While I do not participate in the editorial discussions or decisions for Haruah, I am closely involved in the project. That said, Haruah's editor may wish to follow-up with additional thoughts.
The hopes with Haruah is that the works there will raise the eyes of the readers to the God of the people of the book. It is not meant to be an overtly attempt to proselytize people into the Christian faith, even though it is from that faith tradition that, as an institution, Haruah operates. The guiding mark is compatibility with Christian principles and traditional values, rather than doctrine.
That said, doctrine that are clearly contrary to Christian principles would be disqualifying, but outside devotional and editorial content, direct doctrinal addresses should be minimal if they ever appear at all.
The heart of Haruah is to be fiction, poetry, and stories of the working of God in the lives of God’s people. Themes of self-sacrifice, love for others, charity, social justice, and such are ubiquitous to most faith traditions, and as such appropriate for Haruah as compatible with both Christian principles and traditional values.
As an example, consider the last 13 issues of our Haruah’s sister publication, a genre fiction magazine, The Sword Review. There, we do not vet the authors with regard to their heritage or faith traditions. We consider the stories and poems compatibility with our effort to entertain, uplift, and enlighten with Double-Edged Publishing’s framework of Christian principles and traditional values. As a result, we have learned that over the year, we have used works by people of the Islamic tradition, the Hebrew tradition, and no tradition at all. Of course, we have learned that many who submit identify with the Christian tradition, as do most people in the United States, and as I believe do most English speakers world-wide.
If you wish to submit, you can be sure that your faith tradition will not be asked (nor your denomination, if you are Christian). Your submission will be judged based on foremost its literary quality. Haruah just won’t publish substandard material, regardless of sentiment or message.
Next, it will be judged for appeal to our perceived readers and to its compatibility with Christian principles. I would expect to see works from people of a variety of different religions, particularly works from people who share some of the same sacred works. Although theology differs, the core beliefs about values and interpersonal conduct across numerous religions share much.
Therefore unlikely subjects for publication would be those that are heavily doctrinal, even if they are doctrines of Christianity. Things that tear down rather than build up, things that divide rather than bring together, and things that set out to “convert” people are equally unlikely candidates for acceptance.
I hope this long reply answers your question. In sum, we will not know the faith tradition of the author, and the work will be judged based on literary quality and fit with Christian principles without respect to the personal beliefs of the author.
[The editor] may wish to add her particular angle to my reply as it specifically applies to the editorial eye of the Haruah team. Though only a few weeks have passed, they have already processed dozens of submission, so an emerging taste may already be forming.
Thank you for your interest in Haruah. If nothing else, I hope you will visit our forum community and interact with some of the frequent visitors. I believe you will intuit from such an encounter that it is a welcoming, open group of people.
Bill Snodgrass
President and Director
Double-Edged Publishing
www.doubleedgedpublishing.com
