Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C

With 430,000 square feet and seven floors of exhibition space, Museum of the Bible (MOTB) is a leviathan: a mighty, untenable, and beautiful beast that is not easily translated or understood. While MOTB generally succeeds in its broad mission “to invite all people to engage with the Bible,” it struggles to clearly communicate its raison d'être. MOTB is successful in many ways: the design of the space is stunning, the technology is remarkable, and the antiquities on display are some of the rarest in the world. The exhibits, as installed, reflect the museum's efforts to be nonsectarian and taken seriously as a national institution alongside nearby Smithsonian museums. But MOTB suffers from an ideological and theological tension created as the scholarly work of its curatorial and research staff mixes with MOTB's evangelical founders, financiers, and original mission. This tension is exacerbated by profoundly different, if not always clear, aims of each of its permanent exhibitions. On the fourth floor (“The History of the Bible”), the Bible is considered at a scholarly level as visitors are invited to see the Bible's transmission, translation, and compilation. On the third floor (“The Stories of the Bible”), the Bible is treated as a collection of immersive, action-packed adventures in which visitors participate. Finally, the second floor (“The Impact of the Bible”) argues for the significance of the Bible in American history and its ongoing relevance in modern life. What results is a semiacademic, discombobulated ode to the Protestant Bible that overlooks contemporary scholarly questions around scriptural interpretation, conflict, and biblical debates

Art · Art history · Exhibition · Ideology · Literature · Political science · Politics · Protestantism · Relevance (law · Sociology · Theology · History · Law · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies · Philosophy · Religious Tourism and Spaces