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Look Inside: Visual Theology

Visual Theology

Visual Theology by Tim Challies and artist Josh Byers applies a unique blend of writing and infographics. It’s definitely a new way of displaying the Bible’s deepest truths. No wonder it quickly made the list of Amazon’s Top 20 Bestselling Books!

And did you know that Olive Tree is the only place that sells a digital version!?

WHY VISUAL THEOLOGY?

There’s no doubt about it; We live in a digital world. So much is communicated to us by picture, video, and graphic design. This means that we have to push ourselves to be readers, and not slump into a Netflix binge. But it also means that we can use visual aids for our benefit. For example…

Be Excited to Read

If you’re learning theology in your spare time, or looking for small group curriculum, a big fat theology textbook can seem a bit… boring.

But knowing that there are nice pictures to look over as you read can make the task less overwhelming.

Gain More Understanding

The graphics will summarize what you’ve been reading. That means you have another chance to take in all that info. Because we have all been in that spot where reading the same paragraph three times over just isn’t doing the trick.

Think Differently

Organizing information in well-designed graphics requires creativity. So, when you, the reader, looks at the graphic, you may be inspired to understand the information in new ways. With visual aids, you’ll be able to make new connections between ideas.

Retain What You’ve Learned

Lastly, it is much easier to look at a graphic, memorize it, and copy it down than it is to memorize paragraphs of information. So using a resource with plenty of visual aids is a sure-fire way to actually retain and live out what you learn!

SO TAKE A LOOK INSIDE VISUAL THEOLOGY

Navigating

Like most ebooks in the app, you can easily navigate to to specific chapters. You can find the contents in two places. First, here are hyperlinks in the front of the resource.

Visual Theology Contents

Then, you can also navigate by tapping the green bar Go To bar.

Table of Contents Olive Tree

Graphics

As the title indicates, Visual Theology has a lot of great graphics and charts. You can view the images inline with the text. Or, if you’d like to make them bigger, just tap. You can then pinch to zoom in and out.

Visual Theology infographic
The drama of God in four acts

Get Context Quickly

All scripture references are hyperlinked. So it is super easy to read references in context! Just tap.

the Bible is a story reference links

A Word from the Publisher of Visual Theology

Here’s how the publisher describes this awesome resource:

We live in a visual culture.  Today, people increasingly rely upon visuals to help them understand new and difficult concepts. The rise and stunning popularity of the Internet infographic has given us a new way in which to convey data, concepts and ideas.

But the visual portrayal of truth is not a novel idea. Indeed, God himself used visuals to teach truth to his people. The tabernacle of the Old Testament was a visual representation of man’s distance from God and God’s condescension to his people. Each part of the tabernacle displayed something of man’s treason against God and God’s kind response. Likewise, the sacraments of the New Testament are visual representations of man’s sin and God’s response. Even the cross was both reality and a visual demonstration.

As teachers and lovers of sound theology, Challies and Byers have a deep desire to convey the concepts and principles of systematic theology in a fresh, beautiful and informative way. In this book, they have made the deepest truths of the Bible accessible in a way that can be seen and understood by a visual generation.

What are you waiting for!?

As you can see Visual Theology in the Olive Tree Bible App is a great resource.

GET IT TODAY

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10 Comments

  1. Keith

    I wasn’t able to view the image on full screen using a 12″ touch screen PC. The image remained the same size inline with the text so that the detail wasn’t readable. The “See the Text” pop-out option defeats the advantage of the infographics. I see that this is possible on the iPad example. Is it / will it be possible on the PC version please? Thanks.

    • Andrew F.

      Keith,
      I’ll pass this on to our content team to investigate. You many also want to try right clicking the image and opening it in a ‘new window’.

  2. Andrew F.

    Hey all, this title has since been updated with higher resolution graphics. As always, we appreciate feedback that helps us improve our products. Thanks!

  3. Barry Dunnage

    Nice idea. I don’t suppose there are any plans for a printed version of this?

    Kind regards
    Barry D.

  4. Jani

    Hi,
    If i buy this olive three version. May i delete text from images, and translate it to finnish?

    If i teach in finnish or swedish, i need to change the English text…

  5. Richard

    Are the visual graphics in color for the electronic version of Visual Theology?

    Thank you.

    • Monty Galloway

      Hi Richard,
      Yes, the graphics are in color. The screenshots for this blog were taken directly from our app.