A friend emailed me an interesting news item this morning.
Due to increased demands on schedules in modern life, leading figures in the church of England have helped produce the 100 Minute Bible . According to the BBC interviews, the bible has been edited to be read in 1 hour 40 minutes. The new book was unveiled at Canterbury Cathedral (although inside sources said they only needed to use a hankerchief for the actual unveiling).
My take so far:
Good recognition that there is general unfamiiarity in anglican church circles with the basic stories of the scriptures.
Good recognition that the stories of Jesus are foundational.
Not sure if this is the answer to a deeper and more committed Christian faith in the anglican world.
With your connections into the big AC, can you get me a copy? This is more an interest on the book history and print culture history side of my brain, but at the same time the material embodiment of "The Word" is a pretty basic cornerstone/issue/debate for the Christian life as well.
It reminds me of a series of tapes and/or two-page summaries you can get of the 100 greatest books ever written or something like that, marketed to busy executive-types so that they know something about these works without having to actually read them.
Maybe that's better than nothing? No much better, I'll admit, but a little? We still see value in children's picture Bibles, which "repackage" the Bible into smaller bite-size pieces.
Posted by: Winston Pei | September 21, 2005 at 12:23 PM
Winston - I'll see if can get a copy for you. I think in some ways the analogy to the children's bible concept is a good one. If anything, part of what they recognize is that this is a post-christian culture. Perhaps some brits can lend a thought on this. I'd be eager to hear how this project will be received in the coming months in britain...
Posted by: Joe | September 21, 2005 at 01:54 PM