"The Art of ''The Book'' " A CBS INTERFAITH Religion Special about art and The Bible TO BE BROADCAST SUNDAY, DEC. 6

ON THE CBS TELEVISION NETWORK

The Art of "The Book," a CBS Religion Special about art and The Bible, will be broadcast Sunday, Dec. 6, on the CBS Television Network. Please check your local station for exact time.    

Art and religious imagery have been paired together for centuries.  Whether depicting Christ, illustrating texts or being iconoclastic, religious movements and culture have utilized images to educate and entertain their flock. Ena Heller, Executive Director of the Museum of Biblical Arts in Manhattan (MoBia), states "People who couldn''t read and write would look at the images on walls and they could see in them, what they couldn''t understand on the page." The Art of "The Book," a CBS religion special about art and the bible, analyzes the relationship between Biblical stories, rituals and the art they inspire. It also provides a great opportunity to see rarely viewed manuscripts and objects.

We hear from Bill Voelkle, Curator of the Department of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York. Voelkle takes us through the Morgan Library''s expansive collection of over 1400 illuminated manuscripts that were collected by the financier Pierpont Morgan.

In addition, we visit the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York. There we meet Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian and professor of Talmud and Rabbinics Dr. David Kraemer, who explains how biblical imagery was used in Jewish Culture for centuries and why they are rarer than their Christian counterparts. We also hear from Sharon Liberman Mintz, curator of Jewish Art who shares numerous Jewish manuscripts, including the Rothschild Mahzor, a 500-year-old prayer book, and the Prato Haggadah.

Finally, The Art of "The Book" returns to the four-year-old Museum of Biblical Art, the only museum in the United States dedicated solely to Biblical Art. On exhibit though January 24, 2010 is the work of  Tobi Kahn, a contemporary abstract sculptor and painter, who thinks about Jewish ritual and creates new, functional objects based on texts and  nature. Examples include an Omer Counter, used to count the 49-days between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot, and Simchat Bat chairs used to celebrate the naming of a new baby girl. These are based on the decorated chairs used to honor relatives of the baby boy about to undergo circumcision.

            John P. Blessington is the executive producer; Liz Kineke is the producer. The special is produced with the cooperation of the National Council of Churches, The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Islamic Society of North America, The Union for Reform Judaism and the New York Board of Rabbis.

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