New St. John's Bible in print: Gospels and Acts

[Ray_Marshall]

Release from America Magazine 7 March 2005

The St. John’s Bible: Gospels and Actds
Donald Jackson: Calligrapher
Liturgical Press
Publisher’s Price: $64.95

Illuminating the Word
The Making of The Saint John’s Bible
By Christopher Calderhead
Liturgical Press 240p
Publisher’s price: $39.95 hardcover

Both are available from fine Bookstores and Amazon

This twin offering is a publishing event of significant proportion. And you can get a taste of it in the March 14 issue of America. The first handwritten Bible in 500 years and one of a projected seven volumes, Gospel and Acts—which uses the New Revised Standard Version translation—has been in the making for several years. The publisher tells us it was commissioned by St. John’s Abbey “as an expression of the Benedictine monks’ daily focus on scripture and commitment to books, art and religious culture.” (Future volumes, by the way, will be Pentateuch, Historical Books, Prophets, Wisdom Literature, Psalms and Letters and Revelation.)

Donald Jackson is a world-renowned calligrapher and illuminator, who collaborated with theologians and artists in completing this project. “From his Scriptorium in Wales,” we are told, “he supervises a team of scribes and illuminators. The Bible is being written with quills on vellum, using hundred-year-old sticks of ink. The illuminations are made with a combination of ancient and modern techniques.” Painstakingly detailed, with many full-color paintings, and including side-notes, this is a stunning marriage of scriptural text and sacred image. No words can convey the impact of this volume. It will make a special addition to anyone’s home—and would make a thoughtful, special gift.

The subtitle of the companion volume, Illuminating the Word, says it all: The Making of The Saint John’s Bible. The author, Christopher Calderhead, is a graphic designer whose letter-based work has been exhibited in the United States and Great Britain. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews, it is a “behind-the-scenes tour” of the struggles and challenges, as well as triumphs, involved in producing The Saint John’s Bible. It, too, is a volume of high quality, including many illustrations and photographs throughout. Its 10 chapters range from “Living the Word” to “The Word Takes Flesh” to “Visio Divina.” The text is richly detailed, the imagery vivid, and the reading experience deeply rewarding.

Once you have spent time with The Saint John’s Bible, you will readily see why Newsweek magazine has hailed it “America’s Book of Kells” and Smithsonian magazine calls it “one of the extraordinary undertakings of our time.”

 

[Kevin_Walker]

What do you think of the calligraphy, prints, and illumination?