The Teleioteti Journal for Christian Ministry is journal for non-academic Christian scholarship that is simultaneously rigorous, confessional, and self-consciously biblical. Teleioteti is an appropriate name for this publication, for its purpose is to foster maturity among Christians of all vocations: its goal is to foster serious, godly, and mature intellectual thought about God and his world. Interdisciplinary in the sense that it avoids being pigeon-holed into the constraints of this or that arbitrarily defined academic “discipline,” The Teleioteti Journal for Christian Ministry will be a platform for publishing all things pertaining to Christian ministry—practice, theology, history, philosophy, and biblical studies. I do not propose these labels as disciplines but as organisational categories catching the primary emphasis or perspective of an article (much as library organisational schemes do not propose to define epistemic or disciplinary boundaries but merely facilitate filing and discovery).

The primary criteria for an article’s acceptance are accessibility, accuracy, clarity, and contribution. These criteria stand alongside the character of the author.

Articles are

Accessible: An article ought to be accessible to a broad range of readers, avoiding unnecessary technical jargon or explaining terms clearly. It is, of course, impossible to make everything accessible to everyone, but the use of hyper-disciplinary jargon is to be avoided.

Accurate: An article ought to display its sources and do so accurately, and it ought to truthfully (and charitably) represent its dialogue partners, especially those with whom it disagrees.

Clear: An article ought to have a clear argument and employ a style that facilitates understanding. Articles should not employ pervasive ambiguity disguised as profundity.

and make a contribution: An article ought to make a genuine contribution to the edification of the Church and the glorification of Christ. It ought to honour God in what it says and how it says it and offer a genuine service to God’s people. A contribution does not necessarily mean that an article has to say something entirely new, but it must say something in a new way, perhaps persuasively presenting something from a discipline or book that is generally inaccessible, offering a new line of thought, synthesising the works of others, translating a work from another language, etc. In order to make a contribution to the Church, it must be a work rooted in the Bible and oriented towards the promotion of right faith and doctrine.

Authors are godly men or women, who have attested character and participation in Christian community.

Attested Character: as part of the review process, the article’s proposal must be supported by third parties who will affirm that the author is living in conformity with the Gospel, believing (however imperfectly) in Christ and living that faith out in good works and godliness.

Participation in the Christian community: as it is necessary for those who are in Christ to participate in his body manifest in the local church, an author must be actively part of a local church.

THe process of Publication

To facilitate these goals, the journal employs a system of self-initiated peer review. That is, once an article has been written, its author must seek feedback from at least two peers. These peers must be willing to commend the article in writing once the author has responded to their feedback. The basis of their commendation will be the criteria given above.

In addition to commendations of the article itself, the author must also provide two character references, attesting to their Christian character and participation in the local church. These recommendations may come from those who reviewed the article or others.

A peer is defined as a fellow theologian, whether an elder or pastor, a lay theologian (defined as someone who is actively engaged in written theological discourse, such as book reviews, blogging, lectures or sermons (if written in manuscript form), etc.), a theological student, or a Christian scholar. Serious effort should be made to find reviewers working in a different theological sphere than the author (e.g. if the author is a student, they should seek review from a scholar, lay theologian, or minister; if an author is a minister, they should seek review from a student, scholar, or lay theologian). In addition, effort should be made to find reviewers from different spheres (as a student, seek review from a minister and a lay theologian, not two lay theologians).

Once the author has submitted a manuscript along with references the editor(s) will then judge the fit of the article according to the same criteria and the stated purpose of the journal and either reject it or accept it, contingent on the author’s response to the editor(s)’s feedback.

The Medium of Publication

Once accepted, an article will be published digitally (journal.teleioteti.ca). After a threshold of 200 pages is reached, that set of articles will then be published in hardcopy (perfect bound, paperback). If several prints are produced a year, these will be enumerated as various numbers within an issue, thus, 2023 will be the first issue of The Teleioteti Journal, with every print in 2023 being a number (01/01; 01/02; etc.).