Post-it : An Illuminated Bible

Makoto Fujimura, artist

When I was in New York I visited the Museum of Biblical Art. Perhaps like me you never knew such a place existed.  It's supported by the American Bible Society and housed in the same building is their vast collection of Bibles. To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible the Museum had on display the original paintings of Makoto Fujimura, the artist whose work is included in a new illuminated edition of the Holy Gospels just published by Crossway.  These are beautiful non-figurative paintings, one for each gospel and one of Jesus' tears. The paintings were hung in such a way that you could imagine them interacting with one another across the space.

I can't think of a Bible that contains non-figurative art. ...Well, I guess I've seen some that have rather abstract art, but always with words written to make clear the message. What an incredibly inviting and freeing experience it was to view these paintings associated with the gospels. There were no images of Jesus to constrain our imaginations.

This morning I read a little piece by Bruno Barnhart suggesting that we might think of the New Testament "as a single energy field, the global field of the Spirit. We can imagine each text--sometimes even each word--as emanating its own little energy field around itself as the aura or soul of the word."  He imagines these fields "overlapping, interacting, joining and parting, resonating and engaging, fusing and multiplying."

Perhaps that kind of understanding of Scripture moved Fujimura to paint as he did. You can get a tiny taste of the artist and his work at http://www.makotofujimura.com/four-holy-gospels/