Turning the Century

When the Disciples of Christ's Christian Oracle changed its title to The Christian Century in 1900, the gesture was one of supreme confidence in the future of liberal Protestantism. The 20th century has not quite fulfilled that hope, and is not likely to, but the weekly magazine has marched gamely ahead as if the dream might still come true. Its best-known editor, Charles Clayton Morrison, made it a nondenominational magazine, championing such causes as Prohibition, ecumenism, biblical liberalism and militant pacifism. The journal became must reading for well-informed American Protestants.

When World War II came along, Morrison stuck so tenaciously to his pacifist guns that one of the Century's favorite theologians, the late Reinhold Niebuhr, broke from it to found Christianity and Crisis, which favored military action against Nazi aggression.

Now the Century is facing another crisis--the practical matter of survival. Confronted with rising costs and dropping circulation, the magazine announced last month the appointment of a new editor, United Methodist Clergyman James M. Wall, 44, a tough-minded, energetic Southern liberal who was baptized into journalism as a copy boy by the late Ralph McGill of the Atlanta Constitution. Wall succeeds outgoing Editor Alan Geyer, a Methodist minister and political scientist, who had edited the weekly since 1968.

Though soft-spoken and boyish looking, Wall is no stranger to tough scraps and long odds. He has just finished a near-hopeless contest for the U.S. House of Representatives; he ran as a liberal, pro-McGovern Democrat in an Illinois district where voter registration was 3 to 1 Republican. In losing, Wall ran 7,000 votes ahead of George McGovern.

Though the fight to save the Century is not nearly so hopeless, the magazine's problems are grave. Domestic circulation is down to a low of 30,000, a drop of some 7,000 in five years. A shaky courtship of the subscribers of Britain's defunct New Christian went sour; hardly one subscriber picked up from the New Christian's list has since renewed. Worst of all, soaring production costs and increasing postal rates forced the magazine's management to dip into hitherto untouchable endowment capital. In the past four years, the fund has dropped from $750,000 to $250,000. "We simply cannot invade our capital any further," says Wall firmly. He plans a number of economy measures, and he will appeal to supporters for contributions.

As editor of the United Methodists' Christian Advocate for the past nine years, Wall brought to that journal a bright streak of professionalism while indulging his affection for writing; he was his own film critic. When the Century's board chose a new editor, says Wall, "they deliberately chose a journalist." Though he may have to leave much of the Century's movie criticism to others, Wall hopes to brighten up the Century's good gray image in other ways. Despite the tight budget, he intends to develop a stable of writers with individual styles "whose names will become important. What we need," he says hopefully, "is some Christian Norman Mailers."

Putdown. The first step toward improving writers' recognition came when the magazine's anonymous "Penultimate" column finally went public; it is now called "M.E.M.O" and is signed by one of its longtime coauthors, Theologian Martin Marty. Wall also hopes to use more of the work of Associate Editor Stephen C. Rose, an acerbic young clergyman who commands a loyal following among young Protestant liberals. Moreover, says Wall, he plans more detailed news coverage, though with a definite moral viewpoint. He intends, he wrote in a recent Christian Century editorial, to emulate his mentor Ralph McGill, "whose writing style and evangelistic concern for people were biblical."

Wall believes that a more vigorous editorial policy will help achieve a break-even circulation of 40,000 and perhaps more. He cannot help looking with some rue at his conservative Protestant competition, the prosperous Christianity Today. C.T., whose paid circulation now stands at an alltime high of 178,000, is riding the crest of an evangelical renaissance that makes the liberal Christian Century's clientele look something less than enthusiastic. In an ungracious but witty putdown last April, C.T.'s anonymous columnist "Eutychus V" focused on the Century's reputation for being more certain of its political than its religious beliefs. The Century, wrote Eutychus, is "a must if you want to know what unmarried librarians of indeterminate religious convictions are thinking--this week."

Wall is determined to change that image. Perhaps his best hope for doing so lies in what he calls his "ambiguous" feelings toward liberal Protestantism. He sees the mainstream churches at least as often foolish as they are wise. He believes that the Century, and liberal Protestants generally, must shift from pious approval of their churches to a more realistic and vigorous appraisal. Concludes Wall: "What we have to say about the church and the world will be gutsy and robust."

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