archshrk » Apologetics

The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation

archshrk — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:05:14 +0000

Now this looks interesting. I just heard a story about The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation on NPR and I have to say, I’m impressed. One of the first concerns I have when I hear about new ways to present the bible is how its truth will be lost in the surface interpretation of select texts. This is especially true of children’s bibles which can mis the point of a passage entirely. From what I gathered from the interview and seeing some sample pages, this seems to take a different approach. Here, the artist tries to capture the spirit of the text rather than a summary of events.

Note that this format of bible telling is not for everyone. You have to be somewhat familiar contemporary comic book styles to appreciate the art form. That said, it is a great medium with which to tell the story of God in a graphic novel format.

From Publishers Weekly
One wouldn’t imagine that Siku, onetime artist for postmodern bloodfest Judge Dredd, would be the ideal choice for a manga-style graphic novel adaptation of the Bible, but not many pages have passed before it becomes clear that the Bible is, in fact, the perfect material for him. This audacious little book doesn’t make much effort to be authoritative and include every last Old Testament begatting or bloody massacre. Instead Siku presents jazzy and irreverent riffs on the good book, leaping brazenly over whole reams of material and scattering behind numerous Want to Know More tags directing readers to more explanatory chapter and verse. The action is breezy and flip, drawn in a sharp and Anglicized manga style. The dialogue is not just laced with humorously incongruous Britishisms (My maths has never been very good!) but with slangy passages worthy of the CW Network (Cain to Abel, Whassup, bro?). Although the book (already a hit in the U.K.) is being released via Doubleday’s Galilee imprint and is clearly targeted at youthful believers, it makes little attempt to sanitize the grottier aspects of the source material, as witnessed in the scene where a crowd of Sodom’s citizens bellow, Bring out those men so that we can rape them!

Ajinbayo “Siku” Akinsuku is author and illustrator of The Manga Bible. He says he reproduced the Bible using the popular animation style to keep the religious message relevant to younger generations.

“It’s a way of making a relevant message contemporary … It was time for us to update the biblical message,” says Siku, who prefers to call book an “interpretation,” rather than a “new version” of the Bible.

Siku is just one part of the duo behind the graphic narratives. The book is the result of a collaboration with his brother, Akin, a film and television script writer. Of their dynamic, Siku describes himself as “the concepts person.”

Those concepts, illustrated in The Manga Bible, are just as reflective of Siku’s personal convictions as they are of his academic training as a theologian. Speaking openly about his belief in Christianity, the artist says that even if he hadn’t studied theology, he’d still have interest in creating the book.

“Being a theologian [just] helps me do the work better,” Siku says.

I think in the West, especially in Western Europe, biblical narratives are no longer the narratives we actually use now. Lots of kids actually don’t know what the Moses story is about. So it’s a way of making those grand narratives familiar again, especially in Western Europe. I mean, that’s one way of looking at it.

Another way of looking at it is it gives Christians who think they know the Bible a spin on that you have to see the Bible differently. I have presented Christ and God, and in fact all the other main characters, I’ve presented them a little different from what people are used to.

So on two fronts, I’m making a generation of people who have lost those narratives kind of familiar with them again, and then those – well that generation that are familiar, churchgoers for example, a fresh interpretation.

Taken from the NPR program Tell Me More February 22, 2008Similar Posts:

The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation

The Death of Celebration

archshrk — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:38:28 +0000

Tom’s letter on the tsunami in 2005…relevant in light of the recent earthquake in Haiti*

I have had a few months to reflect on the tsunami that killed upwards of 250,000 people in Southeastern Asia . I have heard sermons, read obituaries, and seen images that evoked a range of emotions. I have talked to people that tell me we should celebrate the life of the deceased and not dwell on the death. And I have attended a memorial in the past with this same sentiment. The memorial service was celebrating the life of a former college professor of mine who died prematurely and in “celebration” the service was held on the beach at one of his favorite surf spots. I suppose this memorial service was intended to be a kind of subtle reminder of the new day we all have as we reflect on another’s death

The Death of Celebration

*Thanks for the reminder Iris, and thank you Tom for writing this letter.Similar Posts:

The Death of Celebration

Desiring God: free download

archshrk — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:24:10 +0000

Free Audiobook Download of the Month from christianaudio.com…
Each month christianaudio gives away a premium audiobook download for free. How does it work? Well, they give away one audiobook download that they have published or that a partner has allowed them to give away absolutely free; available only during that month and only once, ever.

This months free download is John Piper’s Desiring God. Other Piper audio books are on sale for $4.98 (Nov. 1 – Nov. 21)

“Mind-hammering and heart-warming, Desiring God ignites a passion for God that would set the world ablaze if it were the norm and not the exception today.” -Os Guiness

“The healthy biblical realism of this study in Christian motivation comes as a breath of fresh air. Jonathan Edwards, whose ghost walks through most of Piper’s pages, would be delighted with his disciple.” -J.I. Packer

Scripture reveals that the great business of life is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. In this paradigm-shattering classic, newly revised and expanded, John Piper reveals that the debate between duty and delight doesn’t truly exist: Delight is our duty. Join him as he unveils stunning, life impacting truths you saw in the Bible but never dared to believe.

John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis since 1980, is the author of The Dangerous Duty of Delight, Desiring God, Future Grace, A Godward Life, and The Pleasures of God. He received his doctorate in theology from the University of Munich and taught biblical studies for six years at Bethel College, St. Paul, before becoming a pastor. He and his wife, Noel, have four sons and one daughter.

Purchase the print version of Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist directly from Amazon!Similar Posts:

Desiring God: free download

Not done lightly

archshrk — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:28:46 +0000

Frank Turk of … and his ministers a flame of fire recently wrote a series of posts regarding the issue of leaving the local church. The series is in response to John MacArthur’s post: When Should People Leave Their Church? which begins…

Leaving a church is not something that should be done lightly. Too many people abandon churches for petty reasons. Disagreements over simple matters of preference are never a good reason to withdraw from a sound, Bible-believing church. Christians are commanded to respect, honor, and obey those whom God has placed in positions of leadership in the church (Heb. 13:7,17). However, there are times when it becomes necessary to leave a church for the sake of one’s own conscience, or out of a duty to obey God rather than men.

It’s the However part that gets Frank rolling and I think it would benefit all of you to read the MacArthur post, then read Frank’s entire series (including comments) before you consider leaving a local church. It has convicted me and I think it will do the same for you. Some scripture you should read in regards to this issue are listed below:

Without further ado, Not done lightly: parts (1), (2), (2-A), (2-B), (3), (3-A), (4)

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Not done lightly

H.R. 1913 is not anti-christian

archshrk — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:19:10 +0000

You may have received an email similar to this one…

Persecution today announced that there is a measure before Congress (H.R. 1913) that will effectively make it a hate crime to call homosexuality a sin. It also will make it a hate crime to call Islam a “False Religion.” Write to you congressman (or woman) to protest this violation of the Freedom of Religion. The more people that complain to their representatives, the more likely it will fail.

Problem is, its not true. I read the measure and think this claim is a bit exaggerated. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1913: To provide Federal assistance to States, local jurisdictions, and Indian tribes to prosecute hate crimes, and for other purposes.

In short, this measure simply amends the existing Chapter 13 of title 18, United States Code to provide grants to local jurisdictions to investigate “hate crimes”. Hate crimes, as described, are when someone “willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person”. Or the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person when the ‘hate crime’ crosses state lines or national borders.

And, Section 10 specifically says “Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution.”

And what of those “other purposes”? They amend the Hate Crimes Statistics Act (28 U.S.C. 534 note) to include `gender and gender identity,’ after `race,’ and `, including data about crimes committed by, and crimes directed against, juveniles‘ after `data acquired under this section‘.

No Christian can say that causing bodily injury to any person because of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability is Christ like. So the only valid objection is financial.Similar Posts:

H.R. 1913 is not anti-christian

Jesus was a Good Teacher

archshrk — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:16:37 +0000

This was too good not to share.

Challenge: I believe Jesus was a moral example and a great sage and teacher.

Response: …who sagaciously taught that He was God incarnate, the only sufficient sacrifice for man’s sins, and the only mediator between God and man; who made worship of Him as God a moral imperative; and taught that anyone who doesn’t believe in Him, and believe all those things about Him, is going to Hell? Hey, yeah! Me too!

And Barbara replied with this:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” – CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

And yet there are some mis-guided souls who go so far as to contend that Jesus of Nazareth did not exist as a historical person and that the Jesus of earliest Christianity is a mythological being to whom earthly events were later attached -despite the evidence.Similar Posts:

Jesus was a Good Teacher

How the Irish Saved Civilization

archshrk — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:29:35 +0000

On the last, cold day of December in the dying year we count as 406, the river Rhine froze solid, providing the natural bridge that hundreds of thousands of hungry men, women, and children had been waiting for. Thus begins the Thomas Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization

In this delightful and illuminating look into a crucial but little-known “hinge” of history, Thomas Cahill takes us to the “island of saints and scholars,” the Ireland of St. Patrick and the Book of Kells. Here, far from the barbarian despoliation of the continent, monks and scribes laboriously, lovingly, even playfully preserved the West’s written treasury. When stability returned in Europe, these Irish scholars were instrumental in spreading learning, becoming not only the conservators of civilization, but also the shapers of the medieval mind, putting their unique stamp on Western culture.

Personally, I enjoyed this book but upon looking at the various reviews, I notice that it comes under a lot of fire for being nothing more than “propaganda”. But then, is it really? Most of the critics point to the lack of sources to back up Cahill’s claims but I never felt this was meant to be a historical proof. Rather, it is a telling of the events that led people out of the dark ages. One claim that is hotly contested is that “Latin literature would almost surely have been lost without the Irish,” and he further asserts, but without much argument, that the national literatures of Europe might not have emerged had the Irish not forged the first great vernacular literature of Europe.

But I think what these historical critics are missing is the big picture. Not just the details of civilization, but the way it was saved. There is a transitional period of time in history that is mostly neglected by historians. This period is bracketed by two historical events of ponderous importance — the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Dark Ages. A few historians have touched upon this period, and a couple have even gone so far as to give credit, but none have taken the burden upon themselves to write an extended piece on it. Until Thomas Cahill, that is.Similar Posts:

How the Irish Saved Civilization

The New Calvinism

archshrk — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:32:23 +0000

Didn’t expect to see this…

Calvinism, cousin to the Reformation’s other pillar, Lutheranism, is a bit less dour than its critics claim: it offers a rock-steady deity who orchestrates absolutely everything, including illness (or home foreclosure!), by a logic we may not understand but don’t have to second-guess. Our satisfaction — and our purpose — is fulfilled simply by “glorifying” him. In the 1700s, Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards invested Calvinism with a rapturous near mysticism. Yet it was soon overtaken in the U.S. by movements like Methodism that were more impressed with human will. Calvinist-descended liberal bodies like the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) discovered other emphases, while Evangelicalism’s loss of appetite for rigid doctrine — and the triumph of that friendly, fuzzy Jesus — seemed to relegate hard-core Reformed preaching (Reformed operates as a loose synonym for Calvinist) to a few crotchety Southern churches. The New Calvinism — TIME Magazine

HT: Sam Shin

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The New Calvinism

Single greatest quote of all year

archshrk — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:04:27 +0000

… and his ministers a flame of fire: Stop asking me

The problem is not that there’s too much conservatism: it’s that there’s a lot of unfounded, flabby conservatism running around with plastic fishes attached to it rather than a robust, young, and dangerous conservatism riding around on the fat, noisy Harley which is the Gospel.

’nuff said.
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Single greatest quote of all year

The Brick Testament

archshrk — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:29:20 +0000

The Brick Testament is the largest, most comprehensive illustrated Bible in the world with over 3,600 illustrations that retell more than 300 stories from The Bible.

Launched first as a website in 2001, then as a published book series in 2003, The Brick Testament project is an ongoing one-man labor of love, constructed and photographed entirely by The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith.

391 stories with 4,214 illustrations. More to come…

- CONTENT NOTICE -
The Bible contains material some may consider morally objectionable and/or inappropriate for children. These labels identify stories containing:

N= nudity
S= sexual content
V= violence
C= cursing

HT: David A. Porter
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The Brick Testament