Thumbwidth Press has been formed to enable publication of books reflecting a reformational approach to the Christian life.
What do I mean by "reformational"?
Simply, that the purpose of the Christian life is to discover more about what it means to live a fully human life, in a loving and obedience relationship with God. We were created as stewards to care for and develop the creation in appropriate and responsible ways.
But instead, human beings have departed from the ways of God, and as a result have turned to creaturely things as the source of purpose and meaning in life. This results in distortion and brokenness, since the other creatures God has made were not meant to bear the weight of responsibility in providing direction and guidance for human life. Only God can do that, as the one who brought all things into being, and orders them by his Word, which we experience in this world as the law-order, the regularity, the reliability of the world we live in.
Unfortunately, much of our Christian life is not directed towards renewal of our human calling to care for the world, exploring and developing it in ways which show forth the glory, the praiseworthy reputation of the God who made it.
A reformational vision takes this stewardly responsibility as the orientation which should shape and direct our individual and communal lives, so that in everything we do, God is honoured and glorified.
Hence the name: this is taken from the famous saying of Abraham Kuyper, that there is not one square inch of this world about which Christ does not say "That belongs to me." In the original Dutch, the "square inch" is expressed as a "thumbwidth."
So in launching this Press, we have the vision to see everything that we do proclaiming that glorious vision urged on us by Kuyper, that not a thumbwidth of this creation is excluded from its place in our lives as we subject ourselves to Christ and work for the renewal and care for this world and everything in it.
Chris Gousmett