Book reviews, recommendations, excerpts, and criticism will soon appear here

I’m definitely a literature junkie, so you can expect this page to be well stocked.

 

CRITICAL SCHOOL : A New Biblical Perspective

I’ve had this one particular thought about literature for the past year or so, and that’s the thought of “lens.” You see, in the studies of literature, in the academic schools and revered institutions, books are not read merely to be enjoyed, they are read to analyzed for systems, psychology, insights in social structure, craft, and theory. In reality, there are hundreds of academic schools who can all read the same book and produce completely different answers to the question: “What does this book mean?”

There’s a Cultural Perspective, a Feminist Perspective, a Gender Perspective, a Freudian, a Marxist, a Deconstructionist, a New Criticism, a Psychoanalytic, a New Historicism Perspective and so on and so forth… Each of these approaches and then interprets every text in radically different and often times conflicting ways.

So here’s my new project: I want to make use of another, very different perspective. A Biblical Perspective. To enter a text through the lens of scripture, to seek out and connect themes and core values and morals presented within a book to see if there is any alignment or similarity to Christian truth. To take a story, novel, essay, or movie, and ask, where does this agree and where does it disagree with True morals. To distill the message into its core elements and see whether or not I can conform that movie or book to what is true and godly. Do I see Christ? Do I see His character? Do I see His work?

In essence, I want to take figments of the culture, and use them to present God’s views. To do as Paul did; to quote the Rock-Star poets of Greece and Rome, like Aratus, Menander, and Epimenides, and make their words obedient to the truth of God.

So, that’s the plan. To not always run away from the cultural imagination, but to exploit it for God’s glory, and, if possible, use that as a tool to share truth. Perhaps even suggest: “See, your own philosopher’s, actor’s, and author’s words attest to this.”

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for instance, if you saw the recent Batman release, The Dark Knight; did you see the unambiguous theme of penal substitution? Of course, Batman is a ridiculous and rather freakish reflection of Christ, but he took the punishment and bore the shame of a marred reputation in the place of another, and did so for the betterment of many.

Now, this is not to say that pop culture is Christian, or that it is even trying to be Christian. But all humans are made in the image of God, and eternity is in our hearts, and the reality of God is apparent in all existance – is it possible, or even probable then, that the human imagination will sometimes give off a glimmer or flicker of God’s redemptive plan? In a film even as unexpected as Batman can we find a nicely packaged illustration for penal substitution. That’s my new project as I view films and read fiction; does this retell, in some shape, the doctrines or morals of God?