diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index a638acce0..16af2ebd5 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# CHANGES IN bookdown VERSION 0.37
+
+- Custom config files passed to the `config_file` argument of `render_book()` are no longer temporarily renamed to `_bookdown.yml` (thanks, @debruine, #1307).
+
 # CHANGES IN bookdown VERSION 0.36
 
 - Fix an issue with parsing resources from raw HTML code (thanks, @lennylin, https://community.rstudio.com/t/bookdown-image-with-a-weblink/172542)
diff --git a/R/render.R b/R/render.R
index 77990a687..5adede7f5 100644
--- a/R/render.R
+++ b/R/render.R
@@ -104,17 +104,8 @@ render_book = function(
     "versions of bookdown."
   )
 
-  if (config_file != '_bookdown.yml') {
-    unlink(tmp_config <- tempfile('_bookdown_', '.', '.yml'))
-    if (file.exists('_bookdown.yml')) file.rename('_bookdown.yml', tmp_config)
-    file.rename(config_file, '_bookdown.yml')
-    on.exit({
-      file.rename('_bookdown.yml', config_file)
-      if (file.exists(tmp_config)) file.rename(tmp_config, '_bookdown.yml')
-    }, add = TRUE)
-  }
-
   on.exit(opts$restore(), add = TRUE)
+  opts$set(config_file = config_file)
   config = load_config()  # configurations in _bookdown.yml
   output_dir = output_dirname(output_dir, config)
   on.exit(xfun::del_empty_dir(output_dir), add = TRUE)
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 9599b43a9..10ebebd43 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -69,10 +69,11 @@ get_base_format = function(format, options = list()) {
   do.call(format, options)
 }
 
-load_config = function() {
-  if (length(opts$get('config')) == 0 && file.exists('_bookdown.yml')) {
+load_config = function(config_file = '_bookdown.yml') {
+  config_file = opts$get('config_file') %n% config_file
+  if (length(opts$get('config')) == 0 && file.exists(config_file)) {
     # store the book config
-    opts$set(config = rmarkdown:::yaml_load_file('_bookdown.yml'))
+    opts$set(config = rmarkdown:::yaml_load_file(config_file))
   }
   opts$get('config')
 }