Re-packaging The Gospel

Phyllis Tickle, a former religion editor of Publishers Weekly and the author of popular prayer books, states, “There's a certain scandal to what's happened to Bible publishing over the last fifteen years.”

The irony is that Ms. Tickle is involved in this repackaging movement.

In an article printed in the New Yorker, the reporter states... Tickle is contributing to a new Bible paraphrase for Nelson called “The Voice,” which is intended for the progressive emergent church, so she is not entirely opposed to modern repackaging.

The problem, as she sees it, is that “instead of demanding that the believer, the reader, the seeker step out from the culture and become more Christian, more enclosed within ecclesial definition, we're saying, ‘You stay in the culture and we'll come to you.'

And, therefore, how are we going to separate out the culturally transient and trashy from the eternal?”

The consumerist culture in which BibleZines and the like participate is, to Tickle, “entirely antithetical to the traditional Christian understanding of meekness and self-denial and love and compassion.”

In Tickle's view, reimagining the Bible according to the latest trends is not merely a question of surmounting a language barrier. It involves violating “something close to moral or spiritual barriers.”