Manga Bible aims to reach a new generation of (non-) readers.
The Bible is the most read, translated, and packaged book in history. There are Bibles for soldiers, teens, dispensationalists, the reformed, golfers, and on and on. The latest effort to contextualize and target the Scriptures is The Manga Bible, just out from Doubleday.
Manga, a Japanese-inspired form of the graphic novel, is a big seller right now, so many will see its marriage with Scripture as a match made in heaven. However, this is not your father's (or mother's) Bible, according to a story in The New York Times.
The medium shapes the message. Manga often focuses on action and epic. Much of the Bible, as a result, ends up on the cutting room floor, and what remains is darker.
"It is the end of the Word as we know it, and the end of a certain cultural idea of the Scriptures as a book, as the Book," Timothy Beal, professor of religion at Case Western Reserve University, said of the reworking of the Bible in new forms, including manga. "It opens up new ways of understanding Scripture and ends up breaking the idols a bit."
While known for characters with big eyes and catwalk poses, manga is also defined by a laconic, cinematic style, with characters often doing more than talking.
In a blurb for the Manga Bible, which is published by Doubleday, the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, is quoted as saying, "It will convey the shock and freshness of the Bible in a unique way."
No doubt. In the Manga Bible, whose heroes look and sound like skateboarders in Bedouin gear, Noah gets tripped up counting the animals in the Ark: "That's 11,344 animals? Arggh! I've lost count again. I'm going to have to start from scratch!"
share thisPosted by Stan Guthrie on February 11, 2008 11:19AM
Comments
There is a passage in Reveations 22 that WARNS of people "adding" or "removing" to the Words in the Bible. Where does this particuar version fall in relation to our warning?
Posted by: Ricky Ray Taylor at February 12, 2008
We have a 13 year old daughter who loves all things Japanese and reads/watches Manga. We tried discouraging it at first, laughed at her, and then one day as I was meditating on it, it "suddenly occurred", as in a God speaking to me moment, that God could be preparing her heart as a missionary to Japan or to that culture. We have since bought her Japanese for Dummies, from which she has mastered a rudimentary knowledge of the language, she studies the culture in history, movies, etc. She has been gifted with art ability and uses it to draw manga. She is mastering Youn Wha Rhu Taekwondo in a school run by Grandmaster Han, an outspoken Korean Christian. I can't wait to get this Bible for her to read along with her "regular Bible". I don't think the Rev 22 passage has anything to do with this (or lots of other things we try to attach it to)--Ouch, that ought to get me some hate mail!
Pray for my daughter (and 100s of 1000s of youth like her in America); we know God has great plans for her; perhaps Japan or ?
Posted by: George Head at February 12, 2008
While I don't necessarily condone adding or removing anything from the canon as-is, the warning in Revelation is referring only to John's revelation. There was no Christian canon (besides Torah) at that time for anyone to modify. Also, the warning is about adding or removing words from "this prophecy."
Posted by: Mike at February 12, 2008
Truly exciting!
Posted by: Cobus at February 17, 2008
Post a comment