The Hisory of Printing

This week for our New Testament class we had the opportunity to visit ones of the world’s foremost printing museums. For me it was a great experience to see how the press was invented. The replica Gutenberg press is the best replica in the world, even better than the one located in Meinze, Germany, and is an impressive site.
What was far more impressive was to see the divine hand that certainly played a role in establishing the press. It was because of this press that the Bible could be taken to the masses, literacy could be developed and the Dark Ages could be brought to an end. Because of this press the few words that we have recorded of the savior’s mortal life while here on Earth are now available to anybody who wishes to read them.
It is interesting to think the far-ranging scope that the printing press and the publication of the bible really had. Because of the publication the enlightenment was really able to get underway, which sparked the voyages of Columbus and the discovery of the new world. The Reformation could also take place, now as the Bible could be read by all and its doctrines discussed by any common person, the Catholic Church would lose it's total control over Europe, which would spark the religious dissent that would ultimately lead to various protestant sects to seek sanctuary in the new world, seeking religious freedom. Because of the press the publication of various documents was enabled in the 13 colonies to unite under a cause and declare independence from Great Britain. On this notes, the Crandall Museum that we visited, not only has a replica press like that used at the time of the Declaration's signing, but they have the movable type that was used to print the first copies that were distributed to the people.
Lastly, it is interesting to see that it was this very technology invented by Gutenberg that would aid in the Restoration of Christ' Gospel once again on this earth. It was the very same techniques that printed the first bible on this earth that would also print the Book of Mormon. It is easy to see why so many of the tour guides at the museum feel that the movement that brought about the restoration was not just the great awakening, in the Burned Out District of New York, but that in reality it had started several hundred years before that, when the son of a jeweler sat down and started to think of a way in which to speed up the process of replicating books.
I personally thought that the whole experience was impressive, it helped me to really connect to the history, of which results, I have been a liberal partaker of. It made me appreciate far more the process that it took to get the bible into my hands. I guess to think that the book that, I am afraid to say, often sits unnoticed in a corner of my bedroom went through so many sacrifices and processes that maybe I should pay a little more heed to what it contains.