A couple weeks ago, I reacted to the news of the Angelina Jolie Bible (aka, “Bible Illuminated: The Book”) with my eyes rolling, but I also suspected that there might be more to the project than meets the eye. And there is. But I’ve delayed writing about it because I’m still reflecting on what that is is. 

I do know this: If we live in a world that must have its magazine Bibles, and apparently, we do, then this is the kind of Bible zine I’d subscribe to. Put another way, if I had a teenage daughter who could only be convinced to read glossies, I’d prefer she pick up this over other options. Some of the art choices in Bible Illuminated are discordant (a swimming polar bear over Paul’s “hope is unseen” passage), but many others are compelling (one favorite is a bling-wearing Chihuahua underneath the Romans 1 passage about worshipping images of the Creator). The publishers don’t have the grandest vision of What the Bible is About (their answer, in short, is  “ethics”), but to their credit, they demand that the book be read as an indication of what we are supposed to do with the world. 

To that end, Bible Illuminated takes the Bible seriously. No one could read it without realizing that the Bible makes claims on us, that being called to the kingdom of God means living for the good of others over ourselves. The gospel of Luke, for instance, is prefaced with a reprint of powerful photos related to the eight Millennium Development Goals. Just flipping through BI, you’d be hard pressed to understand the message on offer in so many of the other Bible zines: that the Bible, just like Cosmo, Money, and Martha Stewart Living, is filled with clever tips for living. That’s not just an improvement over the nasty notion that the Bible is the world’s greatest self help book; it’s an improvement over the notion that the Bible is something just for your private encounter with God. The Bible Illuminated, if nothing else, will provoke you and make you want to show it others, question it, talk about what it’s doing and why. It stands to be a shared Bible, a Bible that prompts exchanges, which gets it closer to what the Bible oughta be.