Bible Illuminated: The Book: New Testament [Paperback]

AB Forlaget Illuminated Sweden (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Book Description
A homeless man walking. A soldier preparing for combat. A mother nursing her newborn child.

Never before has a publisher illuminated the Bible with such an array of striking, even provocative contemporary photographs. Wrapped in an arresting cover, Bible Illuminated: The Book: New Testament presents The Bible in a full-color, glossy magazine format, set in running text with no verses, inviting readers to step into the Bible and experience it in a whole new way.

The Book, using the Good News Translation as approved by the American Bible Society, will introduce believers and non-believers to a culturally relevant, accessible Bible and will encourage dialogue between people from all walks of life.

When was the last time you picked it up and read it?

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Learn More About Bible Illuminated: The Book

(See a larger view of pages from The Book when you click on any of the images following in this section.)

Who created The Book?

The company that created The Book is called Illuminated World. The co-founder and creative visionary for the Bible Illuminated is Dag Söderberg, former CEO of one of the largest advertising firms in Scandinavia. Dag's passion for photography and innovative design helped with the creative direction of such a huge undertaking. He loves art and finding unique ways to present traditional things in a non-traditional way, a part of his advertising background that definitely shaped The Book and ultimately its look and feel. His vision from the beginning was to re-brand the Bible for a consumer audience but remain true to the text (which is why The Book uses the standard Good News Translation).

What is the goal of publishing The Book?

There is no religious mission behind The Book. We believe that its success will be driven by the fact that this is not coming from any specific faith, religion or church. We are from many faiths, backgrounds, and beliefs; ultimately we are trying to create something for the many and not just for the few. The goal is to drive an emotional reaction and get people to think, discuss and share. It's meant to trigger bigger moral questions that will in turn help people to understand the common heritage between all religions through the Bible's text. We hope people will find the images, design and layout intriguing—intriguing enough to talk about the actual stories in the Bible and what the morals and lessons mean to them. The more you know, the more you can participate in discussions about the world and understand the bigger picture.

What does The Book look like?

Bible Illuminated:The Book looks like a high-end magazine. It presents the New Testament as it's never been seen before in full-color, glossy format, illustrated throughout with striking, sometimes provocative, contemporary photographs. It is meant to be comfortable and easy to flip through and used as you would use any Bible. There are no verses and the text runs with columns and paragraphs just like in a magazine.

Who is Illuminated World trying to reach with The Book?

The Book is meant for anyone and everyone. It is for people who currently own a Bible but never read it, people who don't own a Bible or would never even consider picking it up, as well as people who currently read or use the Bible, but want to experience this new, innovative design.

What do the highlighted passages and sentences mean?

The meaning of these passages is open to readers. We highlighted and underlined passages throughout The Book as a way to draw the reader's attention and provide an opportunity for reflection.

What should people do with The Book?

We want people to be able to flip through the pages and find something that they relate to, whether it's an image of a war-torn soldier or homeless person, a celebrity or an endangered animal—or a certain passage paired with a powerful image that resonates with them.

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Review

First published in Sweden to enormous acclaim and unprecedented sales

Geared toward broader general reader that may not own a bible or if they do, it is not read

Translation is the Good News Translation (GNT), from the American Bible Society (ABS). ABS highly endorses this project and are very excited about our plans

Will launch with a $500,000 marketing plan

Publicity is critical to our success. We have hired Blaze (http://www.blazepr.com/), an award winning industry leader in public relations. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Illuminated World (October 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 919766944X
• ISBN-13: 978-9197669443
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #483,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I SET MY EXPECTATIONS TOO HIGH, May 7, 2009

By 

Nicole L. Dodd - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bible Illuminated: The Book: New Testament (Paperback)

While I still think this is a really cool format for the Bible, there are a couple things that were kind of a bummer. The first is that this is being marketed as a high end magazine / coffee table book format. the cover is nice, but the inside pages are definately not "high end," they are as flimsy as any monthly magazine worth 3.75. Unfortunately this version probably will not hold to the test of time, esp. for the price. I would recommend holding out for a hard-bound if they ever exist...if not it is still worth having if only for a short while. the second issue is that the verses are not referenced within the chapters, a minor thing.

27 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What exactly is the use of this?, June 5, 2009

By 

J. L. Roberson "jlroberson" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bible Illuminated: The Book: New Testament (Paperback)

I'm amazed this has not been mocked and derided more than it has. I'll just preface by saying that I'm an agnostic and don't have a dog in this fight, pro or con. It's not on religious, or even scholarly, grounds that I say this item is the exact moment when a culture vomits.

No, my problem with this is aesthetic. This is yet another example of the pernicious effect of celebrity and fashion upon our culture. There is no purpose in this existing, except to spread celebrities' images and the aesthetic of fashion magazines into territory that, frankly, I would never have expected it to go. And another example of thinking that the "kids these days" aren't smart enough to understand anything unless it's been MTV-ed over and celebritized.

No, no, no. Enough.

72 of 105 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An Overpriced Trojan Horse, November 17, 2008

By 

christinemm - The Thinking Mother (Houston Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Bible Illuminated: The Book: New Testament (Paperback)

This book resembles a magazine with glossy paper, including the thin paper cover. It is not sturdy and my copy is showing wear after a small amount of gentle use. The cost is quite high for a magazine-like binding. I had thought it would be more like a coffee table book with a sturdy binding, possibly hardcover, but that is not what this is.

Regarding the text itself, the American Bible Association has given permission for The Good News version of The New Testament to be used in this publication. So this is not a new translation of text, if you are looking for a more modern language translation perhaps you should look into "The Message" by Eugene Peterson (it can be viewed online for free or purchased in book form).

The font is two different sizes, is quite small, and is laid out in either three or four columns. Readers over age 40 may need to don their cheaters to read this book. The typical Bible annotation with numbers and chapters is not here so it really looks like a magazine article layout (it is slick and modern looking). Also some of the text is highlighted with yellow block, and other times the text is in red font, which naturally catches our eye. At times the highlighted text also appears as a caption to the accompanying photograph. I had trouble at times connecting the meaning of the quote with the chosen image. It is interesting to ponder why that little blurb was selected versus some other. Also some photographs have their own caption (not a Bible quote) to explain a little about what we are looking at.

I was confused by many of the images selected and some of the captions and some of the quotes, and pondered for days what the source of my discomfort was and why I was reacting negatively to the book. Many of the images are not closely tied to literal interpretations of the text nor are they just artistic abstract images or nature images. Sometimes when a photo has an excerpt from the Bible I just don't understand the matching of the image to the text, no matter how long I contemplate it. Other times it seems the captions led me to a belief that was apart from what the Bible was saying, extrapolating a notion in the Bible to possibly relate to air pollution, meat eating, global warming, over-consumption, poverty, access to modern health care, gender inequality in education and access to prescription drugs for HIV positive people in third world countries.

The second and more dangerous issue is that through these images and the added, new text inserted by the book's creators, the message that comes across to the reader that is above and beyond what Christians usually take from the content in the New Testament. In other words a message from this book is not the same or typical messages gleaned by those who read JUST the text of the New Testament. Christians believe the Bible is the word of God and Christians take the Bible's words, combine them with prayer to listen to what God leads them to do to put God's words into action. However in this book, the creators have added the word of man (their words) mixed in with the Bible's words, combining it with God's call to help others. The creators of the book call readers to take action, to take specific actions, political and social actions to fulfill the stated goals of the United Nations. Instead of leaving the reader to contemplate, pray and figure out how they can apply the word of God and Jesus Christ to help their fellow man with their direct actions, the publishers boldly tell readers what they would like to see the reader do (support the United Nations and to donate their money for one thing).

I am referring to the portions that reference "Eight Ways to Change the World" which is a goal of the United Nations called the `Millennium Development Goals' which they hope will be realized by the year 2015. Readers are called to action by supporting initiatives of the United Nations and to donate their money (just one dollar you donate can help...) to such causes as improving medical care for pregnant women in third world countries to try to lower the maternal mortality rate, and also a call to action to get more prescription drugs for Africans with AIDS, to name just two. In case you think I am exaggerating, I have an email from Dag Soderberg that confirms this stated objective, to try to influence readers to support the United Nations objective. Some of the photographs in this book first appeared in a show featuring photographs to support "Eight Ways to Change the World". It seems that Dag Soderberg then hatched the idea to bring the message of that show to Americans and other English speaking peoples by combining that message with a New Testament Bible (the Bible is book that repeatedly sells the most copies year after year).

A section of the book has photographs of some people who have lived in this last century who the authors feel have done work to change the world for the better. Some include Angelina Jolie, Bono, Muhammad Ali, Al Gore, and Che Guevara. I will leave you to decide what you think about the individuals selected. Perhaps you will have some issues as I did. One would think that a New Testament that guides Christians might show Christians who have done good works. Instead I arrived at the conclusion that non-believers are `good people too' and didn't need the Bible to guide their actions. We all know that Godless people, and people of other faiths can do good things but why include it in a New Testament Bible? The fact that the most Christian book in the world has a `religion doesn't matter' notion is a bit hard for me to take.

Another impression I received was that the Bible is outdated and perhaps not the best advice to take. I point to the spread of what I thought was a gruesome image of a rich white woman tearing apart a roasted goose with her bare hands (an unrealistic and creepy image). The Bible text with it puts down what we call `being a vegetarian'. Will that not tick off and gross out the vegetarian social activists out there and lead them to put down The New Testament as outdated and just wrong? In another section the statement that women must submit to their husbands is highlighted but text about how a husband needs to treat his wife well is not highlighted. Another recommendation that women must have long hair goes against what many modern women choose concerns their hair length.

I called this a Trojan Horse because I think that people will seek to buy this because they want the message of the Bible with an appealing visual element, but instead they receive messages from non-Christians urging them in words and powerful images to take social and political action to support the initiatives of the United Nations. Readers who look only at the photographs, captions, highlighted text and read the new section about the United Nations will be more susceptible to that influence than those who already know the content of the New Testament or those who actually read the text in this version.

So who are the creators or illuminators as they call themselves? From the official website, we learn that creator of "Illuminated World" is Dag Soderberg who " is a spiritual but not particularly religious individual". The others involved are investors and business people. From the publishers website I learned this:

"Are any of the founders or business partners of Illuminated World religious?

"There is no religious mission here. We believe that the success of The Book will be driven by the fact that this is not coming from within any specific faith, religion or church. We are from many faiths, backgrounds and beliefs and ultimately trying to create something for the many and not just for the few."

According to Bible Illuminated website, they are currently working on their version of the Old Testament. Also shared is that the organization has future plans to do translations of other religious books as well.