The following Alumni Profile of Bryce Craig was taken from Westminster Magazine, Volume 5 | Issue 1 | Fall 2024

On July 13th, 2024, Nathan Nocchi posed several questions to Bryce Craig, one of Westminster’s 2024 Honored Alumni, and the current President of Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company (P&R). P&R was founded by Samuel G. Craig (1874-1960) in the midst of one of the greatest theological controversies in the twentieth century. From its inception, P&R sought to provide theologically Reformed resources to a church with questions. In making available such resources, the Craig family has made an immeasurable contribution to the world of Christian publishing, supplying theological, devotional, exegetical, and pastoral offerings to both scholars and laymen alike. The Craig family legacy also continues in and through the work of the Craig Center at Westminster Theological Seminary.

Nathan Nocchi: Bryce, it is a pleasure to chat with you about your life and work for the church. To begin, what would you like to tell our readership about yourself and your family? What was it like growing up in a family of readers? Do you have any interesting stories that you would like to share about the environment in which you were raised? 

Bryce Craig: My grandfather and Machen founded The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company in 1930 by publishing the original Christianity Today. My dad took P&R over in the mid 1950s, and he rented a storefront to store and ship books. When I was in 4th grade, my dad had me come down and help out for a couple of days a week. I did that for a number of years. My morn was an English major and helped my father do proofreading. She was also an artist and did some of the book covers. I did some covers as well when I was in high school and college, so I was always immersed in the business. My mom and dad were the top readers, since my sisters were art majors, my brother was a business major, and I was a philosophy major. We spent most of our summers in Tarkio, MO, visiting relatives. Loraine Boettner lived in a town called Rockport that was seven miles away, so my dad would have me come with him to visit Loraine and discuss the books he was working on, especially Roman Catholicism, which is now out of print. Recently we republished his book The Harmony of the Gospels and transformed it into the The Gospel of Jesus. We also published The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, a book that Joni Eareckson Tada found very helpful.

NN: ln the Lord’s providence, what events or circumstances made it clear that you should pursue theological education at Westminster?

BC: My father was friends with O. T. Allis and Paul Wooley, so it was the only option I knew. My grandfather had been connected with WTS in the past as a board member and gave a commencement speech in the early days. I was always interested in service to the church.

NN: And it is certainly a great option to have! Can you share a couple of memorable stories about your time at Westminster?

BC: l was always connected with fellow students, especially my roommates. One, Rich Ramsey, went on to serve as missionary in Chile and another, Ron Lutz, became a pastor with a large church in Dresher. The faculty were kind, and I sold them some of the books by Jay Adams that P&R published when I first came to seminary. The success of his first book, Competent to Counsel, was a complete surprise to my dad. As his books became very successful, the company grew. Some other students, such as Vern Poythress and Greg Bahnsen, also did their first books with us. Ed Clowney was a great leader–he complimented me on my chapel talk and my sermon. (I had been doing Young Life and speaking to the youth, so that helped out.) That is a very special memory for me.

NN: Being raised in a family committed to the publication of books, what expectations and goals did you have as you entered the world of publishing?

BC: I was somewhat involved in publishing while at seminary, bringing books to the bookstore, creating charts for some of the books, and doing cover designs. Many WTS faculty published with us: Ed Clowney, Paul Wooley, Jay Adams, Jack Miller, Harvie Conn, Norman Shepard, Richard Gaffin, Oswald T. Allis, Vern Poythress, and Cornelius Van Til. We have published some newer faculty as well. We have been partnering with WTS for many years through sales to the bookstore and through a few joint projects, such as Thy Word Is Still Truth with Richard Gaffin and Pete Lillback. We publish books that are Reformed and helpful for the church and pastors.

When I began to lead the company, I started by putting up a building and hiring a few people to keep it going. I was the first publisher to attend PCA GA, and we attended the large Christian Book Association convention in 1980. So I did have a vision for future growth.

NN: There are many Christian publishers today. How has P&R set itself apart, and what are your hopes for P&R over the next 10-20 years?

BC: We are truly Reformed and stand by our statement of faith. While other publishers publish Reformed books, we are the only confessional publisher committed to publishing only books that conform to the Westminster Standards. Our goal is to serve the church, both leaders and laypeople, with books that will help them in practical ways. In future years, we hope that the staff will reach out to explore new areas and book concepts but stay true to our foundational beliefs.

NN: Books have always been important for the advancement of the Christian church. What books that P&R published are you especially proud of? Are there any works that you, personally, would like to see in print?

BC: We are proud of our theological books by Van Til, John Frame, Iain Duguid, Clowney, etc. and of our counseling titles that were launched with help from Jay Adams, CCEF, and Wayne Mack. We published R.C. Sproul’s first book, The Symbol, in 1973 and had a big impact on the young-earth creationism movement through The Genesis Flood by John Whitcomb and Henry Morris in 1961. Moody had turned down The Genesis Flood, so Rousas Rushdoony passed it on to P&R, and it has been selling for over 64 years. We also translated and published Francis Turretin’s Institutes of Elenctic Theology in the early 1990s. A very notable book from a WTS alumnus is No Flesh Shall Glory, published in 1959 to address segregation, mixed-raced marriage, and related topics. The author, C. Herbert Oliver, was an OPC pastor who was involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

We have new authors who are helping us branch out, and we are pleased with new and recent series such as our 31-Devotionals for Life and some exciting upcoming women’s series. We are touching base with many authors, and they are helping us with our vision. We have an excellent but small staff, so I hope we can grow some more in promoting the church and Christian education. We have published some helpful church titles, and we would like to see more foundational theological books in print.

NN: What hopes do you have for the future of the church and Christian education? What role does P&R play in this?

BC: We’ve done many books on service to the church and just came out with The Elder-Led Church. We picked up Ministries of Mercy by Tim Keller when Zondervan dropped it. Jack Miller’s The Heart of a Servant Leader and Tim Witmer’s The Shepherd Leader have been excellent books. We have invested in homeschool markets and are making investments in training books such as Understanding the Faith by Stephen Smallman.

NN: How can our readership pray for you and P&R? 

BC: Unfortunately, I was recently diagnosed with ALS, and I would appreciate prayers that I could work a few more years and that our staff would continue to grow.

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