Do I believe…?

FT, you open up the discussion to a broader question: What type of fiction/storytelling successfully brings us into its world and when does it fail to do so?

I the case of movies, I enjoy Marvel’s suspense, but detest Michael Bay, 2012 and Pirates 3.

In my reading, I love Martin and Tolkien and even an occasional Cussler, but can’t stand Patterson.

Why?  I don’t know.  I know that the longer I read, the less I’ve grown tolerant of the pulpiest of the pulp fiction.  I’m less of a movie connoisseur and just a guy who likes what I like.  I can really enjoy a long slow movie that others find boring (I think that AI is amazing, for example).

Patterson being the topic serious criticism remind of the Riley fiasco.  Seems to me like classic Higher Ed ivory tower.  Other thoughts?

A final movie thought.  Anyone see Blue Like Jazz?  I love Steve Taylor.  I hope its good.  And I hope it moves “Christian” arts forward.

Jaredd, have you ever watched Star Trek?  Did you ever wonder in the course of an episode whether Kirk, Bones, and Spock were all going to die?  Or have you read or watched Lord of the Rings?  Did you ever wonder at any point whether Sauron would recover the Ring?  Did you wonder at the end of Star Wars whether the rebels would all be killed, Luke Skywalker would die in the vacuum of space, and the Death Star would destroy the rebel base and establish a thousand-year hegemony of the Empire?

Jaredd — Heh.  I just discovered that Joan G. Kotker might disagree with you (and by “you,” you know very well I mean “us”).

I see

Fight scenes in campy action and adventure movies are exciting the same way roller coasters are exciting.  You don’t wonder if you’ll survive a roller coaster, but it’s still exciting.

I get it.  It’s like reading James Patterson.  You’re pretending that what you are reading was actually written by someone who can write a novel in the English language, even though you know that isn’t true.

On paper I want to be OK with it…

Goodness! Whatever for? (not actually jn)

A part of me has always felt there was wisdom in the disapproval shown towards John Bunyan for letting Agnes Beaumont ride behind him on his horse.

My wife wouldn’t go for me traveling to a conference with another woman no matter how close we were. I don’t blame her, either.

Changing Topics

So, 800 words and a video on NTW is enough to shut everybody up, eh? OK, so let’s go with a new subject.

Has anybody else read Dan Brennan’s Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions? His basic argument is that we need to leave all of Freud’s hyper-sexualization behind and begin to accept as normal and healthy close cross-gender friendships outside of the husband/wife relationship.

My initial impression is that his example of close brother/sister friendships is a good model for the kinds of relationships that should exist between people of both genders within the church, but in practice he’s always pushing the boundaries beyond my comfort level a bit. (Example: he and a cgf [a woman 30 yrs his junior] are taking a week-long road trip together to speak at the Wild Goose conference. His wife isn’t coming along. On paper I want to be OK with it… and yet in practice I’m conflicted.)

A little more on seeing N. T. Wright

tl;dr version: NTW in Nashville. Talked about his book. Sang 3 songs. Videos linked below. Awesome guy, great evening. 10 hours in the car each way. Sore backside.

OK, so a little more detail for those of you who are interested. Monday night’s event was coordinated by the fine folks at The Rabbit Room, working in conjunction with Wright’s publisher. He is here in the States for a mini book tour of sorts. The gathering was held in the “library” of Church of the Redeemer in Nashville. There were about 50 chairs crammed in, and probably closer to 70 people in attendance.

I was there nearly an hour early (hey, I had nothing better to do) and staked out a soft chair in a front-and-center location. I mention this only because, 45 minutes later, the chief organizer booted me from that chair so that Bishop Wright could have it. In return I got a folding chair right next to him, which made for an entertaining evening.

The first half of the evening was an assortment of music performed by a bunch of Square Peg Alliance types who were in attendance: Andrew Peterson, Jill Phillips, Andy Gullahorn, Lori Chaffer, Randall Goodgame, and others. At one point between songs when someone was retuning a guitar, Wright leaned over and commented to me that back when he was playing guitar in the early 60′s, nobody used alternate tunings, and that he could never now get the hang of them.

The second half of the evening was Bishop Wright talking extemporaneously about topics from his newest book. In this setting full of musicians, he emphasized that the work of the historian should be led by the creative right brain in a work of imagination of how things might actually have been; the left brain then should kick in later to work out the details. He recounted his debate tour with Marcus Borg, and how at some point in those debates he would always list his two or three primary reasons for believing in the bodily resurrection, whereupon Borg would say something along the lines of “well I just can’t imagine that actually happening”. Wright says that Borg needs to work on his imagination.

Wright strikes me as a ridiculously good communicator in these situations. He was just an hour off a plane, jet lagged, and thrust in front of a close audience. Yet for an hour he pulled together thoughts and stories well-adapted to his audience, weaving them together to give us an angle on the arguments in his book.

He took 20 minutes of questions after the talk; they were primarily dominated by three young (apparent) seminarians who felt the need to ask complicated questions with lots of big words in them. One woman asked a more practical question acknowledging how the evangelical church in the US has gone off into the culture wars, and asked for his thoughts on how the church should better address some of the moral issues of the day within the culture.

Wright gave a measured response. He noted that a 2nd-century pagan historian (whose name escapes me) wrote of Christians that they were notable for two things: 1) their belief in bodily resurrection and 2) they didn’t sleep around. He pointed out that both of these notable things had a focus on the importance of the physical body, and that it would be wonderful if the church today were known for these two things. He refrained from commenting more specifically on particular topics (homosexuality, abortion, etc), saying that those issues were best addressed pastorally with individuals, with gentleness and usually many tears.

After the Q&A Bishop Wright was asked to pick up a guitar, and he obliged with three (!) songs. (I think he was enjoying himself.) Jason has already linked his closer, but I can now add “Genesis”: lyrics by NTW and Francis Collins to a tune by some British band.

It was a fantastic evening. It’s hard for this engineer to find the right words to capture the bliss of the evening – with the cool evening breeze blowing through the open doors, the truth being shared in music and spoken word, the intimacy of a small packed room. Suffice it to say that it was completely worth the time and cost to go, and it was a night I’ll always remember.

Seeing as I’m already at 700 words, let me add just one more paragraph to say that I was hugely impressed by NTW as a person. He was humble, pastoral, engaging, and funny. He took the time to mingle with audience, made a special effort to talk to the two couples who brought along babies, welcoming them and talking to the children, paid close attention to the songwriters as they sang, and then graciously endured the line of folks wanting books signed and pictures taken. All this at an event that took place from 1:00 – 4:00 AM in the time zone he woke up in that morning. Blessings on him.

Wright does Dylan

Ah, I’m glad that The Rabbit Room folks got that posted. That was the finale, and it brought the house down. (You probably had to be there.) I’ll give a detailed account tomorrow, so as to avoid incurring any of the threatened penalties. (sw) For now, I’ll just say that it was completely worth driving 10 hours each way, and one of those special times when, as Wright would put it, the barrier between God’s realm and ours got very, very thin.

NT Wright Singing

At the risk of stealing some of Chris’s thunder when he gets home, here’s a link of NT Wright singing Dylan at the Rabbit Room yesterday.

http://vimeo.com/41782945