tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post9182715258937529624..comments2024-03-25T13:40:30.747-04:00Comments on Faith and Theology: Christians and The Golden CompassBen Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03800127501735910966noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-43433516219670878422007-12-18T00:07:00.000-05:002007-12-18T00:07:00.000-05:00Hmm...looks like the movie bombed in the box offic...Hmm...looks like the movie bombed in the box office. Did the boycott work? Or maybe the bad press just killed the mood, especially since this is billed as a "family" movie.Danielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08823435313583320525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-8113346453900882362007-12-11T14:54:00.000-05:002007-12-11T14:54:00.000-05:00Thanks, great stuff! I have reproduced this on my ...Thanks, great stuff! I have reproduced this on my blog and posted a link.Rushanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12210944414523530521noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-37855313007977723602007-12-08T12:55:00.000-05:002007-12-08T12:55:00.000-05:00I saw the movie yesterday. It was very boring and ...I saw the movie yesterday. It was very boring and very confussing. My friend beside me even fell into sleep. <BR/><BR/>For me, the movie is nothing more than different groups of people get together and fight at the end. Quite a childish ending. Honestly to tell you, I laughed in tears with my friend as we saw such an ending. We may see the movie as comedy rather then a serious piece of atheist work.<BR/><BR/>Besides, I found elements from <BR/>1. Harry Potter (the dinning hall)<BR/>2. Narnia (animals in human language)<BR/>in the movie. The movie is not quite original and creative.<BR/><BR/>The story is rather against religion (esp Christianity) than God. As I reflect on Barth's CD para. 17 more deeply, I find that the movie has no big deal at all. For in the paragraph Barth clearly states that even Christianity is under the judgement of God if it does not receive Christ in faith. <BR/><BR/>furthermore, the movie does not only concern religious issues. regardless all the religious terms in the movie, we may find that this is also a movie to teach children against all authorities, esp. their parents.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-52961710345818636332007-12-05T19:25:00.000-05:002007-12-05T19:25:00.000-05:00thanks, Kim.Great stuff as always.thanks, Kim.<BR/>Great stuff as always.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-91336822226815799512007-12-04T20:58:00.000-05:002007-12-04T20:58:00.000-05:00The 'war on Christmas' must not be going well, eit...The 'war on Christmas' must not be going well, either that or The Catholic League is on a movie kick.<BR/><BR/>Donohue has gone nuclear about another movie that finally got a distribution company.<BR/><BR/>Unfortunately the company is Gener8Xion; the writer/producer doesn't care about anti-Catholicism or anti-Protestantism or anti-Christian.<BR/>He just wants to sell his movie.<BR/><BR/>Donohue is a jackass, and I haven't had to apologize to any Catholic friends for saying so. Nor will I. <BR/>Hollywood has always been one of his favorite targets. It's a win-win for him and his more money than brains friends.<BR/>I honestly haven't an ounce of charity for the man. The latest film he is foaming at the mouth over is Noelle.<BR/><BR/>http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=12712<BR/><BR/>Bene DAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-28652140792457563972007-12-04T17:38:00.000-05:002007-12-04T17:38:00.000-05:00Kim,Thanks for your thoughts on this -- which I've...Kim,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for your thoughts on this -- which I've reposted on my blog. I also have Martin Marty's as well -- similar thoughts.<BR/><BR/>I've not read the books nor seen the movies, but all this "stuff" makes me want to see the movie. But I guess I'll have to read the books to see what it's really about.Robert Cornwallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04581876323110725024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-87732445794104305812007-12-04T17:09:00.000-05:002007-12-04T17:09:00.000-05:00great thoughts, kim. and the call for public repen...great thoughts, kim. and the call for public repentance - i couldn't agree more. that's always the place to start.<BR/><BR/>but i do wonder whether you aren't giving us a false dilemma. might we not begin with repentance and then proceed to articulate the ways in which pullman's work can be real bad news? again, a hearty amen to repentance and patience. and then a critique coupled with a call for writers like pullman to write better.Matt Jensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03310693669051310020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-36359816893224737302007-12-04T16:54:00.000-05:002007-12-04T16:54:00.000-05:00Yes! A Scorsese version of The Brothers Karamazov....Yes! A Scorsese version of <EM>The Brothers Karamazov</EM>. That would be a good film... we'd hope.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-17800425565211073262007-12-04T16:27:00.000-05:002007-12-04T16:27:00.000-05:00Here in the American South, I've been deluged with...Here in the American South, I've been deluged with the "I'm rilly rilly worried about THIS one" e-mails from women I know through ministries I take part in. They are decent people but the deeply held anti-intellectualism is depressing. With Bush's "No Child Left Behind" to drive the nails into the coffin of education in this country for another generation, it leaves me bewildered. When did people stop thinking for themselves? When did it become "Christian" to be afraid of everything? Afraid of fictional characters? Afraid of books? These people who perpetrate this are college educated people. The Bush inspired "all propaganda all the time" media blitz has brainwashed so many people. I make it my practice to try to rationally answer people who send me this nonsense. They never reply. It's the "megachurch" crowd who are taught to take their politics and "talking points" from the preacher, who mostly is a shill for the neoconservative movement in this country.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-34525507370649878582007-12-04T12:35:00.000-05:002007-12-04T12:35:00.000-05:00Very, very insightful--and beautifully written, as...Very, very insightful--and beautifully written, as always. Thanks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-46189544145801780652007-12-04T12:07:00.000-05:002007-12-04T12:07:00.000-05:00Here's Rowan Williams's comments:http://arts.guard...Here's Rowan Williams's comments:<BR/>http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1165873,00.html<BR/><BR/>It's a review of a stage adaptation of the trilogy from 2004. Shortly after that Williams had a conversation with Pullman. Here's the transcript:<BR/><BR/>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/03/17/bodark17.xml<BR/><BR/>I'm glad we have Kim and Rowan as an antidote to the humorlessness of these crazies!philqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08265153889883377656noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-63145039055153477852007-12-04T11:41:00.000-05:002007-12-04T11:41:00.000-05:00Where does R. Williams comment on the books?Where does R. Williams comment on the books?Isaac M. Aldermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10282951886480508721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-86895469054628379962007-12-04T09:34:00.000-05:002007-12-04T09:34:00.000-05:00Very, very helpful post. Thank you. I haven't seen...Very, very helpful post. Thank you. I haven't seen the film yet but have already encountered the boycott brigade.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-59192763244620920542007-12-04T08:01:00.000-05:002007-12-04T08:01:00.000-05:00Love the post. Love the trilogy. Can't wait to s...Love the post. Love the trilogy. Can't wait to see the movie.Haldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03936185959033443640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-6968016153108501512007-12-04T06:20:00.000-05:002007-12-04T06:20:00.000-05:00Thanks for this brilliant post!Thanks for this brilliant post!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-82667932331431584842007-12-04T03:38:00.000-05:002007-12-04T03:38:00.000-05:00Hi Matt,Thanks for your comment and link. I know ...Hi Matt,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for your comment and link. I know the Alan Jacobs essay from his splendid volume <I>Shaming the Devil: Essays in Truthtelling</I> (2004). It is an incisive and scathing critique of Pullman's trilogy, based on the charge of "dishonesty", the same charge I would level at Dawkins, Hitchens, Sam Harris, et. al. More specifically, the charge amounts to caricature, i.e. of the Christian faith. Or, again, in her recent excellent <I>The New Atheists: The Twilight of Reason and the War on Religion</I> (2007), Tina Beattie refers to Keith Ward's dismay at Dawkins' abuse of texts, his "act of intellectual vandalism against all that is worth believing in and fighting for in Western literacy and culture." All these criticisms are palpabe hits, and relate to what I more charitably refer to as Pullman's theological obtuseness. But, yes, I would not deny the charges.<BR/><BR/>Conversely, Jacobs also asks the stinging question: "If Christianity, and religion, more generally, are what Pullman is against, what does he stand <I>for</I>?" And he suggets that "One could illustrate the positive component of Pullman's moral merely by quoting some Beatles song" (I suppose he's got "Imagine" particularly in mind). I wouldn't be quite so contemptuous as Jacobs, but, yes again, he is not wrong.<BR/><BR/>But my post addresses the specific issue of the over-reaction of the Christian right to the film - and to its own dishonesty, caricature, and implicit abuse of texts. I would want to question Jacobs himself about his take on Feuerbach, Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud, who, Nietzsche excepted (as a deicide Nietzsche is in a class of his own), can also be charged with theological reductionism and humanist naivety, but I'm pretty sure that the Christian right would be less discerning readers of the masters of suspicion and happily invite the kids about whom they are so concerned to a book-burning around the campfire.<BR/><BR/>You are right, Matt, about the cultural and theological illiteracy of our times which the New Atheists exploit and promote, but the answer is not ecclesiastical denial and meanmindedness, hysteria and picket lines. Rather Christians should own up to the truth in the diatribes of the cultured despisers of religion, especially when it hurts, and do that most counter-cultural thing, publicly repent; point out their half-truths and ignorance, and substantiate those charges of dishonesty; and, above all, proclaim the word of the cross with the power of weakness, not engage in ecclesiastical triumphalism.<BR/><BR/>In other words, we should do what Dostoevsky did in <I>The Brothers Karamazov</I>. I'd like to see Scorsese take on as a project that greatest of novels on rebellion and faith. That would be a filmic narrative that would piss off New Atheist and Christian right alike - and thus show itself to be right on the money.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-32469064561122762012007-12-04T00:34:00.000-05:002007-12-04T00:34:00.000-05:00I'm just waiting for Elric to ride on the coat tai...I'm just waiting for Elric to ride on the coat tails of Narnia. Now, that would be a film for children!Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01262662173303042998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-55374153332127305762007-12-04T00:19:00.000-05:002007-12-04T00:19:00.000-05:00In other words, if you meet the Buddha on the road...In other words, if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.Agnikanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00494537340737199409noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-30784536097732256692007-12-03T23:45:00.000-05:002007-12-03T23:45:00.000-05:00I actually waited for this one. Like Neiswonger, I...I actually waited for this one. Like Neiswonger, I'd ask permission to repost.<BR/><BR/>Thanks!Joeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04037540294379020064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-71539640697175559742007-12-03T22:16:00.000-05:002007-12-03T22:16:00.000-05:00Yes, Neiswonger, you're always welcome to re-post....Yes, Neiswonger, you're always welcome to re-post.Ben Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03800127501735910966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-18945864458343710512007-12-03T22:07:00.000-05:002007-12-03T22:07:00.000-05:00The movie critic I follow, James Berardinelli, sai...The movie critic I follow, James Berardinelli, said: "They [the atheistic themes] don't make it to the movie, which ignores religion altogether and makes the story about the exercise of free will against tyranny." <BR/>http://www.reelviews.net/movies/g/golden_compass.html<BR/><BR/>People don't have to like Pullman's philosophy or books, but I'm disturbed by the idea that we, as Christians, want everyone to see Christ in Narnia, but want to boycott an opposing viewpoint because we're afraid it'll indoctrinate kids. Interestly, non-Christians say the same thing about Narnia. The lack of dialogue is sad.Sethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11607498252631868850noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-3833029457316606852007-12-03T21:04:00.000-05:002007-12-03T21:04:00.000-05:00for another really helpful theological reflection....for another really helpful theological reflection...<BR/><BR/>http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=913Matt Jensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03310693669051310020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-9333816069406129182007-12-03T21:03:00.000-05:002007-12-03T21:03:00.000-05:00kim, i love your posts. and i'm grateful for your ...kim, i love your posts. and i'm grateful for your good reminder that gods who are not God need killing. but i don't think that's the main point here. what concerns me most is not that pullman has found an idol worth lampooning, but that he has done so in a day when few of us know enough about the real thing in the first place. it's a problem of religious and cultural literacy. what worries me is how many people i know find it hard to move past the stage of firing pot shots. so, rather than thinking critically, they dismiss - usually not even knowing what they're dismissing. it's awfully sexy to be a cynic. i'm afraid pullman seems to encourage this.Matt Jensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03310693669051310020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-17617085809321226292007-12-03T20:21:00.000-05:002007-12-03T20:21:00.000-05:00Can I re-post with a link?Can I re-post with a link?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com