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Bible, Bibliotheca, media
Bible, Bibliotheca, media Bibliotheca: Kickstarting a Much-Need Discussion
Monday, July 28, 2014 at 10:26AM 
Yes, the numbers are staggering, a man asks for $37,000 in start-up financing and receives at total of $1,400,000 from thousands of people all over the world. Even more staggering, this business venture (and labor of love) aims to publish a new edition of the Bible—already the best-selling book in history. But the more interesting—and more important—question is, “What can we learn from this phenomenon?”
If you’re not up to speed on Bibliotheca you can start here, or check out the eight-minute video. Either way, as you review these sites ask yourself what caused a response thirty-nine times greater than the creator asked for?
The Christian marketplace already noisy and busy with Bibles. There is a never-ending flow of new Bible editions: super-thin, celebrity-endorsed, ever-hip graphics, accompanied by footnotes, endnotes, sidebars, alternate readings, and book-by-book introductions. There are Bible editions for men, women, students, student-athletes, skateboarders, quilters, and cowboys. The Bibliotheca success demonstrates the remarkable intersection of design, production, faith, and personal passion. Let’s start a discussion about the meanings of this crazy level of engagement. Here are three entry points:
- People are hungry for beauty as well as truth: Bibliotheca creator Adam Lewis Greene gave an interview to Bible Gateway. He observed, “I began to conceive of ways I could translate these scholars’ abstract ideas into concrete aesthetic expression.” Scholarship is certainly important, but perhaps we've ignored our soul's need for beauty?
- The Holy Spirit inspired large parts of the Bible as story: here’s Greene, again: “Readers are ready to enjoy the Bible as the great literary anthology that it is, rather than as a text book. The idea of the Bible as story is moving and spreading rapidly. I have been deeply affected by this movement, and Bibliotheca is my attempt to create an elegant vehicle for it.” You can come away from Bible study with principles or stories--which will you remember?
- You Version is here to stay, but so is the printed page. Here’s Greene, one more time: “No printed Bible can compete with the efficiency, economy, and portability of [on-line study tools]. We should gladly welcome these new forms, and I see it as an opportunity to re-evaluate the goals of printed Bibles . . . There are plenty of benefits to the sensory experience of a well-made book that digital mediums are as yet unable to provide.” In a world where the Bible is available everywhere, how can we carve out simple and quiet space to hear the Spirit of God in the Book, and how can print help us do so?
This is a conversation open to anyone interested in faith, design, marketing, Bible study, and the culture at large. These three observations are merely the invitation to discussion. What’s your opinion of the Bibliotheca project? Are there lessons to be learned or dangers to be avoided?
I’m looking forward to reading your comments.
Reader Comments (5)
I really enjoyed your assertions about reading Scripture. In the college ministry I was a part of, "getting in the Word" was such a scholarly endeavor that involved observing, and detailing notes about the text. After all, God's Word is absolute Truth and there's much to learn. Ideally, that scholarly method sounds good and worked for some. Now, I read the Bible to have an experience. I think that you once posted before about how we go about reading the Bible matters, and I agree with that. It's a lovely story of grace all the way through. I'm not sure I completely get the guy's ideas, as much as I fully understand the heart behind how we should go about enjoying God through the Bible. Or else it is a religious chore with more knowledge than application. Thanks for the post!
Well said, Kyle. Of course we are grateful for scholars and we owe to them our very ability to read the Bible in our native language. I think over the last hundred years or so scholarship and intellectualism have pushed other modes to the side, yet anyone who has felt the presence of God in the sunrise will eagerly tell us that God speaks through beauty, too--and a thousand other ways. So I will keep my foot-noted Bible handy, and also use this edition as well, allowing the beauty of God's story speak to me.
That makes a lot of sense. It's important we receive in new ways and allow His beauty to be the vehicle. Always enjoy your thoughts.
Ray, I want to keep this conversation going. What do you think is the hunger this project has tapped into? After all, what could be less 'of the moment' than a long form, multiple volume edition of an ancient text?
Clearly people buy books for many reasons: collecting, gifts, and yes, even for the tactile please of reading them. I even suspect that some people may buy this Bible collection because their regular Bible reading has gone stale.
But I'd also wager that people -- especially Evangelicals -- yearn for an experience of God (see Kyle's first comment). They intuitively feel that beauty will lead to (enhance?) that experience. They are looking for a portal to experience God with their hearts, and not just their minds.
What do you think?