About
The Bible appears to be a source of conflict throughout the world, used and misused for a wide range of purposes, resulting in everything from confusion and anger. Bible Confrontatie provides a portal to creative expression and dialogue, a safe place for people of any background to use their talents to get back to the source and uniquely explore what the Bible actually says.
Whether or not we see the Bible as the truth, just a book, or something in between, it continues to affect us all directly or indirectly. Rather than participating in an age-old debate that neglects the seed of the discussion, damaging and destroying lives along the way, Bible Confrontatie provides an alternative way of interacting. Here we can use our talents and skills to react to the Bible and each other in a way that is compelling and constructive. In the process we all slow-down, appreciate one another’s gifts and rediscover the rich source of artistic inspiration the Bible provides.
Bible Confrontatie is open to all to participate. On this website you will find a growing number of compositions as well as artistic reactions or “Confrontatie” to these compositions and other parts of the Bible. Anyone can join in the project by submitting their own artistic reaction. Submissions can include pictures, music, theater, videos, poetry, recipes and more.
In addition to music compositions, Bible Confrontatie Inc. produces live performances, workshops and educational resources. For example, Project Paul (www.projectpaul.com) and Esther are two large-scale theater productions, and Nature’s Lamp (www.natureslamp.org) develops educational resources focusing on God and nature.
The organization grew out of the compositions and artistic collaborations of Jonathon Roberts, a composer from Wisconsin living in New York City. Jonathon has a goal of setting the entire Bible to music (that is, an artistic work for each thematic section of the Bible). This growing catalog of music is freely provided here as a catalyst for other artistic reactions. Also available are elements used to make each composition that may assist you in your own “confrontations” to art and the Bible.
“Confrontatie” means confrontation in Dutch. It also is a Dutch composition tradition started by Louis Andriessen where young composers are asked to react to a compositional masterwork by creating their own piece of music that reacts to something they find compelling about the piece. By exploring in this way the student learns about the selected piece of music in an intimate and unique way. The same is true in this project when we explore the Bible using our own talents, whether they are in the arts, humanities, sciences or beyond.
Feel free to use what is posted on this site for your own Confrontatie or just react directly to parts of the Bible. You can look up verses here. Be sure to share your creations through the contact form or the “Submit Confrontatie” page.
This site operates under the Creative Commons Attributions License 3.0 which means you may use any material from this site for any purpose as long as you credit the author and source.
