American Bible Society is a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the American member organization of United Bible Societies, it supports global Bible translation, production, distribution, literacy, engagement, ministry, and advocacy efforts. American Bible Society publishes and distributes interconfessional translations of the ChristianBible[1] and provides study aids and other tools to help people engage with it. Founded on May 11, 1816, in New York City, it is best known for its Good News Translation of the Bible, written in the contemporary vernacular. American Bible Society also publishes the Contemporary English Version.
The Bible House and offices of the Christian Herald, built 1853, seen here 1893, demolished 1956
American Bible Society used the King James Bible, and, starting in 1858, appointed committees to prevent textual corruption.[5] The American Bible Society provided the first Bibles in hotels and the first pocket Bibles for soldiers during the American Civil War. The first translation by the American Bible Society was in 1818 into Lenape of Delaware, a Native American language. By the 1830s, American Bible Society sold several English Bibles and Testaments, including a pocket version. The organization owned stereotype plates that allowed it to print Scripture in French, Spanish, and German. It also carried Bibles from other printers in various languages, including Gaelic, Welsh, Dutch, Mohawk, Hawaiian, and Seneca.[6]
American Bible Society began its outreach to the blind in 1835. The organization was a supporter of Samuel Gridley Howe, who developed a raised-letter printing system called “Boston” or “Howe” type. A Bible using Howe’s type was heavily funded and sold by American Bible Society in the first half of the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, the organization was printing the entire Bible in the New York Point System.[7]
In an incident well publicized at the time, the ABS refused a donation offered in 1834 by the American Anti-Slavery Society. The purpose was to subsidize the distribution of Bibles to American slaves, about one-sixth of the population, as abolitionists believed that knowledge of the Bible hastened the end of slavery. (That the Bible supported slavery was maintained by a number of Southern clergymen.) While it sent Bibles to Liberia for the former slaves there, the ABS left domestic distribution in the hands of its state auxiliaries, who refused to distribute Bibles directly to slaves. The Society was widely seen as insufficiently committed to the abolition of slavery, to the point that the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society "decided to throw most of its support behind the American Missionary Society, an organization that it believed was making a 'systematic effort' to get Bibles and tracts to slaves."[8]
In 1852, while Theodore Frelinghuysen was President of American Bible Society, the Bible House was built, occupying the whole of the block bounded by Third and Fourth Avenues, Astor Place, and Ninth Street in New York City.[4][9] Suffragist and economist Virginia Penny offered an employment office for women in the Bible House, and she gave lectures on the many different types of jobs for women in New York City.[10] By 1920, it was one of the oldest office buildings in the city.[11]
The American Bible Society's mission is to make the Bible available to all people and to that end, during the 19th century, four canvasses of the United States for this purpose were undertaken. These canvasses took place in 1829, 1856, 1866, and in 1882. During the fourth canvass, in 1882, more than 6.3 million families were visited, and 473,806 families were supplied with Bibles; in addition nearly 300,000 individuals received Bibles.[11] American Bible Society sold 437,000 Scriptures and portions in 1898 in China.[12]
20th century
By 1912, American Bible Society issued Bibles for use in the United States in 83 languages besides English. Foreign circulation was rising steadily, increasing from 250,000 copies in 1876 to over 2 million copies in 1915.[11] Although American Bible Society continues to publish and print Bibles with partner printing presses, it ceased printing Bibles on printing presses owned by the organization itself in 1922.[4] American Bible Society celebrated a century of service to China in 1934. Vice President John R. Mott recalled that in 1833 American Bible Society sent $3,000 to Elijah Coleman Bridgman, first U.S. Protestant missionary to China, to print scriptures in Chinese. As of 1934 American Bible Society had spent $2,897,383 distributing nearly 70 million volumes of Scripture in China.
In 1998, American Bible Society paid about $1.6 million to Sony Music Entertainment in order to distribute several Christian children's series, including Angel Wings and Kingsley's Meadow.[13] In 1999, the organization launched its first major Internet ministry, ForMinistry.com, a free church web-builder. Operations ceased in 2013 after 14 years of serving over 180,000 churches and ministries.[14]
21st century
Former headquarters in New York City, demolished in 2016
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, American Bible Society distributed more than one million Scriptures and offered downloadable portions free of charge to those affected by the tragedy. Staff members also volunteered at Ground Zero distributing Scripture Portions to rescue workers. It has also maintained its commitment to the military, including producing a pocket-sized military Bible, developed jointly with the aid of Catholic and Protestant chaplains from all branches of the armed forces. Since 1817, it has distributed almost 60 million free Bible resources to America's armed forces.[15] It also provides Scriptures to victims of natural disasters.
Following the tsunami in 2004, American Bible Society worked in cooperation with the United Bible Societies and partner Bible Societies in Thailand, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka to provide a host of Bible resources to people in the affected regions. In 2005, it sent nearly a million Bibles and Scripture portions to those who survived the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. American Bible Society formed a partnership with Habitat for Humanity to give a free Bible to each of its new homeowners in the United States.
In 2007, American Bible Society partnered with The Salvation Army to promote literacy with its program Mission: Literacy.
In 2008, American Bible Society published its first polyglot Bible and presented a specially bound copy to Pope Benedict XVI. The text was printed in five languages: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English and Spanish.[16]
In 2010, American Bible Society launched an annual, nationwide study to survey trends in the U.S. regarding spirituality and Scripture engagement called State of the Bible. American Bible Society launched a new Bible Search tool, an ad-free web engine that searches across ten translations of the Bible and targets the "Bible curious" and Protestant, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox believers. Also in 2010, American Bible Society launched the Bible-based Trauma Healing ministry in a war zone in East Africa.
In 2013, American Bible Society and United Bible Societies launched the Digital Bible Library, a repository that houses digital copies of Bible translations and makes the texts available for repurposing across any media platform. Doug Birdsall was also appointed in 2013 as President and CEO.[17]
In 2014, American Bible Society contracted with ICANN to operate the .BIBLE TLD Registry. The availability of .BIBLE domain names will accelerate global online Bible engagement.[18] The first site to launch was American.Bible in September 2015[19] In 2014, Roy Peterson succeeded Doug Birdsall, having previously served as President of the Seed Company and Wycliffe Bible Translators.[20]
In 2015, American Bible Society announced that it had sold 1865 Broadway to AvalonBay Communities for US$300 million and was moving to a new location in Philadelphia, leasing 100,000 square feet at 401 Market Street.[3]
In December, 2017,[21] American Bible Society introduced the Affirmation of Biblical Community, an employee policy which requires staff to align around a core set of Christian beliefs and practices.[22] The organization came under criticism as excluding individuals who are homosexual, stating they had to agree that marriage was between one man and one woman, or unwed heterosexuals living together, stating they had to agree not to have sex until they were married.[23] The organization lost 20 percent of its workforce in 2018. Leadership of the organization claims the 20 percent attrition in 2018 was consistent with annual totals, but could not show that the organization suffered a 20% loss in staff in 2017, prior to the new Affirmation policy.[24]
On October 28, 2019, American Bible Society announced the retirement of President Roy Peterson. He had held the role since 2014. Robert Briggs was announced as the Interim President and CEO. On June 23, 2020, Robert L. Briggs was appointed by the Board of Directors as permanent President and CEO.[25][26]
In 2022, after two years on the job, President Robert Briggs left American Bible Society. Jeff Brown, former board chairman stepped in as interim president. Brown was then replaced in September of 2022 by another former board member, David Viehman.[27] Paul Cleckner joined as Interim CEO in 2023, having previously held the role of interim CEO of Women’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.[28] In January of 2024, Dr. Jennifer Holloran was introduced as the new president and CEO of American Bible Society. Dr. Holloran had previously served for 22 years in various leadership roles at Wycliffe Bible Translators USA, most recently as chief operating officer. [29]
Museums
Faith and Liberty Discovery Center
The Faith and Liberty Discovery Center is a museum that opened on Independence Mall in the summer of 2021.[30][31] It says it "explores the relationship between faith and liberty in America from its founding to today, by illuminating the influence of the Bible on individuals in key historical and personal moments."[32]
The project was originally slated to begin construction in Spring of 2017.[33] The Center was completed and opened in 2021.[34]
American Bible Society leadership described the FLDC as “...an exciting experience for people of all faiths and backgrounds,"[35]
In 2019, American Bible Society paid to relocate White Water, a 40-foot-long, 16-foot high masterpiece of geometric stainless steel sculpture of 1978 by Robinson Fredenthal, from 401 Market Street to the Woodmere Art Museum.[36] The piece was commissioned for its location at 401 Market Street by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority's Percent for Art Program, which mandated a certain percentage of construction costs for a development involving city-owned property to go toward public art.[37] The Faith and Liberty Discovery Center includes a 4-story-high sculpture called the Beacon.[38] The surfaces is said to represent the three documents essential to the founding of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bible.[39]
In March of 2024 the American Bible Society announced it would be closing the center.[40]
Museum of Biblical Art
The Museum of Biblical Art, was an independent but affiliated organization and was housed in American Bible Society's building at 1865 Broadway, in New York. It has since closed.[41]
Rare Scripture Collection
Israel MK Effie Eitam reviewing a 16th-century Hebrew Bible at American Bible Society's Bible Library with Dr. Liana Lupas.
American Bible Society has a Scripture collection over 45,000 volume holdings, one of the largest collection of Bibles in the world including a number of interesting and valuable editions of ancient and historic Bibles dating back as far as the Gutenberg edition, of which American Bible Society has several pages under protection. The collection contains editions of scripture in every language, from many countries and regions and spanning nearly six centuries and is the second largest collection of religious books, with the Vatican's being the largest.[42]
↑ Fea, John (2016). "Toward a Christian Nation." The Bible Cause: A History of the American Bible Society. New York: Oxford University Press. p.31.
↑ Fea, John (2016). "The Bible in Times of Plenty and Want." The Bible Cause: A History of the American Bible Society. New York: Oxford University Press. p.171.
↑ Gensemer, Susan H. (2000). "Virginia Penny". In Dimand, Robert W.; Dimand, Mary Ann; Forget, Evelyn L. (eds.). A Biographical Dictionary of Women Economists. Edward Elgar Pub. p.333. ISBN1-85278-964-6.
Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr. was an American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He founded Lynchburg Christian Academy in 1967, founded Liberty University in 1971, and co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979.
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelicalism. The present denomination was founded in 1968 in Dallas, Texas, by union of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley in England, as well as the Great Awakening in the United States. As such, the church's theological orientation is decidedly Wesleyan. It embraces liturgical worship, holiness, and evangelical elements.
Jehovah's Witnesses is a nontrinitarian, millenarian, restorationist Christian denomination. As of 2023, the group reported approximately 8.6 million members involved in evangelism, with around 20.5 million attending the annual Memorial of Christ's death. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the destruction of the present world system at Armageddon is imminent, and the establishment of God's kingdom over earth is the only solution to all of humanity's problems.
The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), is an American-based international church, and is the second-largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. The church reports 250,000 members in 1,100 congregations in 59 countries. The church traces its origins to Joseph Smith's establishment of the Church of Christ on April 6, 1830. His eldest son Joseph Smith III formally accepted leadership of the church on April 6, 1860 in the aftermath of the 1844 death of Joseph Smith.
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. In 1845, the Southern Baptists separated from the Triennial Convention in order to support slavery, which the southern churches regarded as "an institution of heaven". During the 19th and most of the 20th century, it played a central role in Southern racial attitudes, supporting racial segregation and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy while opposing interracial marriage. In 1995, the organization apologized for its history. Since the 1940s, it has spread across the United States, having member churches across the country and 41 affiliated state conventions.
Mainstream Baptists is a network of Baptists in fourteen U.S. states that have organized to uphold historic Baptist principles, particularly separation of church and state, and to oppose Fundamentalism and Theocratic Calvinism within the Southern Baptist Convention. As such, it is not a denomination, but rather an organization that provides resources, support, and interagency communication. Organizations/agencies considered to share Mainstream Baptists and cooperate with and support the network are listed below under External links.
The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) was a Presbyterian denomination existing from 1789 to 1958. In that year, the PCUSA merged with the United Presbyterian Church of North America. The new church was named the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. It was a predecessor to the contemporary Presbyterian Church (USA).
Lifeway Christian Resources, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is the Christian media publishing and distribution division of the Southern Baptist Convention and provider of church business services.
The Bible Student movement is a Millennialist Restorationist Christian movement. It emerged in the United States from the teachings and ministry of Charles Taze Russell (1852–1916), also known as Pastor Russell, and his founding of the Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society in 1881. Members of the movement have variously referred to themselves as Bible Students, International Bible Students, Associated Bible Students, or Independent Bible Students.
Complementarianism is a theological view in some denominations of Christianity, Rabbinic Judaism, and Islam, that men and women have different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage, family life, and religious leadership. Complementary and its cognates are currently used to denote this view. Some Christians interpret the Bible as prescribing complementarianism, and therefore adhere to gender-specific roles that preclude women from specific functions of ministry within the community. Though women may be precluded from certain roles and ministries, they are held to be equal in moral value and of equal status. The phrase used to describe this is "ontologically equal, functionally different".
The Auburn Affirmation is a document dated May 1924, with the title "AN AFFIRMATION designed to safeguard the unity and liberty of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America", authored by an eleven-member Conference Committee and signed by 1274 ministers of the PCUSA. The Affirmation challenged the right of the highest body of the church, the General Assembly, to impose the Five fundamentals as a test of orthodoxy without the concurrence of a vote from the regional bodies, the presbyteries.
The fundamentalist–modernist controversy is a major schism that originated in the 1920s and 1930s within the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. At issue were foundational disputes about the role of Christianity; the authority of the Bible; and the death, resurrection, and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Two broad factions within Protestantism emerged: fundamentalists, who insisted upon the timeless validity of each doctrine of Christian orthodoxy; and modernists, who advocated a conscious adaptation of the Christian faith in response to the new scientific discoveries and moral pressures of the age. At first, the schism was limited to Reformed churches and centered around the Princeton Theological Seminary, whose fundamentalist faculty members founded Westminster Theological Seminary when Princeton went in a liberal direction. However, it soon spread, affecting nearly every Protestant denomination in the United States. Denominations that were not initially affected, such as the Lutheran churches, eventually were embroiled in the controversy, leading to a schism in the United States.
Dr. Paul G. Irwin is the current president and CEO of Elephants in Crisis, former president of the American Bible Society and former host of American Bible Society Presents. Prior to that, he was president of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) between 1975 and 2004.
FOCUS is a Catholic outreach program for American college students founded in 1997 by Curtis Martin and Dr. Edward Sri at Benedictine College.
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in Louisville, Kentucky. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The seminary was founded in 1859 in Greenville, South Carolina, where it was at first housed on the campus of Furman University. The seminary has been an innovator in theological education, establishing one of the first Ph.D. programs in religion in the year 1892. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to a newly built campus in downtown Louisville and moved to its current location in 1926 in the Crescent Hill neighborhood. In 1953, Southern became one of the few seminaries to offer a full, accredited degree course in church music. For more than fifty years Southern has been one of the world's largest theological seminaries, with an FTE enrollment of over 3,300 students in 2015.
Bible Society Australia is an Australian non-profit, non-denominational, Christian organisation. It is part of a worldwide network of Bible Societies. Bible Society Australia maintains that the Bible is a significant historic text which has deeply influenced society and culture and is still relevant today. The organisation is involved in translating, publishing, and distributing the Christian Bible, from print, to audio, to digital versions. Bible Society Australia is also involved in Bible advocacy, the publication of Bible reading materials, and the provision of literacy support, both in Australia and overseas.
Christianity in Russia is the most widely professed religion in the country. The largest tradition is the Russian Orthodox Church. According to official sources, there are 170 eparchies of the Russian Orthodox Church, 145 of which are grouped in metropolitanates. There are from 500,000 to one million Old Believers, who represent an older form of Russian Orthodox Christianity, and who separated from the Orthodox Church in the 17th century as a protest against Patriarch Nikon's church reforms.
Gay Apostolic Pentecostals are people who adhere to the beliefs of the Oneness Pentecostal churches and who identify as LGBT affirming. Gay Apostolic Pentecostals first began to organize separately from mainline Oneness Pentecostal churches in 1980 in Schenectady, New York.
Faith Comes By Hearing is an international 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that records and freely provides the Bible in the languages of the world. It provides audio Bibles in 1,996 languages. The organization is a member of the Forum of Bible Agencies International and the Wycliffe Global Alliance. The chairman of the board for the organization is Jeff Solscheid, and its president is founder Gerald (Jerry) Jackson.
The Forum of Bible Agencies International is an alliance of more than 25 international Bible Agencies and other missions organizations which provides access to the Bible and encourages its use worldwide.
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