targeted gospels

NPR on Morning Edition aired a story about two new Bibles which have just been published.

The First one, Bible Illuminated, The Book, is a flashy coffee-table New Testament, which was created by Dag Soderberg, a secular Swedish advertising executive. It has a lot of glossy photos meant to help depict the story, celebrities (such as Bono or John Lennon) and social-justice heroes (such as Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela) are used throughout. It is supposedly aimed at a young secular crowd. The creator, wanted people to actually read the book which is so influential in culture, though never read.

United Methodist minister and Hacking Christianity blogger Jeremy Smith says The Book is meant to provoke discussion.

I’m not really for fancy advertising, so the book doesn’t seem very appealing to me, possibly it even evokes stronger negative feelings. Though I want to give it a chance, because I felt similar feelings when I heard about The Message being published years ago.

The second book which they discuss, is for me a little easier to appreciate. It is The Green Bible; it  gives commentary throughout and highlights in green the passages which deal with ecological issues. It is intended to help aid Christian folks who are looking to the Bible in aid of understanding what the “Christian stance” is/should be on the environmental questions of the day.

Smith points out that while The Book seeks to begin a conversation, The Green Bible wants “to add to the conversation.”

Also to stay consistent with their message the book is supposed to be completely green itself, being made completely from recycled materials. Though most people who will be purchasing this Bible, will already own at least one Bible; which begins to beg the question, for me at least, of the real need of the purchase. But that question probably won’t be asked of/ answered by its publishers, since that would probably hurt sales too much.

As an aside, I have been wanting to acquire a new Bible, though I have a collection which continues to grow; all the Bibles I have are either KJV or NIV. I would rather have a different translation, but I can’t even begin to convince myself of the purchase when I have nearly half a shelf of Bibles that I have come to own (though they have all been gifts, or redeemed from trash piles). Though I woudn’t want to purchase a ‘green bible’, it does have a nice cover—especially in consideration of much of the contemporary designs which are out there.