Resource Preview: The Bible Project

© The Bible Project

The Bible Project produce accessible and theologically informed videos, podcasts and short articles. The videos are visually attractive and suitable for showing to adults or young people.  The podcasts are interesting and lively. The project was started by skater-theologian Tim Mackie and his friend Jon Collins, a digital communicator who also has a background in theology. Tim and Jon’s voices feature in the videos which are very much explainer-style, giving them a home-grown feel despite the Bible Project now being a very large enterprise with half a million people in their mailing list.

The website features introductions to each book in the Bible, and explainers on how to read the Bible and think about different themes. For the super keen there are lectures in the classroom section, as well as posters, study notes and lots more on the downloads page. Their visual summaries of each book of the Bible have been published as a coffee table book and poster collection.

I have been impressed by the level of depth in the Bible Project’s teaching, for example their treatment of the temple imagery in Genesis 1-3, and their exploration of the tree of life theme throughout the Bible. It’s not often that resources are accessible, beautiful, well-marketed and contain great content. Of course they are not perfect, but they’re a good jumping-off point for critical thinking about the Bible, especially in an evangelical context. I have used Bible project videos in my sessions on creation, as they capture the nuance of the creation story. Check out their creation series.