c. 2008 Religion News Service
KENTWOOD, Mich. _ Talking amid shelves of books in a warehouse littered with huge boxes of even more books, Kurt Berends jokingly describes the nonprofit organization he started four years ago as “waste removal.”
That, of course, is only half the story. The real magic of Theological Book Network comes in turning academic surplus from U.S. libraries into much-needed supplies for under-resourced areas in other parts of the world.
The small but growing operation takes unwanted books from U.S. schools and ships them to schools in Africa, southeast Asia and eastern Europe. What started in Berends’ garage is moving into an 18,000-square-foot Kentwood warehouse with a $1.2 million budget, six full-time staffers and annual shipments of more than 200,000 books.
As the effort removes excess from U.S. libraries, it fosters brainpower in other parts of the world, Berends said.
“For years, all your best scholars have come to the West to train and they never returned,” said Berends, 45, a former Notre Dame and Calvin College professor. “Our goal is to provide resources that will allow scholars (in other parts of the world) to have thoughtful, reflective conversations. The ability to do that will have significant payoff.
“We’re just scratching the surface of the need right now.”
Berends conceived of Theological Book Network when his father retired from his job at a local school district and started consulting at overseas schools.
“I’d go visit the schools he was working at, and the libraries were pathetic,” he said. “It was those trips that first opened my eyes to (the need).”
Then, while at Notre Dame, Berends earned a grant that launched the book network. Now, he’s the full-time executive director with staff members who sift through donated books.
Wayne Bornholdt, who for years ran Ex Libris, a premier theological book store near the University of Chicago, is director of acquisitions and distribution.
“To have somebody with a discerning eye as to what do seminarians need to have to understand the thought of the rest of the church _ that means ever so much,” said board member Joel Carpenter, director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin College.
Funded through foundations and private donors, Theological Book Network pays overseas shipping costs of about $3.30 per book. Foreign schools then cover customs charges and domestic transport.
The books are extra copies donated from Harvard Divinity School, Princeton Theological Seminary and about 100 other schools working through the American Theological Library Association. Retiring faculty contribute their personal collections, and several publishers, including Baker Publishing Group, Eerdmans Publishing Co. and Zondervan, have donated new books.
Martin Marty, the highly regarded scholar of American religious history at the University of Chicago, donated 3,000 books from his personal library to the group after he retired, as have others, including Roberta Hestenes, the former president of Eastern University.
While the effort focused originally on theological works, the distribution has broadened to include philosophy, political theory, economic development, conflict resolution and peace studies.
The shelves hold several copies of titles including “Jesus & Politics” and “The Feminine Face of the People of God.” A large box on the floor contains new copies of “The Works of John Wesley.”
About two-thirds of the books go to Africa, where Muslim-Christian relations are a hot topic and resources are needed to help seminarians understand both faiths.
“I could ship every title I can get on Islam,” Berends said.
(Matt Vande Bunte writes for The Grand Rapids Press in Grand Rapids, Mich.)
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