Judging a Book by Its Cover
The academic publishing process is deliberate and measured. So I am delighted to finally reachΒ the design stage, and I’m very excited to share some ideas with my publisher,Β University of Tennessee Press. Below, you’ll find someΒ thoughts about the coverΒ for my book. They are concepts offered in words and photos. I thought it would be fun toΒ let all of you in onΒ the process.
Each woman’s story in Anatomy of a Schism providesΒ a window into the wider world of Baptists and the struggles that animated the split in the SBCΒ of the 1980s and 1990s. It is also a story about churches and the changes they experienced through the schism. AΒ church building with its doors and windows lets light and stories through in both directions. I have photographed and collected a number of images of churches and church windows in my travels over the last five years.
The stained glass ceiling has also become a major symbol of the barriers to women in ministry that remain. Yet actual stained glass ceilings are rare – especially in Baptist churches. The more common reality of windows, some clear and some stained glass, captures theΒ image of church life, change over time, and the beauty of the lives caught up in those stories.
CADES COVE MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH I
I like the way light and shadows of the trees plays on this sunset picture. The door was like then when we drove up… somehow one open and one shut says something significant that the book also tried to say: doors for baptist women were nearly always both open and shut.
CADES COVE MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH II
This angleΒ captures more of the bones of the church and less of the sunlight and shadow on the steeple. However,Β I likeΒ the upward feel of dark that moves up toward light.
CHAPEL AT FBC GREENVILLE
This picture – which I first used for a six-word story – brings the light, shadow, color and storiesΒ of stained glass moreΒ fully into relief. The complexity ofΒ elements gets at the beauty and attraction of the stories, as well as the interpretive character of writing this kind of book, in which stories of individuals open out onto wider vistas of historical, theological and psychological understandings.
GEORGETOWN BAPTIST – SUNSETΒ
This image is a bit more stark. The light of the sunset provides the contrast. It would have been really awesome if the rose window in the sanctuary had been lit from inside when I snapped this one!
ST. JOHN’S WINDOW
The concept in this picture puts the idea of stained glass also front and center, in a more stylized way. I don’t think I actually want a fractured piece of stained glass on the cover, but with the right one, perhaps.
What do you think? What do you like? IΒ welcomeΒ your thoughts.
