When Art and Love and Truth Come Together

Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path. – Psalm 119:105

Here is a truism: Rebekah and I both love the scriptures. Here’s another: we’re deeply partial to books. Same applies to art: love, love, love. Ergo, and not surprisingly, we have always been huge fans of beautifully illustrated books. Fun fact, back when we were first together, we would give each other Caldecott Award children’s books instead of something like flowers that would soon fade. We still have a most wonderful collection.

What better series of gifts from Rebekah, then, than volumes of the magnificent and beautifully illustrated Saint John’s Bible. These books are the definitive coming together of scripture and calligraphy and art. We first came across this gorgeous publication when an example was placed on display at the Presbyterian church we attended in North Raleigh.

I did some research and discovered that this seven-volume set is the first hand-written illuminated Bible since the invention of the printing press. It is the result of a monumental amount of work, and the entire enterprise was an inspirational journey.

The project launched in 1998 when Saint John’s Abbey and University (Minnesota) commissioned renowned calligrapher Donald Jackson to produce a hand-written, hand-illuminated Bible – the first of its kind in the almost 600 years since Gutenberg first introduced moveable type in a mechanical press around 1450.

Jackson did not do this alone, he assembled an international team. The result is a Bible that is both scripture and an important work of art. The books are so meticulously crafted that the creativity and the workmanship give praise and honor to The Creator.

Three and Counting:

I am now the happy – and grateful – owner of three of these amazing volumes. I have “Gospels and Acts,” “Letters and Revelation,” and now, as of my American Birthday, “Psalms.”