Post Modern Bible Stories
The name of the book is “Post Modern Bible Stories: Sunday School Never Looked Like This.”
The book is a collection of 45 postcards created by a assortment of designers and illustrators. Each postcard has an illustration on the front and a short paragraph sumarizing the story on the back accompanied by a few words by the artist. First of all, this is not an easy task for an illustrator! Not only did they have to illustrate some of the most widely recognized stories in the world, the format was a 4×6 postcard. If that weren’t enough, the whole piece needed to stand on its own with little more than a few sentences found on the back of each card. My hat is off to the illustrators for accepting the challenge and boldly proclaiming their faith. 
As you would expect from 45 relatively unknown illustrators (at least unknown to me), some of the postcards are good and some aren’t that great. At the worst, the skill level reminds me of those montage things you make when you are first learning Photoshop. At the best, the illustrations were ispirational and moving. The illustrations that stood out for me were by Chris Koelle. His illustration for the prodical son was the highpoint of the book for me. Not only is it a strong symbolic story, it was one of the few illustrations that broke free of mediocrity and actually touched me. Chris’s other contribution was an illustration of Jacob wrestling with God that you can see on the right. Chris’s site is worth a visit, too, he is a fine illustrator.
Aside from the few truely inspiring moments, this book has left me scratching my head. First of all, what am I supposed to do with 45 postcards? Second, who is the intended audience for this book? That second question is where my real criticism is directed…
It was painfully obvious that this book was meant to appeal to a secular audience. Listen to how the website’s description of the book that tries too hard to sound hip:
“Art meets the Bible. Without all the cheese. This ain’t your grandmother’s big honkin’ coffee-table Word of God. Nope. This is what happens when some of the best illustrators and designers in the world take on the Sunday school classics. From the Garden of Eden to the End of Days, this is the intensity and drama of the Old and New Testaments like you’ve never seen. It’s visually stunning. It’s spiritually challenging. It’s Scripture with street cred.”
The shorthand Bible stories throughout the book are all written in this same lingo, and quite frankly it bothered me. It just sounds like a desperate plea to be taken seriously. It does everything but apologize for having a Christian message. I think this is a trap that much of “Christian” media falls into. Rather than creating something truely stunning, innovative, inspirational, original or ambitious, most of the energy gets spent on simply trying to appear relevant. As a result the message gets lost, or worse the product ends up being a “Christian” version of a secular product that has “proven” to be relevant. It isn’t surprising that the company that published this book is called Relevant Books. I don’t want to get caught up on that word, but it just seems like if you have to tell me your books are “relevant” then I get the impression that you don’t really believe your message has enough power to stand on its own. I think the illustrations and artist statements were strong enough that the corny text really hurt the message. In conclusion, here is my advice: Buy the book – just don’t read it!
May 17th, 2006 at 11:00 am
I suspected it would only be a matter of time before I saw some actual reviews of this collection pop up – I’m pleased to see that it happened a little “closer to home” in the digital sense via BE A. I’d noticed this in a recent issue of Relevant magazine that one of my students passed my way and found my interest and skepticism both piqued in equal doses…
I didn’t see any of the copywriting that was meant to accompany the illustrations, and I have to say that reading samples of it on Relevant Books’ site very much backs up your sentiments that the publisher / artists somehow felt the actual biblical text wasn’t relevant enough to pass on to a wider audience. The slangish synopsis provided with each card takes a really needlessly flippant tone with the material – I often appreciated the comments from the illustrators almost more than the bible-bites scripture. Many of them added more spiritual resonance to the imagery than the “actual” bible text…How’s that for a tragic irony…
It’s been a major sentiment of mine for quite a while that far too much “Christian” media is often a twice-warmed-over version of some secular success story, primarily in look / style, but often enough creeping into the content as well. While many of the illustrators shown in the sample of this collection certainly work in a contemporary style, there’s very little that even qualifies as legitimately post-modern about their illustrative messaging. Most choose contemporary rendering & collage techniques to generate fairly classical and truly “illustrative” imagery that displays scenes / characters / narrative elements from the source text – not many seemed willing to attempt things that were actually referential / appropriative / ironic / etc. that would more readily connect with post-modernist works.
What seems really confusing about the message this project is conveying is that scripture itself (or at least certain translations of it) lacks an inherent relevance that needs to be filled in by contemporary stylistic language and imagery – that it has to be supported by “street cred” to reach an audience. The litmus test that each image and word involved in this project seemingly have to pass is whether an artist / writer has actually brought anything more than contemporary decorations to the text and if they’ve left the text enriched or simply costumed in something more “contemporary” and familiar.
May 17th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Glad you liked Chris’ work on this project. Check out his personal online gallery at http://www.christopherkoelle.com/gallery.
Good night! This is good discussion.
May 17th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
After viewing the sample, I entirely see why Adrian asks who the audience is–’cause it’s certainly not me. Perhaps if the book only had the illustrators’ comments and the illustrations, I’d be more inclined to buy myself a copy and look at every page. The text is overworked, like young actors trying too hard.
May 19th, 2006 at 11:26 am
I agree that more times than not, when the Christian industry tries to be “relevant”, it ends up being quite the opposite.
However, I think the Relevant Media Group does a good job overall.
I would guess that the audience this book was made for was for anyone interested in the Bible, or has been effected by it, or inspired by it.
(However the way the bible verses were written made it seem like it was worded for Junior High kids. I think they should have stuck with the New International Version)
I don’t think the people behind this book didn’t think the message wasn’t relevant enough by itself, I would guess they believe that this book has inspired and effected so many people, that to see others’ interpretations through graphics would be interesting.
I’m often curious to hear how it effects and inspires people, so I like how they have the artist’s comments on the page as well as their images.
May 22nd, 2006 at 5:21 am
To be honest, someone promoting the Bible as “Scripture with street cred” doesn’t even know what it means to be relevant. It’s a cheap imitation of popular culture.
Things like this make me wonder, is it just that Christians aren’t creative? Or are they just afraid to be?
June 9th, 2006 at 5:52 am
Here’s another one. SermonJams.com. The first thing you will no doubt notice when you get to the first page is a poorly done homegrown iPod add ripoff and the words “relevant revolution” which to be honest, if I hadn’t already heard some of their stuff would have turned me off instantly. I probably would have closed the browser right there, but that wasn’t the case.
Ravi Zacharius is the speaker I was enjoying. He had something to say, and the music made it better. It’s another attempt to be hip, cool in a world where Christians seem afraid to just have a message. But their product carries the message well, if only their adds did…
June 21st, 2006 at 12:36 pm
I think this book was made with good intentions, but I agree with many of the statements thus far . . . They are just trying too hard to be cool.
I think a good deal of college marketing ends up doing the same thing. The problem is that the marketers and relevant hopefuls pigeon hole all youth (I assume this is the target market of this book) into a fun and party-all-the-time attitude. It is as if they think that young adults can’t be serious, even when dealing with serious subjects. For instance, if a student is looking into a school, they most likely want to know that they will be getting an education that will help them get a job in the future. Of course they want to know that they will have fun too, but they can do that anywhere. The Bible is a serious text and I think the majority of people could see the relevance without resorting to “hip lingo”.
The quick paraphrase of the Biblical text almost feels like an insult to the translations that have been done already. There are so many recent and relevant translations of the Bible, I just don’t see the need to dumb down the text in such a way.
I do enjoy the illustrations, but many of them fall into a similar pitfall as the text. There is a lot of pretty surface treatment, but little depth.
Like Adrian stated, this was not an easy task and I think it is great that it was done, I just don’t think it was the best solution for the intended goal.
Armin posted a review of Post Modern Bible Stories over on Speak Up yesterday.
June 21st, 2006 at 2:36 pm
“Things like this make me wonder, is it just that Christians aren’t creative? Or are they just afraid to be?”
Tom,
No, to answer your first question. Christians are just people. Nor more or less inherently creative than Muslims.
Yes, to answer your second question. We (myself included) are afraid to be. The Reformation killed visual creativity in the Church for several hundred years. I would say that only in the past 30 years (since the Jesus People an Hippie movement) has there been any awakening among Christians. Just the attempt to publish a work like this is a positive sign (however flat and misguided its strategy was). There was a time, prior to the Reformation, where all the great works of art in the Western world (architecture and music too for that matter), were the dominion of the Christian church. So, please keep this in perspective when viewing a work like Post Modern Bible Stories.
June 21st, 2006 at 3:37 pm
Tom, sorry for leaving your question unanswered so long, and thanks Frank, for filling in the blanks.
At first I hesitate to agree with the assumption that Christians are “afraid to be creative.” I am a Christian, and consider myself to be creative. However, I think I would agree if it were stated like this: It takes courage to be creative with something that is blatantly Christian.
June 22nd, 2006 at 5:34 am
Thanks for answering. I really intended it to be more rhetorical, as I myself am a Christian.
I just often become frustrated when Christian creative work rarely is.
Good answers though. It does take courage and I can honestly say as of yet, I haven’t been one to jump out and try anything really creative that wears a Christian label yet…yet.
June 22nd, 2006 at 6:52 am
This thread is really interesting. I am actually one of the artists that contributed to the book and am kinda surprised at the reviews. This book was never meant to be a replacement bible. Nothing can do that. The idea was just to interpret the stories of the bible with illustration and design. It’s not a direct evangelical tool, although it has sparked discussion which is good.
I think there is a lot of truth about the mediocrity of the “Christian Arts‚Äù, at least in the past hundred years or so. I don’t know if it’s some kind of fear about being part of the “world‚Äù or what, but it’s something. On the other other hand there have been some good steps made by the likes of Relevant and many other independent artists which you’ll probably never hear about. The music scene has improved as well. I’m of the thought that if you’re a Christian or not you should be tops in what ever you do. No excuses. The thing is that there are a lot of Christian artists out there that are doing kick A work but because it’s not evangelical in context so it’s not associated with “Christian Art‚Äù. It’s a weird fuzzy line.
Having said all that, I think that some of the work in the postcard book is definitely stronger than others and the language may have been trying too hard, but over all I think it’s a great step in the right direction. I feel the sample they have on the site doesn’t really do justice per say to the book in it’s entirety. Buy one and review it as opposed to looking at the PDF.
–out
June 22nd, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Just to build off of one of Andy’s thoughts:
“This book was never meant to be a replacement bible.”
That’s both a fair comment and a bit of a gateway into what still strikes me as unfortunately thin about the way this book has been presented / marketed – it’s fully granted within the presentation that /Postmodern Bible Stories was not conceived as a substitute for the real thing, but it’s difficult to argue that it doesn’t present itself as being an alternative window into some of the contents of the Bible, and in that function pours several glasses of fairly tepid concentrate from a source that is infinitely richer, broader, and deeper than the textual elements of this collection allude to.
I was frankly glad to see, just like you point out, that many of the illustrators who contributed to this collection are very much pursuing their craft / art as applied to many types of content, Christian and secular. I was glad, also, to find that in several of the portfolios of the contributing artists there were strong examples of their skills displayed both on the secular work and on the work with Christian themes, messages, or simply overtones.
What still strikes me as thin about this collection is that it DOES make the claim to being a way to explore, understand, and gain some vantage point on the Old Testament and New Testament in both word and image, then fails in about 60% of the content to accomplish anything other than applying style like so much make-up on top of whisper thin translations of the source. And I judge that now having seen the entirety of the collection as well as having seen the samples that Relevant provides – and judge it after having seen several of Relevant’s other media / publishing efforts that I think are WAY stronger than this collection. Their magazine is a perfect example of a publication where they hit some terrific notes consistently – they are completely unafraid to turn a Christian eye on the stuff of the world, but unafraid to reach out into that world in order to do so. They handle all of the content of the magazine, scriptural or otherwise, with a very “full-strength” attitude and beautifully make very little “noise” about doing so…
This is Christianity expressed honestly in media production – content and vantage point are delivered unapologeticly and with sincere investment. The interests of the writers and artists working from this standpoint are simply presented, and the producers plainly refuse to divide material exclusively into Christian/non-Christian categories, offering the contents unadulterated for a reader / viewer to digest.
To return to the postcards, it simply seemed like the entirety of the publication would have functioned so much more smoothly if the scriptural source had been provided as simply as chapter / verse notations rather than run through the slang/style-filter first – I felt similarly about approximately 35% of the illustrations.
June 22nd, 2006 at 3:11 pm
I realize that my statement made an absolutely unfair implication.
I should clarify as I sort of did in a previous post. I am generally frustrated with “Christian Arts”, which led to a general statement, which was directed at the most commonly seen.
I actually agree that the effort put forth and intentions they no doubt had with Post Modern Bible Stories is a step forward. However, I very much agree with Adrian’s statment “Rather than creating something truely stunning, innovative, inspirational, original or ambitious, most of the energy gets spent on simply trying to appear relevant.”
To me, it feels like that what this project did.
And while I realize and appreciate that there are brilliantly creative Christians out there, using their talents very effectively. My statement was directed at what is released with the Christian label. I see this changing as time goes, and I’m excited about that.
I hope I didn’t offend anyone because of my poorly stated frustrations.
July 10th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
Good day,
I am also an artist that contributed to this book, and I really have to say I am honored that I was chosen to collaborate with these other great individuals. It was also morally satisfying for me to have two works selected in the final product. No words shall rip my pride in honoring something that is dear to my heart, and being able to show it with an image.
Faith is something we believe in our hearts and in our souls. To share something like this is very special and from my own approach on the project, I really tried to keep the faith element in perspective. I decided not to use the bible thumping powers, but decided to keep my work open ended, thus allowing the viewer to decide for themselves. For that is power and choice.
This was emotionally challenging, propaganda or not, these 45 images/views are from human beings and their own bold interpretation of faith in some simply amazing stories. It is simply art.
It is nice to have a change, and any of the given artists could have picked a classic iconic image to replicate in their own way, but they did not. They used their own two hands to craft something from their soul and heart. If that is not beautiful, I am not sure what is.
August 1st, 2006 at 12:43 pm
haven’t read the book yet but the comments I heard are mostly positive. I guess I have to reveal the truth myself.
August 2nd, 2006 at 8:10 am
The comments in this thread are quite interesting. There seems to be three groups. There’s the “but it shows our faith!!! so it’s good” group, the “Christian art is bad” group, and the group that the majority of us are in, which is the “I can look at this from a critical point of view and be reasonable in my outlook, Christian or not.” It’s funny, because while the vast majority of responses have been reasonalbe and constructive, it seems as if we’re all trying to describe the same thing, just from 100 different angles. I agree with most statements in that the text didn’t need to be run through the “urban youth” filter, and I also agree that not all of the images are asthetically successful.
Since there are at least 2 of the artists posting here, I have a question. Obviously this book is a direct reference/compliment/reimagining of the Bible, therefore my question doesnt directly apply to this particular work. However, it seems to me that there is a distinct difference between Chrisitan Art, and “Chrisitan Art”. Example – I’ve heard that if you work for a book publisher that is officially considered a “Christian Book Publisher”, then there are certain requirements (i.e. you have to make x bible references, the good/evil dichotomy has to be explicitly spelled out, etc.) in order to get your book published. In contrast, if a non-Christian publisher puts the book out, there aren’t these direct requirements/restrictions. So, my question is, do you feel that producing this art for a “Christian Book Publisher” is more restrictive, thus detrimental to the art itself, than if a traditional publisher put out similar works, with a Christian outlook, yet not as a “Christian Publsiher”?
March 14th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
I grew up Christian, but I haven’t been once since about 17 (ten years ago). Regardless of my faith, I think the illustrations would have been much more effective with the original bible text, and not a ‘hipper’ version. Let the art speak for itself. It’s like labeling something ‘Christian rock’ when it should just be ‘rock’ and if the musicians are Christians, let them show that by their examples and not by blatantly trying to hip it up for the kiddies. That aside, the illustrations and art are pretty good, and a nice modern take on the old stories.