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News & Events >
Guest Articles > Renewal of the Human Heart
Fostered and Celebrated Renewal of the Human Heart Fostered and Celebrated
What do you believe is the value of The Saint John’s Bible to the Saint John’s community, to believers in the world community?Br. Dietrich Reinhart (DR): The Saint John’s Bible is a way to focus on the heart of our life together, a life founded in scripture, encountered unexpectedly and personally by each individual. Monks do not go to scripture to get recipes and instructions. Instead, they find scripture to be a place of resting with important questions, a place of personal rejuvenation and re-grounding, a place of challenge, a place of blessing. The Bible project helps me as a monk to be more aware of this reality. For Saint John’s to be engaged for six years with Donald Jackson in this project, and for us to treasure this Bible well after the six years are past, is part of our ongoing renewal as a monastery and university. How do you envision involving the Saint John’s community in this project?DR: Donald will come to Saint John’s a couple of times each year to share the fruit of his work. I hope that people will see the books and volumes as they are completed. When the different books and volumes are celebrated and exhibited, I hope that people will hear Donald talk of his own calligraphy and art. I imagine this Bible as allowing people to tell different stories. One story would be Donald’s: How did I create this? What happened when I put pen to paper? The other story would be that of the person looking at the Bible: How do I experience this? Why? Donald says that whenever you look at calligraphy you should bring a magnifying glass so you can actually see how an individual letter was made. He also says that calligraphy is a performing art, that the creation of a letter is much like a violin solo. Once you have played a note or written a letter, it is out there. There is an unexpected playfulness within the art of calligraphy. And it is good to behold. I hope that our students and members of different faith communities can gather together during the making of this Bible and look, for example, at the Gospel of Mark or the Prophesy of Isaiah and let the playfulness of calligraphy sink in. What was your first reaction to creating the Bible when you learned of it more than three years ago?DR: I just remember taking a big breath and saying, This is something really big. I don’t know how all the parts can fit together. I don’t know how Saint John’s can commission a hand-written Bible. I don’t know how much it will cost. What do you say to someone like Donald? Write me a Bible? Give me many long years of your life? I sensed questions galore, but also that The Saint John's Bible would be an amazing project. As I started talking with other people about creating this Bible, one of two things happened. Some people's eyes lit up as they said, "Tell me more," and then we would start to dream. Such folks would begin to resonate right away with the hopes of the project. They would start dreaming a million dreams a minute. Another group would say of this Bible, "It’s a crazy idea. It's unrealistic. It's not the best use of resources or energies." But the reasons they would give in voicing criticisms of the project dwelt so often on the very same values I heard from those excited about the project: on the importance to the religious imagination of great art, the necessity of the religious impulse engaging directly in tangible work for social justice, and so on. So whenever I hear criticisms of this project, I sit up and listen, and discover new ways to make this project stronger. I have been grateful for every bit of criticism we have received. What are your hopes for The Bible Project while it is being created and when it is completed?DR: My hope is that students, faculty and staff, sisters and monks, guests and neighbors of Saint John’s and the College of Saint Benedict will have their curiosity peaked and will take advantage of opportunities to meet Donald, as well as other calligraphers and people involved in this project. I hope that we all encounter this project in such a way that we learn what it really takes to create a great work of art. I hope that we grow in our awareness that it is human beings who carry the Bible from one generation to the next. The last time Christian communities crossed a millennium, the prime way that the text of the Bible passed from one place to another and one generation to the next was through individuals copying it by hand. The Bible has come down to us because some people long ago could copy it by hand and thus make it possible for others to study the text, memorize it and preach it. Through this project I hope we will learn more about the monastic origins of these two colleges. At the same time, I hope that off campus, in different parts of the country, in different churches of different faith traditions, people can learn about The Saint John’s Bible and in doing so celebrate the precious heritage of shared religious belief. I hope people will be more aware of the uniting force of sacred texts, at the same time as they grow in awareness of the wonderfully diverse ways in which different Christian communities and different Jewish communities are shaped by those texts. Because this Bible is a work of art, contact with it provides an entry into the history of religious art and can be powerful stimulus to the contemporary religious imagination. I hope that The Saint John’s Bible can be part of rejuvenating within the Roman Catholic Church an awareness of how important it is to study scripture, to venerate it and to be open to its unexpected influence. I would like people one day to visit Saint John’s because they know that this Bible is here and, while they are here, come to know more about this place. I would like people to discover Saint John’s remarkable collection of medieval manuscripts on microfilm and its absolutely superb collection of books, prints, manuscripts, sculptures and paintings, all of which are focused on liturgy, religious art, sacred architecture and the art of the book. This is a great place to renew the human heart. Where do you think The Saint John’s Bible will fit in the history of this university?DR: Saint John’s always starts things with the long haul in mind. My hope is that this project will connect to long-standing initiatives of the School of Theology, the two colleges and the monastic community which allow all who come to this campus, students and guests, to gain a more joyful, powerful and resilient sense of the value of their lives and the importance of what they do to enhance the quality of life in their communities. In the long run, I think The Saint John’s Bible will help us celebrate and foster the deepest traditions of this place. A Favorite Passage: Dietrich Reinhart, OSB
The very last book which Donald will copy, the Book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament, is filled with visions of a new heaven and a new earth and the book ends with "Amen, Come Lord Jesus!" This passage is used at Eucharist on the last day of the liturgical year, the day before the first Sunday of Advent. I always love that reading. It has to do with the end of time, the fulfillment of all the religious hopes for redemption. Whenever I hear this passage, my heart quickens a bit. I know I need to attend to it. And I know that I can only approach its meaning in the realm of art and music and wonder. |
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An
Interview with
Br. Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, President, Saint Johns University