Young Christian entrepreneurs are bringing an Instagram aesthetic to the Bible. Alabaster Co. produces books of the Bible with large, artistic images. The Deseret News asked Richard Flory, CRCC’s Senior Director of Research and Evaluation, about whether the books might help bring young people to Christianity.
Here is an excerpt from the story:
However, there’s a difference between picking up a book on a coffee table and flipping through it and actually sitting down to read and contemplate it, said Richard Flory, senior director of research and evaluation at the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture.
“Any sacred text only makes a difference if you use it,” Flory said, adding that Alabaster’s books “are essentially art objects. People don’t want to use them, they want to look at them.”
Flory also said he wasn’t convinced that Alabaster’s redesigning of the Bible would lead someone who doesn’t already identify as Christian to engage with the text, because the Bible is no longer part of America’s “cultural language.”
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In another story about Kanye West’s weekly “Sunday Service,” The Deseret News repeated a different quote from Flory from the above article:
“What is the brand?” asked Richard Flory, senior director of research and evaluation at the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture, as reported by the Deseret News in May. “Is it the object, or the internal text of the Bible? Is it Kanye, or is it, ‘Let’s get people back to church?’”
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