SPCK Group Acquires Eerdmans, Creating a Major Global Christian Publisher
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge — SPCK Group, a London-based Christian publisher founded in 1698 — announced on 2 September 2026 that it has acquired Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., the respected Grand Rapids, Michigan house that has been a fixture of American religious publishing since 1911 (Publishers Weekly).
The deal brings together two of the oldest names in Christian publishing and gives the combined group a presence across the United Kingdom, the United States and global markets (SPCK Publishing). SPCK Group described the acquisition as creating a major global Christian publisher from what were previously two separate, national-scale operations. The transaction encompasses more than 5,000 titles spanning theology, biblical studies, church history and devotional literature (Premier Christian News).
For readers unfamiliar with the landscape: religious publishing is a distinct corner of the trade, with its own imprints, bookshops and reading audiences. Eerdmans, based in the American Midwest, has long been known for serious academic theology and reference works — the kind of books that sit on seminary shelves and in clergy libraries. SPCK, headquartered in London, publishes across a similarly broad range, from scholarly texts to books aimed at a general Christian readership. Together, their backlists — the catalogue of previously published titles that stay in print and continue to earn — cover centuries of religious thought and scholarship.
The announcement was made in London by SPCK Group and confirmed the same day by Eerdmans on its own website (Eerdmans). Neither party has disclosed the purchase price. The deal's structure — whether Eerdmans will retain its imprint name and editorial independence under SPCK ownership — has not been detailed in the public announcements.
What makes the acquisition notable is the scale it creates at a time when mid-sized specialist publishers face mounting pressure from consolidation across the wider book trade. Five thousand titles is a substantial catalogue for any independent publisher, let alone one operating in the specialised religion market. The combined list gives SPCK Group a transatlantic footprint and a depth of backlist that few Christian publishers outside the largest houses can match.
Both publishers carry deep institutional histories. SPCK was established in 1698, making it one of the oldest publishing houses in the English-speaking world. Eerdmans was founded in 1911 by William B. Eerdmans, a Dutch immigrant who built the company into one of the most influential Protestant publishers in the United States. The two houses have occasionally collaborated over the decades, but this is the first time they have been under common ownership.
For the libraries, bookshops and readers that depend on these lists, the practical question is continuity: whether titles stay in print, whether editorial standards hold, and whether the Grand Rapids operation remains a distinct publishing centre. Those answers will come in the months following the deal's completion, which has not yet been dated in the public announcements.
