Marking a new milestone, the Southern Seminary community dedicated both The Bookstore at Southern and Scholars’ Coffee on Tuesday morning.
“This is the fulfillment of a lot of hopes and dreams,” SBTS President Albert Mohler said. “We are a people of books, and that goes all the way back to Ecclesiastes where [the author] is talking about so many books. That’s because where you find Christians, you find disciples, you find scholars, you find readers, and readers need books. This is a great day for Southern Seminary for which we are very thankful.”
Construction originally began on the new bookstore in February of 2020 but was interrupted for a year by the pandemic. Work resumed this past February. During construction, the campus bookstore was housed in a small room above Founders Cafe. Scholars’ Coffee is attached to the bookstore and offers a wide variety of desserts, coffee, and other drinks.
The new bookstore is spacious with 2,600 linear feet for bookshelf space and includes a wide selection of used books in addition to dozens of new titles and hundreds of works on theology, church history, preaching, ministry, and numerous other categories pertinent to theological education and the historic Christian faith. The Bookstore also offers a wide variety of SBTS and Boyce College apparel.
“While anyone is welcome to come shop in our store, we want The Bookstore at Southern to excel at serving the Southern Seminary community,” said bookstore manager Jacob Percy.
“This means we will continue to prioritize rich, theological books that aid in the sharpening of the Christian mind and the development of future church leaders. The Bookstore at Southern now has an extensive, and ever-growing section of used books that make some of the great works of theology, biblical studies, and church history of the past available to our customers. We hope this will encourage people from all over to come and visit the store for a one-of-a-kind experience.”
The Bookstore is modeled after the historic Hatchards Bookshop in London, which opened in 1797, and the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D. C. In a day when bricks and mortar bookstores are struggling financially—and many are closing—Southern’s new bookstore is unique in the depth of books it will sell on topics related to theology and ministry.
“The Bookstore at Southern is committed to offering one of the largest collections of theological books in the country,” Percy said. “There is no other place where one can find such an extensive selection of books on systematic theology, biblical studies, Christian ministry, church history, commentaries, and more in a single location.
“It is also unique in the ability to highlight the remarkable contribution our faculty members have made to Christian scholarship. We are grateful for Christian bookstores wherever they are found, but we truly believe that the size and selection of the Bookstore at Southern make it truly unique.”
The Bookstore at Southern will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.
The Bookstore and Scholars’ Coffee figure to become a vital center of daily life for students at both Boyce College and Southern Seminary.
“The partnership between Scholars’ Coffee and the Bookstore make this end of the Honeycutt campus center the perfect spot to meet up with friends, sit and read, and enjoy the vibrant atmosphere of Southern,” Percy said.
“The campus community of Boyce College and Southern Seminary is like none other, and it is a huge win for the institution to have a space that allows that community to grow and flourish.”