The story of God’s work of redemption in the scriptures is truly timeless. The same stories that broke hearts and healed wounds thousands of years ago reach into our lives today and change us at our core. The Bible has recently been “illuminated” with modern photography. Here is what Cool Hunting had to say about the project:
“No matter your religious beliefs, one thing we can probably all agree on is how laborious it is to read the Bible. A Swedish outfit called Illuminated World hopes to change that notion by creating Bible Illuminated, a relevant version of the historical book. Set in magazine format, the New Testament publication includes the same time-honored stories paired with photos that conceptualize how they relate to our modern day problems.
One of the best examples of how they’ve made the Bible hip is the book of Mark, whose theme surrounds God sending a messenger to open the way and portrays Jesus as a man of action. Between the stories of Jesus healing a paralyzed man or healing a boy with an evil spirit are today’s goodwill ambassadors, such as Al Gore, Angelina Jolie, Bono, and Bill Gates, who have worked hard to raise awareness of the problems in Africa or teach us about the effects of global warming and pollution.
With a goal to drive an emotional reaction and get people to think, rather than verses there is running text over a provocative image, forcing you to understand we can all still relate to the classic stories. Like in the book of Romans, where we are reminded about the importance of not judging others, with a photo of a woman pulling the leg off of a cooked duck.”
I have the book on order, I’m excited to flip through it for myself!
Posted by Sam Hornsby on November 11, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I got the book after reading this write-up and it’s totally rad. I found it pretty inspiring, even as a non-christian. I’m not quite a believer, but I feel like the Bible is a pretty important book and this version made it so I actually feel like I can read it. Thanks for the suggestion.
Posted by JRM on November 11, 2008 at 2:48 pm
How does it look when you’ve got it in your hands? I mean, the photos they have up on bibleilluminated.com look amazing, but I’m sure they pale in comparison to the in-print versions.
Posted by Emilia on November 12, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Um… Angelina Jolie in the Bible… Really? When did celebrities become so famous that they’re considered religious figures?
Posted by Preston on November 13, 2008 at 9:22 am
Interesting point about putting images of famous people in the Bible. I think it helps re-inforce the story. Here’s how: for stories about the poor, images of a homeless person would reinforce the story. For stories about the rich and famous, images of Angelina Jolie help make sense of it all. For stories about hypocrites, cruel rulers, widows, slaves, and prostitutes (there’s plenty of stories about each), a creative mix of relevant images from the world and media that we live in would help us see that we are not removed from the themes that the scriptures raise for us. What do you think?
Posted by lonetruth on June 14, 2009 at 1:10 pm
This new “book” is missing the point completely.
I think “sex sells” is being taken a little too far here. Why do we need pictures of celebrities in our Bible? What is this, My First Picture Bible? What’s next, Dr. Seuss’ Guide to the the Scriptures?
The Bible is, by necessity, a dense book. If you don’t take your faith seriously enough to read it (even a few verses a day), pictures – let alone completely irrelevant ones – won’t make it any easier to digest. And teenagers/young adults don’t LIKE to read, they want to look at pictures (youngsters, especially in the Western World, are generally retarded and most have ADHD anyway)
I’m definitely no saint (in fact I am an angry, jaded, bitter, faithless person) but I DO know what the Bible is about, having read it cover-to-cover THRICE in my lifetime.
And this, sirs, is NO Bible.