📧 “Documentation” reply from The Century

See my responses following each question below.

Best,
Steve [Thorngate]

1. 2018 Open Letter: I have record of sending you an open letter (September 7, 2018) documenting Stanley Hauerwas's role in what I termed "toxic pacifism" and requesting Christian Century publish it. I received no response. Can you confirm receipt and explain the decision not to respond or publish?
I don’t recall receiving it, but I can confirm that it’s in my email archive. In it, you indicated that you were sending the letter to multiple outlets. As with many publications, our general practice is to neither accept nor respond to simultaneous submissions.

2. 2021 Forwarding: On November 5, 2021, you forwarded my submission to [redacted], initiating a six-month editorial relationship. Were you aware at that time that the "martial hermeneutic" and "toxic pacifism" concepts I was developing related to concerns I'd raised about Hauerwas in 2018?
Not that I recall. I don’t tend to track the particulars of article submissions over multiple years.

3. February 2022 Rejection: The editorial rejection cited unwillingness to critique "evangelical" scholars (Hays/Kalantzis). However, Hauerwas—whom I had documented in 2018 as central to toxic pacifism—is not evangelical and was not named in my 2021-2022 work. Can you clarify this reasoning?
It’s true that in general we are more interested in internal critiques of mainline Protestantism than we are in external critiques of other branches of the Christian tree. My sense is that the larger issue was that we didn’t think the piece was an ideal fit for our readership, and that any concern about the material interacting with scholars from somewhat outside the mainstream of that readership amounted to a smaller subpoint.

4. Editorial Process: Were you involved in the February 2022 editorial board decision? If so, what was the actual basis for rejection given that "no critique of my actual interpretation was offered" (as I noted at the time and Amy did not dispute)?
I was. We reject the large majority of submissions we receive, often without offering any specific critique. In any case, a writer’s interpretive work is just one of many factors considered in our review of submissions.

5. Institutional Pattern: Christian Century published Hauerwas's 2011 review of veteran writing (a month after no-showing at a military conference at DDS), but y'all ultimately declined to review my 2022 book. Combined with the 2018 silence and 2022 rejection, this suggests a pattern of civilian bias. Do you dispute this characterization?
I do dispute that characterization. Each month we receive more than 200 books for potential review and publish about nine reviews. As with article submissions, these decisions are based on a variety of factors. We make no claim to provide exhaustive coverage of books on any subject.