ABOUT US - Verlag Bibel und Kunst

Our Intentions

The Christian Bible was written for everyone. However, many people nowadays are undecided about the Bible. Is the Bible still worth reading? We would like to answer this question. The result is the founding of our publishing house and our first two books. And hopefully there will be more to come in the future.

We would like to prepare the way for a newly founded faith which remains strong in spite of all the current crises in the church and in our faith. We can draw deep inspiration in our personal lives from the Christian Bible which has two parts, but is ONE book. If we understand what we believe and why our relationship to God is important, we will become immune to the temptation of indifference.

Our Logo

The logo of our publishing house is the “burning bush”. The story of the burning bush is told in the Book of Exodus. Here God reveals Himself to Moses, the great prophet of Israel. God tells Moses what He wants to be called and how He wants to be viewed. The story of the burning bush, which burns without being consumed, expresses the paradoxical nature of God who is close yet simultaneously distant. In the fire of His thorns, He escapes human capture, yet, at the same time, He is invisibly there and warms with the power of His “fire”.

Thus, the symbol of the burning bush stands for the polyphonic concept of God which underlies our book. It visualizes what we would like to attain, namely, to strike a spark where all seems absent and to illuminate the biblical texts anew, where they seem to have been lost in the dark. Just as the fire calls for respect, we want to carefully consider God and constantly keep in mind that we can never capture the mystery of God in words.

On our way through the Bible we want to rediscover the neglected Old Testament as Christians. Generations of Christians have ignored it, and even today many Christians are unable to come to terms with the first part of their Bible. Thus, an alarming anti-Semitism has taken hold which might not have spread in such a terrifying way had Christians cherished their precious Jewish heritage from the beginning. The New Testament is supported by the Old and relies on it to uncover its meaning. On the other hand, the Old Testament does not need the New to be understood. It can stand on its own and should be allowed to speak for itself without immediately being interpreted or corrected by the New Testament.

Clarity of thought and transparency are very important values to us in our daily work. We try to combine accuracy from the biblical text with simplicity in the phrasing of our commentaries. Everyone should understand what we mean. To be sure, the biblical texts are rendered as faithfully as possible, yet we have made use of a great number of standard translations by way of comparison. At the same time, we try to preserve the beauty of the texts and not sacrifice poetry to unambiguity. The commentaries conjure up questions which may arise in any straightforward reading. The answers rely on insights from current academic theology.

We consider it crucial to connect faith with reason. The two belong together. Whoever believes should understand what s/he believes, and whoever thinks should always remember the limits of his/her cognitive faculty. It is one of the most precious matters of life to have religion. However, the danger of its misuse is eminent. We try to set our cautious, reason-based involvement with biblical texts against any kind of religious fundamentalism, without the fear of being questioned in this modern age. We don’t want to load our readers down with reproducible knowledge, but to help them fill their lives with deep meaning. And we have to admit: just like all our understanding is fragmentary, our faith and perception of biblical texts will remain provisional.

On our way through the Bible, we choose the visual arts as our partner. Biblical texts and great art have at least one feature in common: They can never be fully explained. Questions remain and meaning remains hidden. Wherever art and the Bible begin a dialogue, suspense steps in. It must be clear, though: art interprets and evaluates. It can provoke dissent while simultaneously delighting and reassuring. It helps us to see our biblical subject in a new light. Due to religion, art has brought forth some of its most beautiful and moving paintings.
Pictures are more direct than texts. They can touch us immediately. This is why they are so important, in particular for our children. It makes a great difference which kind of pictures they see when we read Bible stories to them. Pictures remain with us our entire lives. No well-intentioned graphic artist for children can capture the divine mystery; it becomes flat all too quickly and changes the feelings we have connected to the illustrated biblical text in a negative way. Only classical art in its unfathomable depth can be a worthy partner of the Bible.

Of course, the definition of art is a matter of debate. Where does art begin, and where does it end? The criteria for the choice of our works of art will always have to remain subjective to some extent.

Mose vor dem brennenden Dornbusch, Mosaik, Ravenna, Basilika San Vitale, 6. Jahrhundert — Moses and the Burning Bush, 6^th century, Mosaic, Ravenna, Basilica of San Vitale.