Bible in Vogue
The glossy coffee table tome, titled Bible Illuminated: The Book, is a bold attempt to capture the attention of modern readers. Instead of following the usual Bible format – lots of words but somewhat lacking in celebrity portraits – Swedish ad man Dag Soderberg has decided to repackage it in the style of Vogue.
Passages are written out in a magazine-style format and accompanied by striking images. Angelina Jolie’s picture is included alongside Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and U2 frontman Bono, to illustrate the importance of doing good deeds. They were selected after the publishers asked the Swedish public which famous figures in modern times represented goodness and compassion.
According to its publishers, when The Book was released in Sweden it accounted for a 50 per cent rise in the country’s Bible sales for 2007. It was initially sold in fashion boutiques, art galleries and design stores before reaching bookshops.
Soderberg insists he is not particularly religious, explaining that his motivation is to make the Bible more accessible. “Most people have issues with the Bible. They have never gotten into it. They don’t find it accessible. But it’s our history, our heritage. And for most of us, we relate to it more than we think. Religious or not, it shapes much of our moral codes,” he said.
His goal is “to make a version of the Bible that people want to pick up, instead of hide away or just place on a bookshelf.”
[Anita Singh posted by telegraph.co.uk 09 October Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2008. Read the full article at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/3167018/Angelina-Jolie-Bono-and-Nelson-Mandela-feature-in-Vogue-style-Bible.html]
“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.
The Bible is reinvented quite often. While essentially still the same book, Gutjahr said that for the past two decades, updates were largely focused on new translations. There are also versions that come out each year that are essentially the same book, with different covers and sizes based on people’s wants. But he sees the next trend as one toward textual translation and visual translation.
“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.”
Bible Illuminated: The Book is the creation of former advertising executives, it pairs intense photo essays — including images such as a child with a gun or beatings in the Belgian Congo under King Leopold’s II’s regime — with passages from the New Testament. It is aimed at people who might not otherwise ever read the Bible.
Illuminated World is quick to point out that they are not affiliated with any church or religion. The Swedish version was sold first in boutiques and design stores, and mainstream bookstores were hesitant to carry it initially. But as it gained popularity, the book was sold more widely and even found a strong secondary market in secular sales.
Norton said sales of “Bible Illuminated” in Sweden, where an estimated 60,000 Bibles are sold each year, reached 30,000 in its first year. They are hoping for similar success in the U.S. and plan to release the New Testament in October and potentially the Old Testament in March. In the U.S., the New Testament is already pre-selling on Amazon and Illuminated World has contracts with most major bookstores.
“We are living in the age of increased secularization and distance from traditional religion,” said Robert Hodgson, dean emeritus at the Nida Institute For Biblical Scholarship that is responsible for the translation and quality control for the American Bible Society, which licensed the rights to the Good News version of the Bible to Illuminated World.
“It’s about new points of entry in a modern world that is not ready to open its doors and windows to the traditional word,” he said.
These “gateway Bibles” — those intended for the secular crowd — seem to be the latest frontier in Bible publishing.
“Contrary to popular belief, I think most Bibles are published for people who are already in the club,” Gutjahr said. “Publishing for people who are outside the club, I don’t know how much luck there has been with that.” read more of Sarah Skidmore’s article from Associated Press here
