A Film Adaptation of The Silmarillion? Yes Please

Now that Peter Jackson is about to release his 3-part film adaptation of The Hobbit in follow-up to his successful presentation of The Lord of the Rings, Erik Wecks pleads with the filmmaker to bring Tolkien's The Silmarillion to the screen. Yes please:

Mr. Jackson, think of the stories you can tell. Just think! There is the story of the creation and the coming of the gods. There is the story of the great trees and the forging of the Silmarils. There is the story of the elves’ rebellion against the will of the gods and Feanor’s flight to reclaim the great jewels. What about Turin and the seven sons of Feanor? There are epic battles between elves and dwarves. We could see Durin look into the lake of Kheled-zaram and found the great city of Khazad-dum. Consider the overthrow of Morgoth. Think of whole armies of balrogs arrayed against a host of elves and gods as the great northern lands are plunged into the sea! This doesn’t even cover the second age with the rise of Sauron and the forging of the rings, the tragic but glorious fall of Numenor and the coming of the Kings of Numenor to Middle Earth.

It's not quite accurate for Wecks to refer to the Valar as 'gods' in the above paragraph. I do think Tolkien slides too much into the Platonic concept of the demiurge in his presentation of the Valar, but they are not "gods." Tolkien was quite clear in his grand mythology that there was only one God, Eru ('the One') also known as Illuvatar ('Father of All'), who created the Valar and everything else.

To Wecks' main point, though: A film adaptation of The Silmarillion would be welcome.

By the way, in an earlier post Wecks nailed the biggest complaint I had in the LOTR film adaptation:

My frustrations with Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings come not from changing the situations and scenery. Rather, they come from changing the characters in ways which destroy the ideals Tolkien meant for each of them to embody.

For example: In the book, Aragorn embodies nobility, confidence, and above all the willingness to risk everything to achieve something great. He is a great leader — just the kind of leader we would want to follow. In the movies all his nobility is stripped away, and he becomes just another angst-ridden man-child. The noble Aragorn of the books never for a moment considered Eowyn. He had his eyes set on Arwen, and they never strayed. In fact, he is very quick to distance himself from Eowyn in the books once he realizes her feelings for him. He is grieved that she loves him, because he does not want to cause her more pain. He is, above all, honorable.

Peter, Fran and Philippa must all have something against nobility of spirit and steadiness of purpose, because they also strip Frodo of the same characteristics: The Frodo of the book would never have sent Sam home. He of all people knew the power of the ring, and while he pitied Gollum, he could never have allowed Gollum to seduce him, because he understood, better than anyone in Middle Earth, just what the ring did to a person. No one would have been able to come between Frodo and the loyal Sam, especially not Gollum.

Characters matter. I will follow a filmmaker down many paths, but when they change the motivations of my beloved characters, they often lose me. This is especially the case when they make them more angst-ridden and emo like they did in LotR.

He's afraid Jackson's writing team is about to do the same with the character of Gandalf in the upcoming 3-part film adaptation of The Hobbit.

Okay, enough geekery for the day...

 

Posted with Blogsy

"Try out the other for a while"

Today's Seth Godin post is good advice for any artist, entrepreneur, marketer--anyone trying to persuade. Which means it's good for preachers, too:

It might be that your audience isn't smart enough, caring enough, attentive enough, with-it enough or generous enough to understand and appreciate you.

Or it might be that you're not good enough (yet).

If you're in the habit of assuming one of these, try out the other one for a while.

Godin's posts are often this brief. Subscribe to his blog feed.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Links to Your World, Tuesday July 31

Top 10 Things Britain Said About Itself in Its Opening Ceremony. Not sure I buy all of it, but worth a look.

 

7 Ways to Not Be a Slave to your Smartphone

 

MIT researchers look at the role that airports will play in the next pandemic.

 

How many sneezes do you say "God bless you" to? Jon Acuff wants to know.

 

"'Beautiful women getting older, women who decay, that’s always intriguing,' she said, especially when their livelihoods have rested on their looks. 'They are their own instruments. What do you do when you’re a Stradivarius and you’re losing your strings?'” Sheila Nevins, explaining her interest in producing the documentary, About Face: The Supermodels, Then and Now.

 

If tetherball is too tame for you, what about Flaming Tetherball?

 

Texas Monthly reports on Texans that are "preppers," stocking up for the End of Days.

 

The Crusades are one of the most misunderstood events in Western and Church history. Here's a crash course. For a fuller treatment I recommend Rodney Stark's 2009 book.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Winning Ways: Holding Out for Grace

Theologians aren't just found in ivory towers. We all have an opinion of God and how to relate to him. Some opinions are just more satisfying than others.

Cancer made a theologian of Austin's favorite son, Lance Armstrong. According to his 2001 memoir, It's Not About the Bike, the famous cyclist wrote:

The night before brain surgery, I thought about death...Was I content with myself and what I had done with my life so far? I decided that I was essentially a good person....I believed that should be enough. At the end of the day, if there was indeed some Body or presence standing there to judge me, I hope I would be judged on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed in a certain book, or whether I’d been baptized. If there was indeed a God at the end of my days, I hoped he didn’t say, “But you were never a Christian, so you’re going the other way from heaven.” If so, I was going to reply, “You know what? You’re right. Fine.”

Contrast that theology with that of Bono, frontman for U2. In the 2005 book, Bono: In Conversation, the rock star told journalist Michka Assayas why he was grateful that relating to God was based on grace and not performance:

[In Christ's message] along comes this idea called grace to upend all that "as you reap, so you will sow" stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff....It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity."

Performance-based theology is humanity's default setting. When I find myself operating out of that view, it results in pride at my accomplishments, smugness toward others' weaknesses, disappointment with God when he doesn't repay my obedience to him with a smooth life, and--worst of all--it makes me insensitive to my need of a Savior. Over and over I have to tell myself to, as Bono put it, "hold out for grace."

You are surrounded by theologians. If they'll hear--and see--what grace means to you, it will improve their own theology, too.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Links to Your World, Tuesday July 24

There's so much more to say about the Colorado shootings, but I'm glad at least this was said so far: Read "Making Non-Sense of the Colorado Shootings," by Mark Galli.

 

"Chariots of Fire" is recapturing the British imagination as the Olympics begin in London. You should watch it (or rewatch it) this week.

 

The Hipster Olympics are underway, too. I don't want to know about the "Skinny Jeans Fight."

 

10 rooms designed as optical illusions. Like this one:



 

We hear a lot about people dropping out of their church affiliation as they move into adulthood. But atheism has the lowest retention rate of any theological view. Only 30 percent of those raised in atheism stay in atheism in adulthood. That, and other findings from the latest Pew report, are reviewed by Timothy Dalrymple here.

 

Led Zeppelin's frontman, Robert Plant, has settled in Austin with his new bride. If they're looking for a church, I know one....

 

Yet another report on the benefits of exercise (strength training combined with aerobics) for mental sharpness. This one focuses on the elderly.

 

Rebecca Rosen for The Atlantic reflects on what she calls the "discordance" of religious impulses among those engaged in space exploration.

 

Zambian Baptist Conrad Mbewe asks his fellow churchmen: "Why are our own people not thinking about taking the gospel to far away lands that desperately need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ? Doesn’t God want to use Africans in missions too?”

 

So, you want to make a dull household chore more exciting? Welcome to Extreme Ironing:



 

John Stonestreet says we need less "Christian art" and more Christians who are artists. Good article.

 

Is it a good thing or a bad thing when your mother, a professional profiler for the State Department, profiles your boyfriends? Liza Monroy explains the pros and cons.

 

Posted with Blogsy

I Shop, Therefore I Am

“If everyday life in the first few years of the twenty-first century has been characterized by anything, it is the American family’s willingness to work hard and shop hard, purchasing one well-marketed new product after another and taking on debt in a vigorous show of consumerism.”

From Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors, a new book by UCLA anthropologists who, as Time reports, "went into 32 typical homes — middle-class, dual-income families, with school-age children — and cataloged what they saw." The study also suggested that our inability to keep all our stuff cleaned, working, and organized increases our stress level.

 

Posted with Blogsy

"Doesn't God want to use Africans in missions too?"

Zambian Baptist Conrad Mbewe asks his fellow churchmen: "Why are our own people not thinking about taking the gospel to far away lands that desperately need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ? Doesn’t God want to use Africans in missions too?”

This would be a welcome movement to see! Imagine those we have scholarshipped through the Baptist Seminary of Zambia leading a nation to reach the nations.

Posted with Blogsy

"We have to shift the focus from music to relationships"

Branden O'Brien for Out of Ur:

If we’re to make any progress in the worship debate, we have to shift the focus from music to relationships. Truth be told, I’d be happiest in a service with an Allman Brothers vibe. But I love and respect fellow congregants who are moved by Bach cantatas (which are lost on me). If a pastor could help foster an environment in which congregants lobbied for the type of music that moved their friends and loved ones—because each wanted the other to be moved in worship—questions about which is “best” would become inconsequential.

Full post

 

Posted with Blogsy

Winning Ways: Omelets with "Mostly Fresh Eggs"

In Montana last month a hitchhiker was shot in an apparent random, unprovoked attack. In a sad irony, the victim had been hitchhiking across the country, chronicling his journey for a memoir called "The Kindness of America."


A passerby picked him up and the man survived. No word yet on whether his idealism has as well.

What does a story like this teach us? Should we trust in humanity's goodness or should we shield ourselves from humanity's badness?

Yes.

The Bible opens with the formation and the fall of our first parents. God created Adam and Eve in his very image, and as their descendants we hear what the philosopher Pascal called "rumors of glory" in every story of humanity's capacity for love, loyalty, and creativity.

But we are not simply descendants of image-bearers, we are descendants of fallen image-bearers. Adam and Eve doubted God's leadership and wisdom, and they turned away from God. As progeny of that first fallen couple, you and I are fallen image-bearers as well. We see this reality in every story of selfishness, betrayal, rebellion, insensitivity, and outright cruelty.

Instead of debating whether people are "basically good" or basically bad," let's agree that people are "basically walking contradictions." Our lives are a canvas on which we paint a brushstroke of love here and selfishness there. We apply the theme of loyalty on one corner of the canvas and the darker shadows of betrayal on another. We splash the discordant colors of kindness and cruelty on the whole display.

What are the implications?

First, in relation to others, let's avoid the extremes of hard-boiled cynicism and starry-eyed idealism. Cynics miss the beauty in people while idealists aren't prepared for the ugliness in people.

But we are fallen, too, not just others. So, let the evidence of your fallenness lead you to Jesus. For a moment, set aside the debate as to whether you're "bad" enough to need a Savior: Can you at least admit you're "contradictory" enough to need one? While few people would claim to be perfect, many people still want to describe their lives as "mostly good." But a restaurant advertising omelets made of "Mostly Fresh Eggs" wouldn't stay in business. Just so, admitting our lives are "mostly good" should drive us to the amazing grace of Jesus.

Now that's some food for thought!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Links to Your World, Tuesday July 17

Would you change your name for $100K? How about if you had to change it to TexasMotorSpeedway.com and get it tattooed?

 

"Over 43 percent of recent graduates now working, according to a recent report by the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, are at jobs that don’t require a college education" (Newsweek).

 

10 Things You Should Be Buying Used

 

Lifeguard gets fired for saving a drowning man.

 

A post for wives married to absent-minded husbands. (But why did she call it the "minister's disease"? Maybe I'll ask Diane...)

 

As a father of a son dependent on tips to make a living, I agree that Christians suck at leaving proper tips.

 

Now HERE'S a proper tip: As part of their loved one's dying request, this family is leaving a $500 tip every time they go out for pizza. With the help of approving donors at a website, they're going to get to drop this sizable tip at a lot of pie joints.

 



Beautiful baptism homily from Jonathan Dodson of Austin City Life

 

"French scholars say, evangelicalism is likely the fastest-growing religion in France – defying all stereotypes about Europe’s most secular nation." Read about it at the CS Monitor.

 

The interesting life of Craig Newmark, the "Craig" of "Craigslist."

 

"Forty years ago [in Austin] Willie, Waylon, Jerry Jeff, and a whole host of Texas misfits grew their hair long, snubbed Nashville, and brought the hippies and rednecks together. Country music has never been the same." John Spong reviews Austin's 1970s moment in a recent article, which Texas Monthly insists on hiding behind their dang paywall. Best quote: "What started in Austin in that fuzzy 1970 to 1973 period is still playing out. There’s a continuity that you can’t say about any other regional music explosions in the United States in the latter half of the twentieth century....The Americana format, and all that stuff that people call Texas music, it all came out of Austin" (Joe Nick Patoski).

 

Baylor prof Philip Jenkins referenced the Texas Monthly article in his fascinating piece about how 1960s-70s rock music rediscovered all things Americana, which naturally included music with Christian themes. This, in turn, opened the door for young parachurch movements (like Campus Crusade for Christ) to gain traction among young people who would have otherwise never heard or considered evangelical teaching.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Links to Your World, Tuesday July 10

If you want to sell your soul in exchange for a dream, EBay won't let you use their service to do it.

 

"It's not uncommon to hear students remark on how much they look forward to being done with English. Who knows what language they'll use then?" That from James Courter, who recently retired as an English prof. He recalls notes from students who were late to class because they couldn't get into "the proper frame of mime" but acknowledged that was a "poultry excuse." Another knew he couldn't get into an "Ivory League School" mostly because of his "halfhazard" work. A young woman worried about how she would make it after graduation in "this doggy-dog world." More here.

 

"If you hear someone tell you that complementarity means you have to get married, have dozens of babies, be a stay-at-home housewife, clean toilets, completely forego a career, chuck your brain, tolerate abuse, watch “Leave it to Beaver” re-runs, bury your gifts, deny your personality, and bobble-head nod “yes” to everything men say, don’t believe her. That’s a straw (wo)man misrepresentation. It’s not complementarianism." Mary Kassian.

 

 

"The current incarnation of the Internet—portable, social, accelerated, and all-pervasive—may be making us not just dumber or lonelier but more depressed and anxious, prone to obsessive-compulsive and attention-deficit disorders, even outright psychotic. Our digitized minds can scan like those of drug addicts, and normal people are breaking down in sad and seemingly new ways" (Tony Dokupil for The Daily Beast)

 

Related: Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, says that Western innovation has moved from the asperational moonshot to the triflings of Instagram: "Inventions have become less visible and transformative. We're no longer changing the shape of the physical world or even of society. We are altering internal states, transforming the invisible self or its bodily container. Not surprisingly, when you step back and take a broad view, it often looks like stagnation—or decadence....If we want to see a resurgence in big thinking and grand invention, if we want to promote breakthroughs that will improve not only our own lives but those of our grandchildren, we need to enlarge our aspirations. We need to look outward again. If our own dreams are small and self-centered, we can hardly blame inventors for producing trifles."

 

8 Simple Instructions for Sharing Christ

 

An Interview with Bobby Gruenewald, Founder of YouVersion. This is the most popular (free) Bible app for smartphones and tablets. I've used it for a few years to read and study the Bible; I'm now using it for my daily Bible reading plan.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Fifty Shades of Decay

by Tom Goodman

Update: With Fifty Shades being released this weekend, here's a post from 3 years ago when the book first became a--well--"hit."

It's a strange time we live in when feminism's daughters make a runaway bestseller of sado-masochism and when God's daughters invite each other via social media to see the latest flick about male strippers.

A strange time, but not a new time.

No, not new. The first-century Roman world was easily more pornographic than our own. Since the earliest Christians came out of that culture, part of discipleship involved learning a new sexual ethic.

What kind of world were these new Christians trying to break from? We learn a little from Thomas Cahill's book about ancient Greek culture, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea. Explicit sexual acts were praised in song and even depicted in art work--and not art work hidden away in private bedchambers but openly displayed. Lurid portrayals of sexual organs, orgies, and rapes can still be seen in dining room frescoes and dinner goblets from the period.

When Paul wrote to people who were trying to live new Christian lives in that kind of world, he expressed firm and yet patient pastoral concern: "God wants you to be holy and to stay away from sexual sins. He wants each of you to learn to control your own body. Don’t use your body for sexual sin like the people who do not know God" (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 NCV).

In this not-new world of ours, let's show that same untiring commitment with each other. Paul was a patient coach: "You need to learn," he said, "Learn to control your own body." Like learning any subject, those who try to practice the Christian sexual ethic in an ungodly world will have their stumbles--but they will inevitably get back up and progress. And they will be glad for that Christian parent, that Christian marriage partner, that Christian friend, and that Christian pastor who helps them progress.

In what forms does that help come? General teaching, specific counsel, pointed reprimand, heartening encouragement, and always the infusion of prayer, to the end that we all become imitators of the Lord who bought us at a price.

The Christian is in a lifelong project of deprogramming from an ungodly world system. This includes a new approach to everything: possessions, friendships, family, and, yes, sexuality. You live in a world that celebrates 50 shades of decay--you live in that world, that is, but you are no longer of that world. Onward and upward!

“The Killing” and God and Suffering

Where is God when life falls apart?

That’s what “Mitch” Larsen wants to know, too.

Now that I’ve started in on Season 1 of AMC’s The Killing, Netflix can’t send the DVDs fast enough. The series weaves together three story lines around a single murder: the suspects, the detectives, and the victim's grieving family.

It’s rare for this genre to give such heart-rending attention to a murder victim’s survivors. In one scene, the grieving mother, “Mitch” Larsen, joins her husband, Stanley, at the Catholic church to plan the funeral. The scene begins with the mother taking a long look at the crucifix while her husband and the priest plan the service. The camera shows Mitch taking in Christ's wounds--the nails in hands and feet, the wound from the spear, the pricks of a crown of thorns pressed into his scalp. As the meeting wraps up, the priest offers some canned reassurance that their daughter is with God. Mitch absorbs this for a moment and then rejects it: "Where was God when my daughter was scared and alone?" The priest awkwardly stares at the anguished mom, apparently caught by surprise at this age-old question. The scene ends as husband and wife walk away one way and the priest another.

Though I’m a fan of the show, it’s too bad the writers staged a priestly character who was nothing more than a two-dimensional foil for Mitch’s heart-broken anger. I doubt a church leader of his gray-headed experience would have been so trite with his “comfort” and so befuddled with a mother’s cries.

But even if the TV show’s priest didn’t have a word of comfort for her, the writers supplied the Christian answer to her questions. It was at the start of the scene, as Mitch scanned the symbol of our faith's central story: the crucifixion.

Christianity teaches that God actually entered in to our broken world in order to redeem it. Here’s how the late John Stott put it in his marvelous book, The Cross of Christ:

I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross….In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering.

Beautiful!

In light of that truth, there’s a better editing for the above scene from The Killing. How about this:

Meditating on “Wounded Love and Bleeding Mercy” is the only way forward when life falls apart.


Selah.

Reject the "Straw (Wo)man Misrepresentation"

I find the terms 'complementarianism' and 'egalitarianism' to be clunky in discussions about gender roles. But until someone comes up with something better, at least you need to know what the terms stand for. Mary Kassian has a helpful post on what 'complementarianism' is, in the form of the "For Dummies" book series. The conclusion: "If you hear someone tell you that complementarity means you have to get married, have dozens of babies, be a stay-at-home housewife, clean toilets, completely forego a career, chuck your brain, tolerate abuse, watch “Leave it to Beaver” re-runs, bury your gifts, deny your personality, and bobble-head nod “yes” to everything men say, don’t believe her. That’s a straw (wo)man misrepresentation. It’s not complementarianism."

 

Posted with Blogsy

Links to Your World, Tuesday July 3

Do you have a beard? Do you love Jesus? Then BeardedGospelMen is the site for you.

 

"Optimism is not so much about feeling happy, nor necessarily a belief that everything will be fine, but about how we respond when times get tough. Optimists tend to keep going, even when it seems as if the whole world is against them." Psychologist Elaine Fox, quoted in a nice NYT article on optimism. The article includes pointers from Dr. Fox on retraining a "rainy brain" into a "sunny brain."

 

Having trouble keeping your family engaged with each other in this wired age? Get the Be Here Now Box, filled with practical ways to increase offline interaction, including the "Family Internet Allowance Agreement."

 

Standard estimates for raising a kid (not including college) is around $235K, but when you factor in what parents could have earned by investing the money, the cost of raising a kid to 22 is between $900K and $1.1 million. (Time)

 

The Statesman reports that Austin and Round Rock are 2nd and 3rd on the list of the nation's fastest-growing cities. What are the implications for planting new churches and for revitalizing existing churches? Are we responding?

 

Posted with Blogsy