by Anonymous Logician, Copyright April 16, 2007, all rights reserved.
I'm late as usual, but I recently saw The Da Vinci Code, and I have just a couple comments. First, presuppositions are vital to this debate–yet ignored. Opponents of historic Christianity generally treat its claims as equal to the myriad speculations that have come out of philosophical mouths for ages. Yet if Christianity is actually true, then it has volumes to say about this very process of judging. To treat the Christian canon as just another human collection–and from that basis to launch arguments against the faith–is to assume that Christians are wrong before you start. It's as though even when non-Christian thinkers try to assume Christian assumptions for the sake of argument, they still have an eyeball in their own spectacles. Somebody blow the whistle here.
The scene I have in mind takes place about halfway through the movie, when Ian McKellen is trying to persuade Tom Hanks that the church has covered up the true identity of Mary Magdelene since the early councils. McKellen reads from several apocryphal gospels which describe Mary as the wife of Jesus, insisting that, for whatever reason, the Nicene Council rejected these texts and set their own canon up instead. Completely absent is any mention of the Holy Spirit, who, as the divine force behind the Christian writings, would have also providentially intervened to ensure the selection of the proper books. Critics–and not just those like McKellen's character Leigh Teabing–want to fault Christianity for its supernaturalism while snatching away any benefits that might come from belief in the supernatural. Am I the only one who smells something fishy?
My second comment is simply that, theology aside, The Da Vinci Code was nicely done. Not spectacular, but an intriguing murder mystery well-shot by Ron Howard and featuring solid performances by Hanks and McKellen. Though McKellen must have had an easy time portraying a character with antipathy toward the Christian church.
-----Posted in Music & Film Theology & Philosophy • 0 Comments • Permalink • 681 views
by Anonymous Logician, Copyright April 15, 2007, all rights reserved.
The Bluedorns have created a YouTube video for The Fallacy Detective. Check it out.
-----Posted in General • 0 Comments • Permalink • 706 views
by Anonymous Logician, Copyright April 08, 2007, all rights reserved.
"Christ is risen!" That, according to Scottish theologian James Stewart, is the core of the message that turned the world upside-down. The key was not that Christ had devised a humanitarian ethic (though His compassion is vital), that His miracles changed lives (though they did), or even that He died for our sins (though individual salvation is important). Without the Resurrection, says Stewart, "the Passion itself would be robbed of meaning." The apostles never allowed themselves to imagine that the Resurrection was "a mere epilogue to the scheme of salvation, a providential afterthought of God, a codicil to the divine last will and testament" (A Faith to Proclaim, p. 105).
The apostles didn't preach resurrection in a placidly philosophical context, as though the empty tomb was an empirical vindication of life after death in general. Nor did they veer into revivalistic pietism, harping on Christ's victory merely as proof of their own individual salvation. They preached the resurrection, as Stewart points out, "as an eschatological, that is, as a cosmic event." It was "the shattering of history by a creative act of God Almighty" and "the decisive turning-point for the human race" (p. 106).
The resurrection is God's proof that the world belongs to Him. It's the divine announcement that Christ's invasion of history was not a brief skirmish but the first campaign in a war of conquest. It's a reminder, when human events are at their bleakest and hostile forces smugly set watch over their perceived victory, that something else is at work.
It's a signal that the ground is about to shake.
Posted in Theology & Philosophy • 0 Comments • Permalink • 778 views
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