Synopses & Reviews
2006 Catholic Press Association Award Winner! In this companion volume to The Saint John's Bible,Christopher Calderhead takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of this extraordinary project. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews, this book tells the story of the makers of the Bible and the community at Saint John's Abbey and University. The day-to-day struggles of such a monumental undertaking included chalenges such as the selection and preparation of more than 250 calf skins, as well as forming a team of caligraphers accustomed to working independently and communicating the concerns of the advisory council in Minnesota with the artists in Wales.
Illuminating the Word: The Making of The Saint John's Bible explores a modern version of an age-old relationship between patron and sponsor, and the artistic director, scribes and artists producing this monumentalartwork. It describes lectio divina, the unique method the Benedictine monks use to read the Bible, in which the Holy Scriptures come alive through the power of imagination. It explores the chalenge of creating new images for ancient stories. It chronicles the artistic techniques, the tools and materials and the workshop practices Donald Jackson used to create his lifetime masterpiece. Illuminating the Word reveals the working process behind one of the greatest undertakings of our time and vividly brings to life its chalenges and triumphs.
Christopher Calderhead is a visual artist and graphic designer who has exhibited his letter-based works in the United States and Great Britain. He graduated from Princeton with a bachelor's degree in Art History. His ealy interest in the English Arts and Crafts movement and formal pen lettering led him to the Roehampton Institute in London, where he studied caligraphy under Ann Camp. In 1988 he was elected to Fellowship in the Society of Scribes and Illuminators.
In 1998 he obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. Ordained the same year, he has served parishes in the Church of England and the Episcopal Church USA.
He is editor of Alphabet, a journal of the lettering arts published by the Friends of Caligraphy. His series of short radio pieces, Looking for Spirituality at Tate Modern," was broadcast on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire in 2002. His book, One Hundred Mirales, a collection of mirale paintings by the great masters, was published in 2004. He lives and works in New York City.
The Saint John's Bible and Illuminating the Word were commissioned by SaintJohn's Abbey and University as an expression of the Benedictine monks' daly focus on scripture and commitment to books, art and religious culture. "
Review
Illuminating the Word: The Making of The Saint Johns Bible is a wonderful companion or introduction to this significant Christian art project for our day.Liturgy, Hymnody, and Pulpit Quarterly Book Review
Review
. . . the appearance of the book is worthy of its magnificent subject matter.Anglican Theological Review
Review
The jacket is beautifully designed encasing a rich blue heavyweight buckram binding. The page designs are excellent and the rich coated paper stock provides a wonderful pallet for the type and four-color photographs that are found on every page.The Catholic Press Association
Review
Calderhead takes you into the details in a way that you almost feel you are there. Sometimes we almost feel we are getting under Jacksons feet, but it is worth his wrath to see what is going on.The American Benedictine Review
Review
An excellent record of the process itself. Anybody who wants to know what it is like to actually reproduce a handwritten Bible will surely want to read this book.The American Benedictine Review
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In the 10 chapters of his conversational accounting of the planning and ongoing progress of publishing The Saint Johns Bible, Calderhead takes his readers into the lives and skills of the monks, and of the scribal and artistic experts employed in the project.Prairie Messenger
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This is truly visio divina, a visual meditation on the Word of God.Prairie Messenger
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The calligraphy, gold gilding, and full-color illustrations ignite the religious imagination, inviting people to explore a living tradition of art and spirituality.The Faith Connection
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With flawless production values
, Illuminating the Word: The Making of the Saint John's Bible is impressively informed and informative. . . . [This book is] very highly recommended for seminary, church, community, and academic library Biblical Studies reference collections and supplemental studies reading lists.
Jack Mason, The Midwest Book Review
Synopsis
The time has come to tell the entire story of the creation of The Saint John's Bible. This completely updated and expanded edition of
Illuminating the Word devotes a separate chapter to each of the Bible's seven volumes. Readers get a behind-the-scenes tour of the creation of each volume, with a fascinating window into the activities, challenges, and struggles at Donald Jackson's Scriptorium in Wales. We can practically watch, through the eyes of every artist and calligrapher who participated in the project, the Bible's stunning illuminations move from conception to completion.
This edition also includes a completely new chapter on the scripts used in The Saint John's Bible that will fascinate calligraphers and lovers of the art. Still another new chapter details the production of the Heritage Edition, a high-quality, fine-art facsimile of the original that makes The Saint John's Bible available to a wider audience than the singular manuscript.
About the Author
Christopher Calderhead is a visual artist and graphic designer who has exhibited his letter-based works in the United States and Great Britain. He graduated from Princeton with a bachelor's degree in art history. In 1998 he obtained a master of divinity degree from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. Ordained the same year, he has served parishes in the Church of England and the Episcopal Church USA. He is editor of Alphabet, a journal of the lettering arts published by the Friends of Calligraphy, and author of One Hundred Miracles (2004), a collection of miracle paintings by the great masters.