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News.yahoo.com,9/21/05: Speedy butspiritual: British cleric unveils “100-Minute Bible”—Business folk are used to reading executive summaries of important documents, and now would-be Christians are to have the same privilege, in the form of a chopped-down Bible that can be read in under two hours.

A Church of England vicar was on Wednesday unveiling his self-styled “100-Minute Bible,” an ultra-condensed edition of the Christian holy book which claims to neatly summarize every teaching from the Creation to the Revelation.

The Reverend Michael Hinton was launching his work at Canterbury Cathedral in southern England, the headquarters of the Anglican Church.

Publishers of the 100-Minute Press say the book has been written for those who want to know more about Christianity but who do not have the time to read the original in full.

“This is a book for adults and has been written in a style to encourage readers to keep turning the pages, but without resorting to any literary gimmicks,” said Len Budd from the publishing firm. “As the bible itself, the 100-Minute Bible should be a bestseller.”

[TBC: If there is one trend in Christianity that could be singled out as probably the most destructive, it is a dumbing-down of the Word of God in the life of a believer. One form of this is the perpetuation of biblical illiteracy. It has been a growing problem even among evangelicals—not that they can’t read, but because many just don’t care to read the Bible, or certainly not the whole Bible. Therefore, in today’s prevailing consumer-oriented way of doing church, no doubt this “Cliff Notes” version of the Bible will become quite popular. However, those who are producing the “100-Minute Bible” need  to take “the time to read the original in full” for themselves—especially the verse that says what will happen to those who would “take away from the words” of His Book (Rv 22: 19).]