Medium & the Bible
26 July 2005 by Gil
So an observant reader (thanks Luke, I’ll leave our South Park discussion for the fall) wondered about the difference between ‘The Passion of the Christ’ and the written Word with respect to this whole medium and message business. I confess that I have only recently seen ‘The Passion’ and was resistant to it for a while. Why that is I’m not yet sure. I don’t know how to characterize my views on ‘the Passion’. Maybe I’ll leave that for another day.
I have wondered about how the message of Jesus was heard during the heyday of that film. Undoubtedly there are positive aspects, seeing something on the screen ‘grabs you’ in a way that reading the gospels may not (especially if they’re somewhat familiar to you). Many reported being emotionally moved at visualizing the suffering of Christ. I’ve struggled with the question of whether it is right to say that ‘the written word’ is the best medium, especially since we have the troublesome historical fact that Jesus didn’t (so far as we know) write a book. That is a constant challenge to those of us who find ourselves in the Protestant tradition and are prone to yelling ‘the Bible alone!’ in response to most questions of Christian authority. It may be an equal challenge to those of us who tend to have our noses in the air concerning our education or how ‘well-read’ we think we are (I would include myself in this category).
Another reader (thanks Muffin) noticed a difference between reading and viewing the Lord of the Rings trilogy, commenting that there was a depth of imagination possible in reading that was not the same while viewing the films. Perhaps this holds true with scripture as well. Maybe God is best known as we hear his word proclaimed or ponder its meaning on our own. Maybe this is the medium God has deemed best suited for the message he wants to communicate. Yet I wonder about all those who can’t read…
So is it significant that we have this bible as our primary way of knowing God? Without rehashing all of the battles of the Reformation, I think that we as evangelicals need to take a step back on occasion and be a little more open to God communicating in other ways. We often seem to claim more for the bible than it claims for itself. Is it the primary way that God has chosen to speak? I think so. If you disagree, try to think about what you would know about God if you had never read the bible.
But, to borrow a famous image, the bible’s light is not its own. The bible is like the moon, it gives light but it is reflected light. The moon ’shines’ because it reflects the light of the sun (Son?). It seems that we get into trouble when we confuse the two.
I enjoy that last image that you shared there Gil, so very true. I fear when people say that there is only one way that God can communicate, or even when one says that one way is better. That places limitations on God that I don’t believe we have the right to do. We have to stop putting him in box. Perhaps the writen word of the Bible speaks best to us in western society, but as stated, what about people that cannot read? Perhaps we favour the writen Word because we fear that when a man speaks he could be in err.
Anyways, I think when it comes down to it, God will speak thru what He needs to so that we listen, whether that be thru the Word, a movie, a speaker on Sunday morning, or leaflet attached to our windshield…the only issue we need to consider is which will be more distracting from the message. While reading, I often get carried away with my imagination, movies destract me with flashy special effects and cg images, speakers can move me to tears with the right story (Biblical or not), and leaflets are just annoying most of the time. We just have to train ourselves to listen for that little voice in whatever form it might come, be aware of our short comings, but not sell God short of what He can do.
I enjoy that last image that you shared there Gil, so very true. I fear when people say that there is only one way that God can communicate, or even when one says that one way is better. That places limitations on God that I don’t believe we have the right to do. We have to stop putting him in box. Perhaps the writen word of the Bible speaks best to us in western society, but as stated, what about people that cannot read? Perhaps we favour the writen Word because we fear that when a man speaks he could be in err.
Anyways, I think when it comes down to it, God will speak thru what He needs to so that we listen, whether that be thru the Word, a movie, a speaker on Sunday morning, or leaflet attached to our windshield…the only issue we need to consider is which will be more distracting from the message. While reading, I often get carried away with my imagination, movies destract me with flashy special effects and cg images, speakers can move me to tears with the right story (Biblical or not), and leaflets are just annoying most of the time. We just have to train ourselves to listen for that little voice in whatever form it might come, be aware of our short comings, but not sell God short of what He can do.
So is there any difference between how God speaks through the bible and how he speaks through a movie or leaflet?
I like your last line about being aware of our shortcomings but not selling God short either.
I’m not sure that there is a differnce in how He speaks to us, but I do know that there is a difference in how we percieive and receive the words from God. Perhaps it has to do with how seriously our mind is engaged in what we are taking in, and since a movie doesn’t take that much thought to take in the basic message, we probably aren’t putting a whole lot of thought into, or at least not as much as we might put into something we are reading. Also, since we have this perception that tv/movies are entertainment and books and the like are moreso educational or thought-provoking, we are probably more likely to take things that we read more seriously, based upon that bais. These are just thoughts…in progress perhaps. Thanks for making me think though.
Thank you for raising a very necessary thought for us from the evangelical heritage. I believe it is time for us as a church - probably specifically the Mennonite Brethren to seriously question our blind allegiance to “sola scriptura”. Maybe scripture is God’s preference in communicating with us and maybe it isn’t. However, scripture alone is a limited representation of God’s message. The authority of scripture rests only in its interpretation in a community of people called in his name. I would go so far as to risk heresy by saying that scripture alone (or any medium for that matter) has little or no authority. Jesus has given to the church the authority to bind and loose all things - not scripture. Community gives cultural relevance and accountability to the messages we hear. So, whatever message we hear, we must be very careful to bring those to the community (i.e. church) for interpretation and actualization. Otherwise, we run the risk of individual interpretations of scripture (and other mediums) which will be very divergent and perhaps destructive.
Interesting thoughts Andrew (I knew you were a heretic). If the church was responsible for assembling our bibles then surely we have to have more faith than we do in the ‘authority’ of the community. Saying ‘the bible alone’ is circular because you have to ask where the bible came from and the bible’s authority is dependent on the church’s prior authority.
I still have trouble equating the message of the bible with ‘any other message’. Isn’t it different? Isn’t its authority unique? I think its value is its consistency. Christians throughout the centuries have been reading the same book and allowing it to tell them who they are and what they should live like. It’s objectivity challenges our subjectivity (a danger equally present with individual interpretations as you point out).
The bible is ‘fixed’ and so it challenges us in our constant temptation to assume that our problems are unique and that our issues are central. We read it together because we realize that, left to our own, we will find exactly what we want to find when we read it.
Very thought-provoking post (for a heretic).