Last week I shared some general comments about the "Big Idea" of the biblical Noah story, and the limitations of any Bible adaptation (good or bad).

This week I saw Darren Aronofsky's movie and wanted to compare and contrast his "Big Idea" with the "Big Idea" of the original text. (Warning Spoilers below!)

I don't want to go into a full blown review. Paeter Frandsen has some great thoughts on his podcast.
In short, from a film standpoint, it was very well done. The animal CG was a little weak, but the plot, pacing, cinematography, and acting were all superb. I didn't care for the film score because it tried too hard to sound like it wasn't trying too hard.

But let's move to the Big Idea.

I propose that the Big Idea of the biblical story is as follows:

Exegetical Idea: When humanity became so wicked Yahweh annihilated them with a flood, Yahweh preserved righteous Noah's family to begin anew.

            Subject:          
                        What happened when humanity became so wicked Yahweh annihilated them                                   with a flood?
            Complement:  
                        Yahweh preserved righteous Noah’s family to begin anew.

The Darren Aronofsky film also has a big idea:

Exegetical Idea: When the creator saved Noah's family from the flood that annihilated wicked humanity, Noah decided to let humanity begin anew when he only saw love in his granddaughter's eyes.

            Subject:          
                        What happened when the creator saved Noah's family from the flood that annihilated                                 wicked humanity?
            Complement:  
                        Noah decided to let humanity begin anew when he only saw love in his
                                   granddaughters eyes.

So, it's a bit different in some significant ways.

Now before anyone starts to argue the big ideas I've proposed, let me point out that the Big Idea of any story is found at the surprise twist. The point in the story where the major tension is resolved. In the newly released film, the tension is resolved when Noah decides to not kill his newly born granddaughters (the soundtrack says so)!

The homiletic (take-away) idea in the biblical story is:
We should walk with God when no one else is because only believers will be saved from judgment.
(I lost an attender over this!)

The homiletic idea in the Aronofsky film is something along the lines of:
When we see the wickedness inside every human being we should try to find the goodness in people.
(Aronofsky made millions with this!)

The film's big idea, as you can see, is very much off kilter with the biblical narrative.

But I don't want to poo-poo the whole film. I enjoyed the first two-thirds very much. As a whole I liked the film. I also appreciated a number of themes and accomplishments in the movie:
1. Total Depravity is affirmed. No one understands Original Sin as much as Noah in the film.
2. Aronofsky gave us a believable, working model for the Ark.
3. We see a couple of instances of God's undeserved favor (a.k.a. grace).

So, there you go. The Big Idea is wrong. The film is entertaining. And it got a few theological themes correct.

But let me once again write... even if the Big Idea was correct, no film or adaptation can ever, ever, ever carry the same transformational power as the Word of God.

(Shameless sermon plug here).

Many ethicists today are saying that science is progressing faster than ethics can keep up. I agree with that. We are asking the question "can we do that?" without also asking the question, "should we do this?"

This is pushing us into ethical quandaries that will have ramifications for decades to come.

Case-in-point... the new Taco Bell breakfast menu: 

Yes Taco Bell, you can wrap a tortilla around bacon, eggs and hashbrowns.
Yes you can use a waffle as a taco shell and fill it with sausage and eggs drizzled in syrup.

But (altogether now) just because you can do a thing, doesn't mean that you should.

This undoubtedly is a sign of the "breakfapocalypse"!!!!!

Summary: The brutal pale-skinned Angleni have made a truce with the peoples in the land of the three tribes. Their arrival has left the three tribes battle-worn and willing to do almost anything to avoid conflict. The Angleni's hateful desires are not satisfied with the truce, though. And their lusts and religion are prophecied to one day take over the whole land.
None of this is on the minds of young Loic, a general's son, and Satha, a woman from a poorer clan whom Loic chases after. But in the midst of their growing relationship, forces far more powerful and deceptive than the Angleni sweep the couple into a physical and spiritual struggle that threatens to change everything.

Review: Wind Follower by Carole McDonnell is an absolute masterpiece of literary fantasy fiction.

The author has built a world filled with people groups, supernatural entities, clans, theology and intrigue that is at once alien while still feeling very familiar.

More than the world, though, McDonnell's characters drive the story and give it a heart. One of our protagonists, Loic, is a passionate, yet tender-hearted young man. He says whatever is in his heart, which at times is commendable, but often is embarrassing. Satha, our other protagonist, in many ways complements Loic's zeal, but carries a deeper wisdom than her suitor.

This book isn't for everyone, though.

Human sexuality drives a good portion of the story. Thankfully, fantasy tropes help the story talk about the male sex drive in rather frank ways without being too specific. But in Wind Follower we see the beautiful, the ugly and even the pathetic aspects of the sexual drive.

This isn't always easy to read. By no means. There was one point that upset me to my core, and I didn't return to the book for two weeks. Now, I'm not a sheltered reader. I did my undergraduate work in Creative Writing at SUNY New Paltz. I've read stories featuring depravities and injustices. But what makes McDonnell's story so compelling, and even devastating at times, is her deep characterizations. I couldn't help but feel the pain of her characters as they endured the wickedness of others.  But McDonnell, unlike many other writers of great literature, does not leave us in the dregs of human ugliness, but she also shows the beauty of real life.

I am also indebted to the author for showing how a group of people can follow a theology brought to them by a hateful people. In this case the message matters more than the messenger. And the truth is the truth, no matter what kind of people know it.

Wind Follower is literary fantasy in all its splendor.

Rating: 5/5 (I Loved It!)

Find it here on Amazon.

There's tons of chatter about the release of Noah coming out today. Because of my schedule I will be unable to have a chance to see the film until next week . . . that is if I even bother to see the movie at all.

If you want to get a review of the film from a co-laborer in Christ that I trust, be sure to keep an eye on Christian Geek Central's front page. Paeter Frandsen should be posting his review later today.

Let me offer some thoughts:

1. Good or bad, theologically sound or heterodox, this movie isn't going to change society. Do you remember how The DaVinci Code was going to demolish Christianity? Or before that, how The Passion of The Christ was going to lead to revival? Neither happened. I doubt much will happen after this one.

2. Films have limited power to transform. Now, before anyone jumps all over me, I do believe stories are very influential and can shape our intellect and emotions. However, despite the amount of money and talent that go into a motion picture, or adaptation (even a faithful one), the biblical stories read and preached carry exponentially more transformation power because they are the Word of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit. There will never be a film, comic, book, audio drama or television show that can even come close to the transforming power of the Bible.

3. The biblical text gives us very limited information on Noah and the flood narrative. But we have enough to see an archetype, foreshadowing the salvation from God's correct judgment through Jesus Christ. Even though the film must make a number of creative and philosophical decisions... if the "Big Idea" of the story is intact, I would be personally satisfied.  

4. I find it ironic that a number of creative types (many Christians) who have also adapted the Noah material and are critical of this film, have stories that don't reflect the "Big Idea" of the Noah narrative.

So what's the "Big Idea" of the Noah narrative (Genesis 5-8)?

Exegetical Idea:

            Subject:          
                        What happened when humanity became so wicked Yahweh annihilated them                                   with a flood?
            Complement:  
                        Yahweh preserved righteous Noah’s family to begin anew.

Homiletical Idea:

            Subject:          
                        Why should we walk with God when no one else is?

            Complement:  
                        Because only believers will be saved from judgment.

I've been doing ministry now for just about fourteen years.

I have been preaching at least once a week for eight years.

I thought after all this time, the art and craft of preaching would have gotten easier. But it hasn't. It has become incredibly harder. There's probably a variety of reasons for that, but here's a few that have come to mind.

1. Senior Pastor Preaching - While I took my years in youth ministry very seriously, there is a higher expectation when preaching to an "adult" congregation. The last two and a half years at the Orchard Church have been wonderful, but I've also experienced the weight of responsibility declaring the Word of the God.

2. Martin Luther - The great reformer once wrote "the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God." (Actually he wrote it in German from what I understand.) Luther is absolutely correct, and I unfortunately had to go and read that quote. When I stand I am literally "incarnating" the biblical text, and like the Old Testament prophets declaring, "Thus says Yahweh!" This is indeed a weighty responsibility. (See also James 3:1ff).

3. Personal Stuff - It seems a gaggle of difficulties materialized the second we moved to Michigan. Financial, family, housing, transportation and bookkeeping issues have been non-stop. Non-stop. As soon as one problem gets resolved, another one pops up. These haven't been minor, either. They've been consistent and massive. This, of course, has a large effect on my preaching prep time, and even on occasion my demeanor on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings.

4. Spiritual Warfare - Spiritual warfare happens every single time I preach. Scratch that. Spiritual warfare happens during sermon prep. I am a man who is far from perfect. And in the midst of struggles, I need to sit down, study the Holy Word of God and do the hard work of communicating it to others. What's harder, though, is that every week I have to let the text confront me. Sometimes it is sweet and reassuring. But there are weeks that I'd rather skip that part. There are times I want to take a break from God. And this is just during the prep work! When I am preaching there are times I can perceive a battle: the True Words of God versus the lies of sin, Satan and the world. People have left the church because of this warfare. "I don't like what you said. I want to follow a god who will just let me do whatever I want." It can be rather exhausting.

5. Cultural Shifts - Because of the massive cultural shift in morality happening right now, there are additional pressures on preaching. The temptation for me, an expository preacher, is to spend all my time talking about these "topic of the week" questions. But if i really believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God wherein God has revealed Himself to humanity... then I think the best thing to do with the Bible is to preach it. Not the "topic of the week." Sometimes I want to start with a hard topic, then fill in understanding with Scripture. But if fourteen years of teaching have taught me anything, it's that the big ideas of the text are far better than my ideas. And if I teach those ideas, they are far more penetrating than my own.

So, those are some of my ideas. Regardless of the struggle, I know I am called to this ministry

Pastor friends, or those who preach, what would you add?
Non-preaching friends, pray for and support those who do preach for you!

Summary: For millennia the fierce archers known as the Scythians have stood against demonic hybrids knows as the Nephelim. As the End of Days draw near, Alany-El de Tany, cursed by the bite of a were-lion, and under the guise of Luna stands against the malevolent Nephelim in the form of monstrous minotaurs and werewolves in London's darker places.

Review: This is a rather unique book. There are some rather distinct features in the book that deserved to be addressed individually. Because of this, I'll look at the Art, Story and Theology in that order.

Art: From what I understand Jeff Slemons (who drew Job) illustrated the lion's-share of the book. Alan Lathwell, and "Buzz" also worked on the book.
The art is stunning. It is beautiful and brutal all at once. Forgiving a few blurry scans/transfers, this large book shows epic battles, unique (yet familiar) hybrid creatures, and a wide range of emotions on the faces of the characters.

Slemons and the team draw scenes depicting hellish, angelic, urban and even pastoral locations.

I particularly liked the design of Lucifer as a cherub, with the faces of a man, eagle, lion and bull. I've never seen the dark one portrayed like this, and it works well. The four faces don't look out of place, but communicate the might of this fallen angel. Positioning the bull's head behind the face of the man was particularly visual, since it gave Satan horns.

The illustrations are consistently fan-flipping-tastic throughout the 145 pages of the story.

The art exceeds most of the contemporary work found on comic stands today.

Story: The story is described as an "Epic of Biblical Proportions" and author Rob Hughes certainly draws in a number of epic elements. Our heroine, Luna, is not only from a long line of warriors, but also has a bloodthirsty, shape-shifting curse coursing thought her veins. There are werewolves, giant nephilim, the anti-Christ, Lucifer, cathedrals, castles, towers, and a pet baby fox!

Hughes' dialogue is believable and well-written. The narration, and characters' interactions sound modern - except in ancient flashbacks, where they understandably sound ancient. The book spans centuries of history.

And that's the weakness of the story. It is filled with so many elements, plot points, and timelines that the tension of the story is never rightly established. Conflicts are brought up, then left unresolved as Luna is thrust into yet another conflict. As I read, I hoped that these seemingly unconnected battles and intrigues would culminate in the climax, but they really didn't. In fact, the book climaxed with an awesome battle, that would have worked much better if the story had built toward that end. Once I reached the end, I expected to read that this was an ongoing saga and the second volume was being produced. But there was no such note.

This isn't to say that the story was not enjoyable. On the contrary, I enjoyed it a great deal. But even though the book is rather large, there simply was too much going on, too many plot points and unresolved conflicts to give the reader a satisfying conclusion.

Theology: The end of the comic, after the conclusion of the story, features a number of articles on a variety of theological topics.

This was the low-point of the book.

First, there is a one-page "How to Be Saved" article that espouses baptismal regeneration (baptism in the name of Jesus to be saved) over and against salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (i.e. John 3:16; Romans 10:8-10; Ephesians 2:8). This, in and of itself is problematic enough.

But we're also given an extended article about how werewolves - and were-bears, were-loins (I pray to God that was a typo), were-orangutangs and were-tarantulas - are real. The biblical "evidence" demonstrates a demonstrably horrendous hermeneutic, of which I would have required my students to write a five page paper enumerating all the reasons their abuse of the text and its genre was wrong.  The article further ponders weather or not the pseudepigraphical (false writer) book of Enoch was divinely inspired on the level of Holy Scripture!

It's not.

No theologian has ever, in the history of Judaism or Christianity, claimed that it was.
The book of Enoch is useful in two ways. First, it helps us understand what the dead literary genre of "Apocalypse" is really about. Second, it gives us a glimpse into one of the interpretations of the more difficult passages in the Hebrew Bible (namely Genesis 6).

Frankly, it's stuff like this that muddies the real supernatural issues in scriptures. I have a personal goal of preaching through every word of the Bible, and I can say with confidence that werewolves (or were-loins) will never come up. Recall Paul's admonishment to Timothy: "But have nothing to do with irreverent and silly myths" (1 Timothy 4:7a).

But, the theology is not all bad. I did appreciate, in the actual comic, how the Hebrew names for Yahweh, and Yeshua were frequently invoked. It gave this modern story both a Jewish and ancient framework that added to the overall setting of the story.

Conclusion:The artwork is amazing. I want to go out and find all of Jeff Slemons' work now and enjoy his artistic imagination. The story was rather enjoyable. It could have stood to be more focused, but it moved along at a rather rapid pace. The theology in the concluding articles (and a teensy bit in the actual story) range from absolutely wrong, to very unfortunate.

Art: 5/5 (I Loved It!)
Story: 3.5/5 (I Liked It)
Theology: 1.5/5 (I Really Didn't Like It)

Find the book on the official website.

I came across this picture last September while meeting with a church member at a local coffee shop.

The digital image doesn't do it justice.

The print that I looked at, for no more than a minute, burrowed into my mind for the next few days. So, much so that I mentioned it at a church meeting.

One of the families unexpectedly purchased and framed the print for pastor appreciation month, and I was incredibly blest to receive it!

I love this picture.

This embodies what Christian art should be.

At first glance it raises questions: Is this Jesus? Why is Jesus embracing a woman romantically? Who is this woman? What is the occasion of this embrace? Why are the flags of the world on her dress? Is that a wedding dress?

There is an initial tension in this picture. As one visitor to my office asked, "Why do you have a picture of Jesus making out with some chick?" (Which was a little crudely put, but still an honest question.)

But then we have to think through our theology: Where are there marriages in the New Testament? Who is this bride supposed to represent? When is this picture taking place? Past? Present? Future?

And we then come to an incredibly beautiful, powerful and utterly unique piece of art. This is the marriage supper of the Lamb.

"Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty, has begun to reign! Let us be glad, rejoice, and give Him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared herself. She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure." (Revelation 19:6b-8 HCSB)

This is the universal Church being united to her bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the point when at long-last, after all the tears, after all the pain, disappointments, turmoil, hardships and sorrows, we will be united with our Saviour. All the hurt, and agony ends at this point in time. Life - the way life was meant to be - begins here.

This is the moment when we discover that enduring the darkness of this world is absolutely nothing compared to the reward.

And the ultimate reward isn't heaven. It isn't immortality. It isn't a glorified resurrected body. Yes we get all that. But the ultimate reward is far greater.

The reward is Jesus Himself.

I love how the bridegroom is king, and three crosses stand atop his crown symbolizing both his great sacrifice and the triune God.

I love the bride's face, and how her head is thrown back in absolute joy. I love how Jesus is holding her, gentle but firm, with rejoicing on his face as well.

Artist Jennifer Oakley-Delaplante has created a masterful piece of art that will inspire and encourage me for years to come.

Jennifer Oakley-Delaplante shares some of her inspiration on her blog.

Welcome to the marriage supper!

Summary: When Satan strikes at God-fearing Job, this man of great sorrows tries to understand why God has allowed all this evil befall him.

Review: The book of Job is what theologians call "complex wisdom." There are no easy answers in this book. Just like there are no easy answers in life in the face of suffering.

Modern readers often find the biblical book difficult to access because it begins as a standard narrative, then shifts into a series of long discourses, before shifting again to standard narrative.

Ben Avery's script in this graphic novel, Job, is very true to the text. He follows the basic outline of the book in this hyper-faithful interpretation. There's plenty of artistic interpretation and imagination in this comic, though. Satan is seen in opening (and closing) scenes lurking in the background of the frames. The settings Avery chose to hold the discourses communicates the dire situation Job is in.

Jeff Slemons' artwork is awesome. His characters communicate a wide range of emotions that help the reader feel their pain. Likewise his action scenes are as powerful as they are imaginative. His scenes of the heavenly council show both the majesty of the sons of God, and Satan's out-of-place presence there. The accuser looks arrogant, while the angels look peaceful. Slemons drew in some wonderful subtleties into the comic the enhance the overall experience.

I think the real value of this comic is that it helps modern readers conceptualize what is happening in the biblical book. Ben Avery faithfully summarizes the discourses, which readers often get bogged down in.

Job  is a faithful adaptation that translates an ancient text for contemporary audiences.

Readers young and old trying to understand the biblical book will find a wealth of helpful imagination in this comic. Likewise, those struggling with the "problem of evil" or personal tragedy will also find great wisdom in these pages.

Find it here on Amazon.