The New York Times on “The 100-Minute Bible”

Word of “The 100-Minute Bible” has now reached The New York Times, which has published a report by Edward Wyatt.

Wyatt’s article describes “The 100-Minute Bible” as a condensation of the Bible into 50 pages, each with a segment designed to be read in 2 minutes. Leonard Budd, the British publisher of the project, explained: “Some people objected to the very concept of messing around with the ‘sacred text,’ as they called it . . . . But if the man in the street is not reading the Bible, you have to ask, isn’t it better to read a short version than not to read the long version.”  Note his phrase, “the ‘sacred text,’ as they called it.”  What does he call it?

Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC, responded: “In this high-speed Internet age, where everybody is in a hurry, the one thing you don’t want to be in a hurry with is reading the Bible. You don’t speed-read the word of God. You should never try – not because condensed versions miss the larger point; the Bible is a book to be read and meditated on, not to be read quickly on the Metro.”

Now, that’s a radical idea — at least in this age of instant everything. See my article on “The 100-Minute Bible:” “The Bible Cut Down to Size–Scripture and the Modern Attention Span,” September 22, 2005.