Continuing from your question about comic books and superheroes, what is your take on some Christians considering comic books, superheroes and other fictional characters false idolatry. Particularly when some of us learn many lessons about good and evil and morality from superheroes (eg With great power, comes great responsibility). -Jymm
How do you read religious themes in fantasy-Harry Potter, LOTR, etc.? Do you consider them to be clear allegory like in the Narnia books, or something else? And how do you feel about their usage, whether positive (Harry Potter) or negative (His Dark Materials)? -Kitty
------------
These two questions were related nicely, and so I figured I'd bring 'em together. Thanks for writing, Jymm and Kitty!
We'll start with yours, Jymm. I have said repeatedly in this space that Christians claiming to read the Bible literally is highly problematic, no less because very few people actually know what that would mean. What they SEE it meaning is taking everything read at immediate face value, no looking for metaphor, or symbolism.
Highly Improbable Cosmologies aside, the Bible is full of stories that were plainly meant to be read as object lessons, fictional stories with morals, rather than history. Jesus' Parables are a huge example here, likewise the story of Job, which is so plainly a philosophical thought experiment. So much of the Bible's meaning gets lost when the "everything literal" approach is taken that it makes me crazy. But oddly enough, that might not even be the worst consequence.
Because what you get, with groups like these, are people who are actually be trained to read without seeing metaphor. An entire culture of Drax the Destroyers, and sometimes the title becomes achingly accurate. Before long, it isn't just the Bible, but ANYTHING that they read that is taken literally, all in order to keep on the devastatingly comprehensive blinders required to avoid noticing that the "all literal, all the time" approach to Bible Scholarship is patently ridiculous.
This, I feel, is where so much of the oft repeated Christian problem with fantasy and sci-fi multimedia (including comic books) comes from. People are suddenly unable to get past the metaphors and so take things only at value. ("The Harry Potter books teach witchcraft! Wonder Woman gets her powers from Pagan Gods! Dungeons and Dragons are devil worship!" etc, etc, etc.)
Sigh.
You can't spend all your time with blinders on and not expect to end the day with blind spots. While that isn't a distinctly Christian problem (some of my atheists have some pretty impressive blind spots) this is a very distinctly Christian approach to it, and robs so-called "Christian Culture" of so much. That might be another part of the reason why I so often dislike "Christian Movies..." in order to meet the viewing needs of their target audience, most metaphor gets tossed out of the window, which is why they so often feel as subtle as a shovel to the face.
But once believers DO read the symbolism, we transition to Kitty's question. And I have actually seen other believers make this transition, find this huge magical word where works of literature (including the Bible) are deeper than a literal interpretation.
They often go, shall we say, a little crazy with it.
I mean, so did I as a kid. I remember the first time I read The Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan, I started reading EVERYTHING like I was combing for clues and vague hints and taking single phrases out of context to extrapolate huge meaning where it probably wasn't intended. Once you calm down a little, and start really reading (rather than the other, which is astrology without starlight) then I have the following advice.
In general, few things are true allegory, and unless they straight out SAY they are allegory (like Narnia) then it is best not to treat them that way. There will be meaning to glean, for sure, but creating the 1 to 1 comparisons is only one step removed from literalism, in the end.
Read first to enjoy. If you find lessons that you like, take them and apply them. There is wisdom to be found everywhere, a bit of God in everyone from the most devout believer to the most stalwart Atheist. Get out there and find it, when you find it, share it! Just remember someone else might read it differently, find something you didn't, something that may stand apart (or even against) what you found.
That holds with pretty much all reading, scripture, fantasy, or otherwise.
No comments:
Post a Comment