The Doorway Papers
The title for this Series of 60 monographs is intended to signify that these Paers are exploratory and do not pretend to provide final answers. They are designed to invite further exploration.
In the interest of clarity of exposition, no apology is made for statements
which are matters of faith rather than fact, but as far as possible the
distinction is indicated where appropriate.
They are the result of over twenty-five years of careful examination of
the biblical records and the light they receive from, and contribute to,
the whole field of modern knowledge.
As a rule, they represent new approaches of old issues, the author being
fully persuaded that Scripture has nothing to fear and everything to gain
from the closest examination possible.
Each Paer contains a full index of references giving complete documenation
from original sources of material used so that the topics may be persuaded
further by anyone who desires to do so.
1958
Let me give you a little history. In 1956 Arthur Custance felt it was time to do some writing, and so he and I made a list of subjects (titles) that he could write about--and we ended up with 60 titles, not in any particular order or sequence. It was our "check" list--he did not write serially, beginning at 1 and going to 60 but wrote as "the spirit moved him," randomly. The first momographs came out in 1957 and the last one fifteen years later, in 1972--with indexes to all 60 Papers.
Then Zondervan Publishing Company (Grand Rapids, Michigan) approached us, and so in 1975 began "The Doorway Papers Series" of 9 volumes plus a 10th as the Index. But once again, the Papers did not appear serially. Arthur arranged them as to subject matter with some of volumes as miscellanies. It took Zondervan 5 years to complete the series. And within another 5 years the series was discontinued. Actually the letter informing us of this decision reached us one week after Arthur died--he never saw the letter.
Subsequently I received many orders for this series. I bought up some sets but complete sets were soon unavailable. In consultation with some friends in Brockville, we decided that the Papers should be made available again as monographs, and we found a way to do this without a huge outlay of capital. We made a good master copy, bought a photocopier (which would do double-sided copy), and a binder (a German one). And we made copies upon demand. We had a standard cover. I wrote an abstract of each Paper for the back cover. We changed some of the titles. When I moved to Hamilton, I sold the copier (really, gave it away!) and used commercial copiers (hasn't been too satisfactory). I still make copies (though don't use the binder now) but it doesn't give me much satisfaction.
The books--with the exception of "Without Form and Void" which
was first published in 1970--were written in retirement: 1979, 1980 (2 in
this year), 1981, and 1983. Zondervan published the Series, and another
book with Probe Ministries ("Mysterious Matter of Mind"), Presbyterian
& Reformed published "Sovereignty of Grace" and Doorway Publications
had to publish the rest.
July 4, 1997.
Copyright© 1996. The material in the Arthur C. Custance
Library is copyrighted and may not be reproduced in any form for commercial
use without prior written permission from Doorway Papers, 38 Elora Drive,
Unit 41, Hamilton, Ontario, L9C 7L6, Canada. Permission is granted to download
for unlimited personal use and for reproduction and distribution for non-profit
or non-commercial use such as study groups or classroom use.
Dr. Custance's books and papers are currently mostly out of print. It is
our aim to recover as many as possible in this online library. Book publishers
are invited to contact Evelyn M. White. For corrections and changes, send
email to Lambert Dolphin. (dolphin@best.com).
BOOK PRICE: $9.95 (US) each, plus 25% of the total.for postage and shipping. Cheques should be made out to Evelyn M. White. Contributions for the maintenance and support of this library are gratefully received, as we do have certain ongoing expenses. A CD Rom disk containing this entire library is under development and should be ready for release in the summer of 1997. Contact Lambert Dolphin for information.
Please send comments and questions regarding this library to the curator and head librarian, Evelyn M. White (ewhite@netaccess.on.ca.)