SMITCHing

Robert Crumb's illustrated rendering of the Bible's first 50 chapters carries an "adult supervision recommended for minors" warning. Long in the works, it's now finally available. Crumb is notorious for his quirky, sexually-charged eye, and is considered by many to be the godfather of underground comics. He's also probably familiar to a host of ex-hippies who converted to Christianity during the Jesus Movement of the 60's and 70's—many of whom are now respectable, middle-aged Evangelicals. Crumb admits that he doesn't believe the Bible is God's word, but acknowledges the power of it's stories. He follows in a long line of illustrators drawn to the text, from Albrecht Durer to Barry Moser . In fact, there were illustrators wanting to show us what the stories might have looked like as soon as it became possible to mass-produce the Scriptures in print. It makes me wonder why artists, particularly those who aren't of the faith, continue ...

I read the blog of a good friend today. Spreading Goodness is written by Ron Frost. In his most recent post, he makes an important point about God's essential nature in relationship to His attributes, or as Ron writes, His perfections. Ron also makes an interesting observation about theologians. "...the Fall will still account for a human bias towards domesticating God and his word: of making God into a resource for human self-love." I was struck by the correspondence between this statement and a recent conversation I had with a number of pastors. They were bemoaning the lack of Bible reading among those they serve. And when their charges did read it, many tended to disregard the pressure Scripture asserted on their selfish pursuits. As a result, they became autonomous self-justifying theologians. A conversation like this is not uncommon. "I know God wants me to be happy, and I'm not right now." "But you realize of course that arguably the Bible only a...