive backlist of authors such as Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Edward Schillebeeckx and Karl Rahner. The house has also published the once-controversial best-sellers “Honest to God” by John A. T. Robinson and “The Myth of God Incarnate,” edited by John Hick.

Although begun with Episcopal and Anglican church help, Borsch described the new press as “free of ecclesiastical control yet sympathetic and supportive of denominational theology and character.”

Borsch said publishers with direct denominational ties tend to publish fewer provocative religious books or biblical studies.

Provocative Book Dropped

Indeed, in the face of internal criticism, the United Methodist-related Abingdon Press dropped a provocative book, “Living in Sin?” by liberal Episcopal Bishop John Spong. However, amid heightened public attention to the book, Harper & Row quickly picked it up and published in last May.

If Spong were to write a book debunking the fundamentalist view of the Bible as error-free (the purpose of a committee he recently convened in his Diocese of Newark), would Trinity Press International consider publishing it?

“We might not be radical enough for him, but, yes, we might,” Borsch said.

Although Borsch said he has a couple more books he would like to write, he does not know yet when he will find time to do them.