The Case Against Gutenberg

Like Brutus at the murder of Julius Caesar, Gutenberg wasn’t the only one to stick a knife in Christianity. But this friend of the Word also got blood on his hands.

In Gutenberg Plaza in Mainz, this statue dominates. However, there is no known likeness of the man that was made during his life, so none of the several statues and busts of him look the same.

I researched the life of Gutenberg and the intricacies of his inventions for close to twenty-five years before I started writing The Gutenberg Rubric. I love printing. I love the elegance of Gutenberg’s movable type and font design. I love the care with which characters were shaped in different versions to make the lines of type come out evenly against the margin. I love the fact that he inked in two colors so that lines of type could be set in red, and that he provided a rubric—a guide to what letters should be placed in the blank spaces by scribes—so hand crafting could be combined with machine work. I like the ‘alchemy’ involved in the formulation of lead type. I like the adaptation of a wine press to provide sufficient pressure to imprint the pages.

My book takes great liberties with the story of Gutenberg, Schoeffer, Fust, et.al. Nothing in it particularly contradicts the historical accounts, but the story is not historical. It just looks like it fits. You can get the paperback at https://www.createspace.com/5220838.

And the Kindle eBook at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0983369127.

In general, as I stood in front of three different copies of the Bible printed by Gutenberg, I was speechless. 560 years ago he invented the process that made books available to everyone. He made literacy a thing to be strived for. He enlightened the world.

His hand held the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

This picture of "The Fall of Man" by Lucas Cranach the Elder dates back to 1530. Interesting that he paints the serpent as a woman, isn't it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lucas_Cranach_(I)_-_Adam_and_Eve-Paradise_-_Kunsthistorisches_Museum_-_Detail_Tree_of_Knowledge.jpg

Let us consider Adam and Eve. As long as they remained in ignorance, they walked with God. Once they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Etz ha-da'at tov va-ra) they were cast out of Eden and out of the presence of God.

When I began intensively studying the Bible back in the late sixties and early seventies, my mother, a United Methodist minister, warned me that too much study would destroy my faith. She was right. Ultimately it did, though not for many years. And in spite of my study, I do not profess to be a Bible scholar any more than I am truly a print scholar. Far from it. And that is part of the problem. Faith—walking in the presence of God—requires ignorance. In fact, that is its definition. Faith is acting on a belief without proof. When we have proof—true knowledge—we no longer need faith.

Gutenberg took away ignorance/innocence.

Of the 49 copies still remaining in whole or in part of the Gutenberg Bible, this one is in the New York Public Library. CC BY-SA 2.0hide terms  File:Gutenberg Bible, Lenox Copy, New York Public Library, 2009. Pic 01.jpg Created: 28 May 2009

Prior to the invention of movable type, books were costly to produce. They were painstakingly copied by scribes, some of whom (if we are informed correctly) did not even know what they were copying, but faithfully reproduced each letter. Even the language of the text was not known by the common people. People, who did not read, took the words of the priest on faith. The priest—a scholar who could read and interpret the Bible—kept the message relevant both to the people and the time. Christianity lived and adapted.

The Cathedral, or Mainz Dom. It is no longer required that people go the church/cathedral to hear the words read in a different language and listen to the priest's interpretation of them. People now hold the knowledge in their hands and partake of the forbidden fruit.

But the printing of some 160-180 copies of the Bible moved the book out of the sanctuary and into the hands of the ignorant/innocent. Literacy spread. Each person could read and interpret the words for him or herself. People no longer had to take the words of the priest on faith. They held in their hands the knowledge of good and evil.

And with that act, the Bible was frozen in time. Each individual became responsible for his or her own interpretation of the Word. It could never change. It could never be anything more than the absolute knowledge of good and evil: original sin. The Bible is proof of whatever we want to believe.

Gutenberg’s hand held the bloody knife that killed faith.

Gutenberg died in 1468, largely unknown. He was buried in the Franciscan church which was later destroyed and the graves lost. The church in this picture is St. Christoph in Mainz which was Gutenberg's home parish. It was also nearly destroyed by Allied bombs in WWII in 1945. While the sanctuary is now 'open air', the chapel under the bell tower is still used a few times a month by various churches. It is just a few blocks from where Gutenberg was interred.