Delighted tonight to see this inaugural post at the Desiring God blog by Makoto Fujimura on the origin of The Four Holy Gospels, and the role of my boss, Dr. Lane T. Dennis:
The Project’s Beginning
In 2009 Lane Dennis, president of Crossway publishing, inquired about a commission celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. When he initially proposed The Four Holy Gospels, an exquisitely designed and produced edition of the four canonical Gospels in the English Standard Version, I was surprised by the project’s depth and ambition. Until recently, it’s usually the artist, not the publisher, proposing such a project, only to see it scaled back. If the project originates with the publisher, the artist thinks of everything that can go wrong.
Subsequently, I’ve learned to distrust commitments publishers make to a project’s aesthetic standards. No matter what they promise in the beginning, inevitably the project gets diluted by pragmatism. Usually the aesthetic decisions are made by people whose job commoditizes the art and writing. Artists rarely have the last word.
Complete Artistic Freedom
“You will have complete artistic freedom,” Lane told me. He assured me of his commitment to the highest standard of excellence, using the best paper and six color printing process. He had been following my work for a while, and I was impressed with his understanding about contemporary art.
I thought I was speaking with a publisher; it became clear that I was speaking to a visionary and artist himself. This was Lane’s dream: merging contemporary art with the Bible.
Francis Schaeffer’s Influence
I later discovered that Lane was a direct student of Francis Schaeffer, who integrated his theology with cultural engagement, enabling young creatives to live out their calling in the arts. While still a graduate student, Lane co-wrote Schaeffer’s last book. Since then, Lane has been carrying forth cultural engagement as a Christian scholar, developing his own synthesis. This project became a culmination of a lifetime of commitment to the pursuit of excellence in the scholarship of Scripture translation.
You can read the whole thing here.