I'm currently at the Southwestern Minnesota Synod Fall Theological Conference, and I have been listening to speakers and going to seminars since Sunday. The primary focus of the conference seems to be on what the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has promoted as the Book of Faith Initiative. The initiative idea is simple enough; it is to encourage Lutherans to read the Bible.
Yesterday I attended a discussion where the question was asked, in true Lutheran fashion, "What does this mean?" And the answer is, "Whatever it takes." Basically, the idea is to share among all Lutherans what we are doing that is working to encourage other Lutherans to read the Bible, so that over the next 5 years we will become more fluent in "the first language of faith," Scripture. So it seems that it doesn't matter which version of the Bible is read, what stories are favorites, or how much of the Bible is read at any one time, the main thing is that we READ IT!!
To that end, I had the great privilege of going up to St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota last night to see the, now famous, St. John's Bible. It wasn't until last night that I fully appreciated the magnitude of the endeavor to recreate the Holy Bible entirely in the style of the ancient scribes. Having seen all of the love, care, respect and tireless work that has gone into the creation of this Bible, I can truly say that it is indeed a masterwork, worthy of all of the accolades it has received.
To set the stage, we (the pastors at the conference) had the opportunity to attend Vespers with the Benedictine monks in the St. John's Abbey Church, and then attend a lecture that, not only described in detail, but also allowed us to experience for ourselves, the process that the monks and calligrapher Donald Jackson went through to discover what the Holy Spirit would like in the Bible. The process is called "Visio Divina", and is basically an extension of the ancient Benedictine practice of Lectio Divina, where a passage of Scripture is read and re-read to let the Holy Spirit speak through the passage into the heart of the reader. In Visio Divina, the Holy Spirit is then asked to inspire an artistic illustration of the passage that has been read, and that may be different for every hearer. Then the challenge becomes a way of deciding what the illustration needs to say about the passage, and finally an illustration comes into view, after much discernment and deliberation, that truly reflects the leading of the Holy Spirit. It is a fascinating process, and I was grateful for my opportunity to participate.
The whole St. John's Bible will consist of seven volumes in the New Revised Standard Version, and the Wisdom Books are currently on display, as well as a reproduction of the volume that contains the Gospels and the Book of Acts that I got to page through last night. To say it is beautiful is really an understatement, because it is inspiring as well. To realize that each letter is carefully hand crafted, and each illustration so thoroughly thought through, and each page layout so carefully constructed explains why this is such an impressive work. It says a lot to me that these people are so inspired by the Word of God that they would devote so much of their lives to this endeavor, and gives me energy to spread this inspiration to the people I am called to serve in Southwestern Minnesota. Blogged by Don
3 comments:
Don,
I know the feeling! You probably read my post on seeing the Saint John's Bible when it was at the Tacoma Art Museum. I took a group from church and then returned the next day with Karen. We purchased one of the illumination reprints - the one for the Gospel of John. Incredible! I'm looking forward to collecting all four of the Gospel illumination as a set. You can see lots of things on-line and even view video clips of Jackson as he talks about creating various parts of the Bible. I'm glad you had a chance to see it!
I did read your post about your St. John's Bible experience, and you will be happy to know that is one of the main reasons I made an effort to get to see it. I have also visited their web site and seen some of the videos, and perused their online catalog as well. Luther Seminary Bookstore is one of the distributors of St. John's Bible merchandise, and students get a 10% discount, so I will probably take advantage of that. I am hoping to eventually purchase the whole thing in the small reproduction size. However, if you would like your congregation to experience the masterwork for themselves, the limited edition, full size reproduction is available for loan, simply for the price of shipping. If you would like to display a volume for your congregation to look at, contact Tim Ternes, Director of the St. John's Bible Gallery. His e-mail is tternes@csbsju.edu and I know he can fill you in on the details of showing this for your congregation. He also travels around the country with reproductions of the Bible to show in different cities, and he talked about a recent experience he had, carrying the Gospels and Acts volume in a church procession. Understand that the volumes are quite heavy, about 40 pounds, and he had to carry that over his head down the church aisle, which he described as "very long!" If your carrying 40 pounds of Bible over your head, I think any church aisle would seem long. But the idea is that the people at St. John's really want to share their Bible with others, so it may be worth investigating how that might be done. Of course, seeing the reproduction isn't quite as stunning as the real thing, but it is still quite beautiful, with vibrant colors and imaginative illustrations. Thanks, Jon, for your comment.
10% discount! Hmmmm
Post a Comment