In seminary my class
was given the assignment to write a paper on our personal theology. In response
to my paper the professor said that I had a ‘Star Wars’ theology. I suggested
to him that “I think it is the other way around; Star Wars got its ideas from
the Bible”. I believe Biblical themes have an intrinsic place in the human soul
and psyche, and it is fascinating to observe how this comes out in stories and
film. What follows below is not by any means a scientific survey of the
subject, but simply the observations from an average man’s engagement in pop
culture.
The most moving theme of the Bible, and also
of life, is redemption; redemption is the central theme of the Christ story,
and all the other themes circle around it. Whenever we hear a story of true
sacrifice for love, honor, or the life of another we can not help but be moved
deeply; it is a basic response of the goodness in the human soul to honor true
sacrifice - and deep down I believe this universal response comes from the Lord
within us. A good example of this is in superman: as the military captain flies
the ‘package’ into the world engine (to destroy it) he says, “a good death is
its own reward”. This affirms the spiritual value of honor, and giving one’s
life for another. On this point Swedenborg writes:
Every citizen or subject is
united to his king by obeying his commands and precepts; and more so if he endures
hardships for him; and still more if he suffers death for him, as men do in
war. In the same way friend is united to friend, son to father, and servant to
master, by acting according to their wishes; still more by defending them
against enemies; and more yet by fighting for their honor. Is not one united to
the maiden whom he is wooing when he fights with those who defame her, and
contends even to wounds with his rival? It is according to an inherent law of
nature that they are united by such means.
(The word King,
which was appropriate for Sweden in the time of Swedenborg, could be replaced
with ‘nation’ or ‘community’). The principle Swedenborg expresses above relates
to the Lord saying in the Bible: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd layeth
down his life for the sheep. Therefore doth My Father love Me” (John 10:11-
17). The depiction in stories and movies of heroes that are willing to
sacrifice themselves and save the world evoke the intense love and bond that
comes with the acknowledgement of the heroes deeds, know-how, and skill. We are
moved to tears by their skill and deeds even if we have seen the same story a
hundred times, and even if it is not great art. There is perhaps nothing more
internally compelling to a child then a father or mother who cares for them so
much that they will die for them. And everyone of us still has this child
inside that yearns for this care, and hopefully is willing to do it for
another. Here are some examples in movies: In the movie ‘Armagedon’ there is
the self sacrifice of the Father Figure (Bruce Willis) who forcible takes the
place of his future son in law so his son in law can live and marry his
daughter; he is left behind on a meteor by himself to ignite the bomb that will
save the world; in the Matrix there is the wondrous skill and spiritual mastery
of ‘The One’ (Keanu Reeves) that saves the world. In ‘Signs’ the young girl
helps save the world because she has been intuitively led to leave water cups
around the house (and it turns out that water destroys the aliens); also the
young man in ‘Signs’ saves his family with his prodigal skill for swinging the
bat; in ‘Independence Day’ the drunk, worthless father sacrifices himself by
flying into the power source of the alien ship; There are similar themes in the
Terminator, The Fifth Element, Iron Man, The Avengers, Captain America, Men In
Black, and many others. There are also great stories of personal sacrifice in
more life-like stories. In these stories we are deeply moved because of the
battle we all go through to find ourselves, overcome hardships, and see meaning
in our lives. We see this in movies like ‘Shawshank Redemption’, ‘Lone
Survivor’, ‘The green Mile’, and thousands of others. These stories so often
center around Military and police men and woman, because they are the ones most
often in harms way, and most of them have dedicated themselves to the honor and
safety of their country or community, and are willing to sacrifice their lives
for others. When we hear the story of the soldier that jumped on a grenade to
save his companions we cannot help but feel love and honor for the man and his
deed. How much more are we moved to honor Jesus Christ - for He from his own
might saved all humanity from eternal darkness.
It may seem odd that
I am bringing comic book stories, fantasy, and pop movies into a study of the
Bible. But it is really not so odd. G.K. Chesterson wrote a long time ago an
essay called, “In defense of Penny dredfuls”. (Penny dreadfuls are stories for
adolescents that can be compared to pulp fiction in America.) In it he writes:
“The simple need for some kind of ideal world in which fictitious persons play
an unhampered part is infinitely deeper and older than the rules of good art,
and much more inportant. Every one of us has constructed such an invisible
dramatis personae. Literature is a luxery; fiction is a necessity”. He argues
that common novels that engage these themes are invaluable to the imagination
and inner development of youth and adults wether they are well written or not:
“That is to say, they do precisely the same thing as Scott’s Ivanhoe and Lady of the Lake, Byron’s Corsair,
Wordworth’s, Rob Roy’s Grave,
Stevenson’s Macaire, Mr. Max
Pemberton’s Iron Pirate, and
thousands of more books…It is the modern literature of the educated, not of the
uneducated, which is avowedly and aggressively criminal…The vast mass of
humanity have never doubted and never will doubt that courage is splendid, that
fedelity is noble, that distressed ladies should be rescued, and vanquished
enemies spared. There are a large number of cultivated persons who doubt these
maxims of daily life.”
Although
circumstances have changed when Chesterson wrote this, the spirit of what he is
saying very much applies today. In a later essay called Orthodoxy he extends his argument to Christianity and attempts to
explain the immediacy that continually fuels the inner need to engage Biblical
themes:
All Christianity concentrates on the man at the
cross-roads. The vast and shallow philosophies talk about ages and evolutions
and ultimate developments. The true philosophy is concerned with the instant.
Will a man take this road or that?...The instant is really aweful: and it is
because our religion has intensely felt the instant, that it has in literature
dealt much with battle and in theology dealt much with hell. It is full of
danger, like a boy’s book: it is at an immortal crises. There is a great deal
of similarity between popular fiction and the religion of the western people
(Jacobs, 124).
It is inevitable
that Biblical themes are told by our most creative people. Pop culture is
market driven. Whether the writers and producers of these movies are Christian
or not, or whether they are conscience of the source of these themes, they know
what moves people inside – they know what sells to the masses. Sex sells, but so does the deep inner desire
for redemption by superheroes. Carl Jung made a big point of revealing story
tellers that wrote genuinely from the creative imagination; he made the
distinction of stories that were archetypal from the collective unconscious,
and thereby had universal appeal to people, and those that were conscious
creations (more manipulative). This is certainly an important point, but I
don’t think we have to concern our self laboring to identify this quality with
each book or movie. Rather, for our purposes we can go by the receiving end,
that is, what is continually compelling to people in the market place.
In regard to the subject
of the Bible and myth I think Carl Jung missed something essential; he seemed
to believe in Christ as a real man, but not as divine. To my knowledge he treated
the Bible as Myth, and psychologized it. He believed in God within the
individual but not in God as both within and without, and that He is the creator of all things. C. S. Lewis was also a master of myth, Medeival literature,
fantasy and loved these kinds of books. In the early part of his life he considered
himself an atheist. But unlike Jung, he gradually come to the conclusion that
the Bible was true history, not myth, he had to come to intellectual terms with
the Bible as history. This made all the difference for him. C.S. Lewis became a
passionate Christian while retaining his love of myth and fantasy. He strove to
live the Christian values.
Most people assume
that C. S. Lewis wrote his stories, especially the Narnia Chronicles, with a
conscious intention to create Christian allegories (as I did). But he writes
over and over again that it was not this way; in regard to the Narnia stories
he writes:
Some people seem to think that I began by asking
myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on
the fairy tale as an instrument; then collected information about child
psychology and decided what age group I would write for; then drew up a list of
basic Christian truths and hammered out “allegories” to embody them. This is
pure moonshine. I couldn’t write in that way at all (The Narnian, Jacobs, 244).
Lewis strove to do
something far more risky, courageous, and self revealing in these stories. He
wrote: “It is better not to ask the questions (what allegories are god for
children) at all. Let the pictures show you their own moral. For the moral
inherent in them will rise from whatever spiritual roots you have succeeded in
striking during the whole course of your life”. This is very profound to
contemplate. Lewis biographer, Alan Jacobs, writes about this:
“The moral
inherent in them will rise from whatever spiritual roots you have succeeded in
striking during the whole course of your life”. This is terrifying, or
liberating: liberating in that one need not expose oneself to the sanctimonious
drudgery of drawing up lists of Christian truths…But terrifying because as
those images rise from your mind you discover what you are really made
of…Trusting the images, you find out who you are” (Jacobs, 244).
