Lament over a new Gospel harmony

On Deinde, Danny Zacharias offers a lament on a new book that harmonises the Gospels (a book also mentioned to me by Jim West, who also blogs it):



A new gospel harmony . . . a lament

Why is it that it is this type of work which receives media attention and will be carried in the pop.christian bookstores? The publisher pushes the Gospel of the Four as if this were the first concerted attempt to create a synopsis of the gospel, despite the excellent published resources and online resources as well . . . . I don't pretend to have any answers, and i know that everyone author has a right to their opinions, but how can the best in biblical scholarship penetrate the pop.christian bookstores?

Danny's points and questions are helpful. One comment: it is all the more important for scholars to look to communicate with that wider public, to communicate via books, the internet, the media, or those outside of universities and seminaries will go to less reputable sources that are willing -- and waiting -- to fill any gap. But a second comment too: I am much less concerned than Danny here. As far as I can tell, the work in question is privately published (what some more disparagingly might call vanity publishing), and the "press release" in question is presumably written by the author; it is disseminated via eMediaWire, which is a free press release service that anyone can use. It is a notorious difficulty to get privately published books into mainstream bookshops.