The Christian Commons (2nd Edition): Ending the Spiritual Famine of the Global Church

by Tim Jore

Only in the last 100 years has world missions been built on a foundation of "all rights reserved." This model is both legal and ethical, but it has limited reach. The missions task is immense, and millions of people in thousands of people groups are still waiting to receive even one biblical resource in their own language. There is another way to equip the global church for spiritual growth. Christians all over the world can use 21st century technology to openly collaborate in the creation of unrestricted biblical content in any language. These unrestricted biblical resources - the Christian Commons - can be legally translated, adapted, built on, revised, redistributed, and used, by anyone, without hindrance, today. Unrestricted biblical resources can reach more people, in less time, with less expense, more effectively. The past may have been closed. The future of the global Church is Open.

310 pages, Paperback

Published December 31, 2015

Reviews

[Shelby Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimately, I agree with his conclusion, that Christian ministries have far too often abused copyright laws and thereby hindered the spread of Bible translations and materials, especially in remote places and uncommon languages.

In short, the author pulls from his experience and very moving stories and illustrations to show how the usual approach to copyright chains up the Word of God and prevents the free and unhindered spread of biblical resources around the world.

While he does present his case, a very large portion of the book is invested into showing the history and current situation of copyright law as well and extended contrasts between previous methods of information production and newer crowd-sourced methods. He later moves into what he sees to be the solution and addresses the numerous concerns along the way with the Christian embrace of restrictive copyright. However, while he quotes scripture from time to time, he falls short of any serious exegesis and relies far more on emotional appeals and stories, rather than more Biblical interpretation.

Still, the point is made clearly and many of the common concerns are addressed well. He advocates for a specific "sharealike" license that he sees as the solution, but doesn't elaborate on how ministries and writers should be funded in his new model. He also completely neglects to address the music side of the debate and just how impactful that subsection of the discussion is.

Overall, this book pairs well with Conley Owens' "The Dorean Principle" on the same subject. While the other, overall, is a better treatment of the subject, they each fill in the gaps of the other.

I plead with Christian artists and writers to deeply consider freely sharing their work for the cause of Christ. Please read this, or Owen's book, and seriously wrestle with the need for free, and freed, Christian material.

[Cecil New · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating account of the history of copyright and how copyright inhibits production of Biblical resources in the 7K+ languages of the world. The presentation is fair and essentially advocates for content to be licensed under the Creative Commons BY-SA v4.0.

Lots of progress is being made.

Full disclosure: I am recent IT volunteer for unfoldingWord.org which works in this area.

[Rebekah Barkman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at how copyright laws have hindered the Great Commission, particularly with the rise of technology. “The future of wood missions in the digital age involves open collaboration as the body of Christ, to provide unrestricted biblical content in every language, for every people group.”