iGod

Very brief reviews of Sacred Treason & The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Well, I am back from my hols in France and have to tell you that I am not as tanned as perhaps hoped. However, I feel rested and raring to go for the new term. While away I have had time to read, which is no mean feat having three children.

I purposely did not read anything theological, though I did sneak one in the bag just in case I became weak.

One book I read was Sacred Treason, which was a Tudor conspiracy type thriller written by historian James Forrester. The other was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Both quite moral books in their own ways, but from quite different perspectives. In both cases, the message is clear: crime doesn't pay.

However, Stieg Larsson's book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, after a slow start, makes room for plenty of sexual abuse and infidelity, but in the author's mind It is interesting that these two are never connected. I couldn't help think the Swedish hero was a little too much of the author's own projected alter ego, but happy to be challenged.

Forrester's hero, on the other hand, is exemplary and well behaved, if a little sanctimonious, who against the odds restrains from taking advantage of a woman's weakness. He is clever, respectful and far from presumptive. Through the story he is having to work out faith in God versus faith in religion and power. Not easy in the Elizabethan age.

Both books portray life as brutal and both heroes are middle aged, but it is Forrester's attention to Tudor life and clever twists in the plot which saw me favour this book over the flavour of the moment.

I look forward to seeing Sacred Treason made into a film like the Millennium trilogy. It might not have the sex angle to sell copies, but it has the substance and wonderful historic detail to hold your attention all the way through. And, therefore, I found it a much more satisfying read.

My next book to read is far less contentious, but I am sure no less challenging: Consuming Religion by Vincent J. Miller. However, I suspect Hollywood will choose to pass on this one. Probably you too.

ASD

Danny Boyle quote

 Director Danny Boyle, him of the much praised film Slumdog Millionaire, made an interesting observation about faith in a recent interview. He said:

"It's faith that's linked to the imagination - the power of taking a leap - rather than it being faith in a strictly conventional religious sense."

Apparently Boyle once considered going into the Catholic church, after being brought up to go to church three times a week. I am sure this experience has shaped his style of film-making and have heard him say that he considers his work as being moral.

I like the idea of a faith which comes from the place of what can be. A place where we are willing to free up our imagination to step out into the unknown. I wonder how many of our own acts of faith are linked to stepping out, rather than playing it safe and doing what's expected of us. I can't help but think of Peter stepping out of the boat and walking towards Jesus on the lake. Hmm...

ASD

Sweeney Todd and the perpetuation of violence

Well, Sweeney Todd starring Johnny Depp and Helen Bonham-Carter has arrived and is receiving top reviews.

I came across Jim Wallis' blog this week God's Politics and saw a great comment by blogging friend Gareth Higgins from Northern Ireland. He makes an interesting connection with the story and political dogmas that give rise to continuing violence.

He writes: "If the film is trying to make a serious point, it is that Sweeney's spiral of violence never ends. The previous night I had attended a meeting of the Consultative Group on the Past – a body established by the UK Government to examine methods of helping the people of Northern Ireland to address the legacy of our own violent recent history. Two things were clear from the comments made at this meeting by members of the public: first, that the levels of genuine sorrow in this society are unfathomable – families ripped apart, minds taken to the edge of destruction, small communities shattered. This is real, and not interpretation. Second, we often lack the ability to empathise with the pain of the 'other' community. It is all too easy to see 'our' pain as exclusive, and to become blind to the suffering of the community on the other side of a political divide."

Cutting edge stuff. (Sorry, couldn't resist it!)
ASD

How do you get over a Cold/Flu without complaining?

I am feeling really groggy and ill with a cold or flu at the moment. Whatever you want to call it, it's a nasty one.  The trouble is, like most guys,I am a dreadful patient and I am not sure I have much of a theology for God healing me of the Common Cold or Man Flu. So to try avoid the self-pity trap I try and think of someone else who has had it tougher than me recently.

One guy who has helped me get my temporary misery in perspective is Roger Molloy.  I met him in Shoreditch, London and has turned his traversity into an opportunity.  Roger had his photographic gear stolen over a year ago.  All he had left was his camera phone, so he took shots with it and then made them into postcards, which he sells for £1 each in his make shift gallery in E1 to help buy new equipment. Truly inspirational.

Here is just one of his shots which I recently bought, but check out his work to see more.

It's not quite Lemsip. but it does help with some of the side-effects.

ASD

Happy Christmas from the Grinch and me!

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!"

The Grinch, Dr Suess

Have a great Christmas and a peaceful New Year. God's blessings.

ASD

The Golden Compass - getting our bearings

If you have been near a TV set in the last two weeks or out and about you would have noticed the promotion of the movie The Golden Compass. it is written by the excellent writer, but avowed atheist Philip Pullman and is causing some upset in the Christian camp.

Maybe like you, I have received the odd excited email telling me to boycott and speak against it. And the emailers might have a point, but the truth is I have no real first-hand knowledge of the book or the author, I have just seen the trailer which looks like a Narnian film (interestingly, it is made by the same people).

This is the joy of living in a liberal democracy.  It means people can say what they like about Christianity, but on the other hand this freedom gives us the right to say what we like about Jesus. In a communist or fundamentalist Islamic state that just wouldn't be the case - for Christians of atheists.

Anyhow, getting back to the point...

Steve Mathewson a senior pastor and professor of a theological college in Chicago, US brings some much needed level-headedness to the debate.

In short he says three things:
1.  Do not give this movie too much attention
2.  Avoid ranting and raving
3.  Do your homework

Remember how we all got exercised over the Da Vinchi Code? Did that really dent the church's progress? Not that I am directly aware of.  In fact, for some I know it has done the opposite. it stimulated interest as a result of all the hype.

From what I hear (and it is only what I hear) the book has been watered down by Hollywood anyway, which apparently has already annoyed some hardline militant neo-atheists.  So nobody seems happy. 

What a world we live in.

ASD