Religion: Religious Press: The Printed Word Embattled

When he introduced movable type in the 15th century, German Printer Johann Gutenberg knew what the public wanted: a Bible. In the U.S., Protestant and Roman Catholic publishers alike found it profitable to follow Gutenberg's lead. Bibles and hymnals, missals and prayer books, inspirational and theological works always had a certain dependable bread-and-butter market. Religious periodicals were a bonanza —with a combined circulation, in the mid-'60s, estimated at nearly 60 million. But the crisis in Christian faith during the late 1960s and divisions over doctrinal and social issues within Protestantism and Catholicism...

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