And then they were no more. Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. announced Tuesday that it would no longer offer its venerable reference set in a printed edition. Western Civilization just took another hard blow to the chin.

James H. Billington, the nation’s Librarian of Congress, writes in today’s edition of The Washington Post about the survival of books. The occasion is the 10th anniversary of the National Book Festival on Saturday. As the day approaches, Billington answered the question some might be asking — will the book survive in the digital age?

The reality has been known for years now, though the Western media have generally resisted any direct coverage of the horror. That changed this week when The Economist published its stunning cover story — “Gendercide — What Happened to 100 Million Baby Girls?”

Just before Christmas I took delivery of a new Nook, the dedicated e-reader recently released by Barnes & Noble. Just having a Nook was something of a sensation, since the device had been so popular on pre-order that many orders still remain unfilled. Is the Nook an admirable e-reader? You bet. A Kindle-killer? Not yet, anyway.

Books are a major part of my daily life. As I write this, I am surrounded by many thousands of books, each with its own feel, appearance, and meaning. Many of these books have played crucial roles in my thinking and understanding. Even as Christianity requires a certain level of literacy for its transmission and understanding, the book (whether scroll or codex) is rightly cherished by Christ’s people.

The great philosophical crisis of our day is an epistemological crisis – a crisis of knowing and a crisis of knowledge. It is a challenge for the Christian thinker, the Christian theologian, the Christian minister, the Christian preacher, and the Christian institution – the whole of Christianity. The crisis can be summed up in one question: How do we know and teach what we claim to know and teach?

The announcement of a new project involving the New International Version of the Bible [NIV] is certain to attract a good deal of interest, both in the media and throughout the evangelical world. This level of attention is inevitable, for few issues can approach the importance of translating the Bible faithfully and accurately.

My new book, Desire and Deceit: The Real Cost of the New Sexual Tolerance has just been released by Multnomah Publishers and is available through all major booksellers.  The book addresses a range of issues symptomatic of the sexual confusions of our age.  My sincere hope is that Desire and Deceit will present a distinctively Christian alternative to the secular confusion.

“It’s a wonderful privileged life, you know, being a book writer.” David Halberstam said that to Brian Lamb of C-SPAN in 1993. Halberstam was a reporter and author of incredible ability and considerable insight. Even when I disagreed with his assessments, I loved his style and insight.

The rise of young Christian bloggers –many in their teens — is a welcome development in the blogosphere.
My guest on Tuesday’s edition of The Albert Mohler Program was Agent Tim. Tim Sweetman is fifteen years old, and he writes a very fine blog, addressing issues of apologetics and Christian concern with great insight.
I asked Tim to recommend some other young Christian bloggers. You will want to check out Mission 3:6Teen, The Blogging Boy Scout, Spunky Jr.,  Rebelution, SmartHomeSchool, Virtue Magazine.
Agent Tim adds:  The Account.

Today’s culture wars can be directly traced to the cultural transformations of the 1960′s. As a matter of fact, that critical decade represented nothing less than a cultural revolution of sorts–a revolution Stanley Kurtz describes as “both a fulfillment and a repudiation of the vision of America’s founders.”