For those who have been vaguely enticed by Christianity but can’t be bothered to read the tome that is the Bible, there’s hope and a new gimmick on the market; Reverend Michael Hinton has, after years of toil and vicious editing, edited and published the new 100-Minute Bible. Miniature both in content and in style, 11,000 copies of the notebook sized Bible will be distributed to British churches and schools.

The Bishop of Jarrow, Rev John Pritchard, served as a consultant on the book and offered a rigorously non-theological take on the 100-Minute Bible, in which all 66 books of the Christian holy text have been condensed like a literary cheat sheet.  “This is an attempt to say, ‘Look, there’s a great story here – let’s get into it and let’s not get put off by the things that are going to be the sub-plot. Let’s give you the big plot’,” was the Reverend’s sunny outlook.

Indeed, it is precisely the “big plot,” of the Bible — its nuances, its theological distinctions, and its literary, historical, and sacred characteristics — that such an attempt at abridgement destroys.  And Mr. Pritchard should know better.  

Mimi Hanaoka