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Which title do you prefer?

 
Tim Thornborough | 27 Feb 2015

War has broken out in the Good Book Editorial office!

We are deadlocked about the precise title of the next volume in our best-selling Questions Christians Ask series, so we've come to our friends to help us decide.

It's by Mark Meynell, and it unpicks the Bible's teaching on what human beings really are -- the doctrine of humanity. One of the things we have tried to do in this series is to find a real question that believers struggle with as a way into a whole mindset of understanding it from the Scriptures -- but the Doctrine of Humanity presents us with some particular difficulties.

Because a clear understanding of this Doctrine is essential for a whole range of enormously important questions: like abortion, euthanasia, slavery, moral culpability and so on; and the more existential questions of gender, do I have a soul, and why am I here at all. But that makes a single question title all the more difficult to come up with.

So help please. Can you just reply with what you think is the more appealing title to you personally. Just choose A or B -- if you want to tell us why that's a bonus, but not at all necessary.

Thanks for your help -- and Carl -- you can let go of my throat now...

M

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
A

michael

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
A

Pete

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
B goes better with the subtitle
A goes better with your explanation for the purpose of the book...

When's it coming out? I'm planning a sermon series on this topic starting in the summer and it would be good to promote a book for people in my church to read!

Tim

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
b

Stephen Dunning

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
B - a one line title is clearer in my mind; and I suspect it is the question more people are asking out of the two.

john

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
B

Phil

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
B - but you'd need to change the subtitle as it then repeats the question

Isabel Jones

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
I prefer A what makes us human.

Dominey Jenner

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
A is a question Christians ask
B is a question non-Christians ask
(I know I'm generalising!)
So the question is, who is your audience?

katharine

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
A. I think B will give people false expectations about the questions the book will answer. Or perhaps you should produce some copies under both titles as I recon the more cerebral amoungst us will be more likely to pick up A and those more emotional will go for B.

Richard

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
B

Fane Conant

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
I would go with B because it is a more direct and grabbing title. It is also one which focuses directly on our identity personally. The other title speaks more indirectly and perhaps philosophically. It isn't as personal.

Unrelated, like others I am missing The Briefing but still enjoying and being fed by Explore enormously.

Fane

John

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
B

Nigel Kenny

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
B - much broader and harder for non-Christians to answer convincingly.

Boydie

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
A- Because that's what Jeremy Vine has been asking on Radio 2 for the last few years and I'll use it as the perfect segue to chat about the book with friends.

C

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
Radio 2 are doing a long-running series called 'What makes us human?' on Jeremy Vine's show so it may be good (or not!) to have the same name. Title A fits the explanation of what the book is better

Dominey Jenner

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
A is a question Christians ask
B is a question non-Christians ask
(I know I'm generalising!)
So the question is, who is your audience?

Boydie

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
A- Because that's what Jeremy Vine has been asking on Radio 2 for the last few years and I'll use it as the perfect segue to chat about the book with friends.

C

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
Radio 2 are doing a long-running series called 'What makes us human?' on Jeremy Vine's show so it may be good (or not!) to have the same name. Title A fits the explanation of what the book is better

Simon

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
A

Nathan

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
Given what you've said the book is about (and the highlighted picture on the cover), you should go with A. B sounds like it's going to be about identity more generally. I agree that if you go with B, the subtitle needs to change. A is a much more distinctive title to set it apart from other books, whereas B will get lost in the crowd as it's so insipid.

Lyn

12:45 PM GMT on March 4th
B - because it's the one i hear most often, that and "why am i here". But change the "who we are" in the subtitle to "what makes us human"

Tim Thornborough

Tim Thornborough is the founder and Publishing Director of The Good Book Company. He is series editor of Explore Bible-reading notes, the author of The Very Best Bible Stories series, and has contributed to many books published by The Good Book Company and others. Tim is married to Kathy, and they have three adult daughters.