Garden State

My wife and I rented Garden State last weekend. The main message seems to be "to experience life, you have to experience pain." The plot is basically a man finds out that his mother died. He is under heavy medication as prescribed by his father, who is a psychiatrist. He decides to go off the drugs and start experiencing life again. We both enjoyed the movie. People tend to treat Christianity the same way. They think God will protect them and keep them from experiencing the pain, even though every letter in the New Testament talks about how to face suffering in a Christ like manner and not how to avoid it. Garden State is not by any means a Christian movie, but GS's stoic world-view should be something Christians use to re-evaluate their own view of scripture. The "success" gospel of the TV evangelist should be viewed with suspicion.

Troy

I just watched Troy on wide screen DVD. Roger Ebert hated the movie so much that he placed it as number #1 on his worst movies list. I thought the movie, although flawed, was good. Brad Pitt did a good job as Achilles. Peter O'Toole was magnificent. The fight scenes were excellent. My biggest problem was the CGI of the massive armies. Okay, 1000 ships with 30-40 people. It would have been 30-40 thousand people. The movie showed an army of at least 1/2 million attacking Troy. I was not sure why the director felt the need to show that massive of an army. The movie had the characters discuss leadership and loyalty; kingship and obedience; and reasons for war. The movie replaced the irony of the gods interfering with the affairs of men in the Illiad with a discussion of kings interfering in the lives of their subjects through war. It was not profound, but it was interesting.

Early Christians

I just received an email. The author objected to the claim published on my website that early Christians were persecuted and killed for their faith. This proposition is part of a classic argument for the Christian faith. This propositon along with the assertion that a bunch of unschooled, blue-collared workers turned the world upside down in a space of a few generations is a classic argument for the truth of Christianity. The author of the email asked how do I know that the early Christians were persecuted and put to their death still claiming that Christ was resurrected. I was flabbergasted. I thought Nero's persecution of the early church was an established fact. I thought most historians agreed that Paul (Saul) lived and wrote some letters to some churches. In these letters, Paul asserted that he persecuted the early Church.

The argument may not be the most convincing argument, which does not mean it is not valid; however, for someone to attack the argument from that standpoint that early Christians did not suffer amazes me. Some people who do not read the Bible tend to doubt every historical fact in the Bible. No matter what one's stand on miracles and the supernatural, people need to understand the Bible does contain historical truth. Archaeology often validates the historical accuracy of the Old and New Testaments (just watch the history channel). One may think the gospel writers were trying to deceive their followers, but to do this they must validate their story in the warp and woof of history to convince their contemporary readers of the validity of their claims. I have talked to people who think the entire Bible is a fantasy. A total fantasy would not have convinced--L. Ron Hubbard nonwithstanding-- the first century gospel readers of the validity of the gospels' claims. This point of historical accuracy is one common ground where nonbelievers and believers may meet and discuss the claims of Christ. If one denies all truth in the Bible to all evidence to the contrary, may I ask who is the one not pursuing the truth?

Welcome

The title of my blog comes from reading a biography of C. S. Lewis. Before the Inklings, Lewis and Tolkien were in a group, who called themselves "Coalbiters." This group read Icelandic sagas together in Icelandic. Coalbiters is a Norweigian term meaning a group of old men who did nothing all winter, but talk and sit by the fire so closely that they could bite the coals. This blog is to celebrate the writings of the inklings and the study of topics like literature and religion.