Thursday, October 09, 2008

Repackaging Scripture

How do you make the most offensive book in history more palatable for non-believers? Why, change the packaging, of course:
More on "Bible Illuminated: The Book" here:
    "In general, Bible publishers have always been creative, but now they are scrambling to meet a culture where people are moving away from print reading," said Paul Gutjahr, an associate professor of English and adjunct associate professor in religious studies at Indiana University. ...

    ... "In a visually literate, advertising-skeptical age, how do you grab people's attention?" Gutjahr asked. "Mixing the biblical text with Angelina Jolie doesn't surprise me."

    First published in Sweden last year, "Bible Illuminated: The Book" is the glossy fashion magazine-style publication that features Jolie. It looks more at home on a coffee table or a nightstand in the latest hipster hotel than in a church.
God help us.

4 comments:

Jason Garwood said...

Unbelievable.

Jason Garwood said...

Can't we still drown heretics? Why did that ever stop?


Just Kidding folks. Calm down.

Ansel 'Cap' Capstin said...

I guess I am missing the controversy.

Don't get me wrong, cut me and I bleed Knox-Presbyterian blue and my favorite artwork is usually a portrait of Calvin ...

... but having said that, this guy is saying he wants to make it easier in a secular nation to have people reading their bible in public. He says specifically that there are those with the bible on their desk and this is not for them.

I dunno, maybe I am getting soft in my old age, but it seems to me that the package matters infinitely less than the content - and if people want to buy it to have in their homes, I say go for it. Some of them might even read it.

Are they contemporizing the Words? No.. it's not 'The Message' - it's 'The Book'. I say print it in rainbow colors on live carp if people will buy it, read it and awaken an interest in spirituality.

Let's not muddy the message and the medium.

Jason Garwood said...

The problem is, we have a million different 'styles' of bibles here in the U.S. and we still have people in our congregations who, while wielding a fancy-bible, have no clue what it says because either they 1) read it and simply don't get it, or 2) don't actually read it. Ever.

Making it like a Magazine is ridiculous. The worst thing that has happened to the American (or Western) Church is comfort. I think that persecution would wake the western church up...then we wouldn't have time producing stupid bibles to "make it look nice, therefore make it readable". It's already all that and if you can't see it, I doubt you're a Christian.

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