OSLO, Norway - may sound like an unlikely best-seller not. 1 for any country, but in Norway - one of the most secular Nations in an increasingly godless Europe - popularity beyond control of the Bible has caught the country by surprise. The Scriptures, in a version of new Norwegian language, even surpassed "Fifty shades of gray" to become the Best Seller of Norway.
The sudden explosion of interest in the word of God has been extended also to the stage, with a six-hour game, called "Bibelen," Norwegian for "the Bible", drawing 16,000 people in a run that just ended in one of the most important theatres in Oslo for three months.
Officials of the Lutheran Church of Norway have left to call it a spiritual awakening, but come the new interest in the Bible as proof that still resonates in a country where only 1 percent of the 5 million residents regularly attends church.
"Thoughts and images of the nature of the Bible have an impact on how we experience reality", said Karl Ove Knausgaard, one of several famous authors of Norwegians are enlisted to help with the translation.
The scholars not surprised by the success of the games or the new translation of the Bible, explaining that faith is a deeply personal matter in this Scandinavian nation taciturn regularly removed from the life of the city for holiday cottages remote in the solitude of the forest, fjords and mountains.
"Church attendance is a poor measure of the Norwegian State of faith," said post-doctoral Thorgeir Kolshus at the University of Oslo. "Religion is a very private thing for Norwegians".
Anne Veiteberg, editorial director of the Bible Society of Norway, said that probably also increased immigration has been a factor.
More than 258,000 immigrants have settled in the country during the last six years only, adding diversity of race and religion. The Church of Norway estimates that around 60 percent of immigrants are Christian, while the rest are Muslims, Buddhists or Hindus.
"Now that we are exposed to other religions, Norwegian have gotten more interested in their own faith," said Veiteberg.
Launched in October of 2011 by Norway of the Bible Society, the new translation replaces an edition of 1978, with the aim of improving the accuracy and legibility. For example, in the previous version, Maria was called "Virgin". In the new translation it is known as a "young". The Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States also made this change in its most recent translation of the Bible in 2011, saying that change does not alter the teaching about Mary, but it was meant to deal with the possible meanings of the Hebrew word "almah" in the text.
The Bible Society of Norway promotes new translation as a novel of pop fiction, stirring anticipation giving teasers of Bible stories before its release.
It turned to poets and authors as Knausgard to sing and echoes the text for a new generation. And it was packaged in a variety of ways, targeting adolescents with pink leather or denim-covered and adults with bridal or sophisticated literary covers.
"It's easier to read," says Helga Haugland Byfuglien, Presiding Bishop of the Church of Norway. "There is no lack of the text".
Almost 160,000 copies sold and was a bestseller in Norway in 2012. Church officials acknowledge that strong marketing campaigns helped to explain the strong sales.
Like many other European Nations, Norwegians have suffered decades of secularization as religion has taken a step back to other activities. Fiercely bet by the interference of the weekends with skiing, hiking and other outdoor activities, leaving little time other than Christmas or Easter to fill the pews.
Last year, Parliament decided unanimously to put an end to the situation of the Lutheran Church as the official religion of the State.
Erik Ulfsby, artistic director of Det Norske Teatret, who put in scene the work 'Bibelen', said that although the Norwegians do not go to church, still see the Bible as an important part of its literary heritage.
"(The Church) wants that you agree with your interpretation, but the theater gives you the opportunity to think out loud and discuss the Bible," he said.
Certainly, the play, directed by Stein Winge, offered a non-traditional interpretation.
For example, instead of dying on the cross, Jesus was confined to a mental hospital and finally executed by lethal injection. And, at the wedding at Cana, show attendees saw that Jesus is portrayed as being drunk when he changed water to wine.
"Bible" is not the first religious production than Norwegians at the edge of their seats. Renowned actor Svein Tindberg has organized three monologues based on the Bible, each more successful than the previous.
In the mid-1990s, "The Gospel" was scheduled to run for 20 nights, but was such a success that made 220 nights Tindberg. His most recent production, "Children of Abraham", opened last year and has sold 52,000 tickets, compared with 1,000 expectations - surpassing "Evita" in Norway.
Despite the little Orthodox artistic interpretations that arise, the religious authorities in Norway are adopting the concept of living religion through art.
"Even if you don't believe that the core of the message, the Bible has a rich and meaningful stories", Byfuglien said. "Culture breaks religious shyness that people have in association with the Church and is a way for those who have distanced themselves to experience in an interesting way".
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