3D Heaven?
Suddenly everything has gone 3D.
Like the Talkies, colour, Technicolor, smell-o-vision, and Imax before it, 3D carries the hopes of reinvigorating cinema-going with a fresh barrage of eye-popping visuals. A combination of excitement about the new technology and concerns about piracy have driven the movie industry to stake its future on 3D 'eye candy' - and charge us accordingly.
But there have been dissenting voices, notably the man who can always be relied on for a robust opinion, BBC Film Critic Mark Kermode. In his view, the test of the technology is simple: it might be spectacular, but does it improve the ability to tell stories? In his opinion, the day Martin Scorcese makes a 3D drama will be the day that it has ceased to be a gimmick and is therefore truly here to stay.
It's worth reflecting whether in our presentation of the gospel message we too are guilty of thinking we need gizmos and widgets to catch people's eye. Are we sometimes no better than the producers of a cinematic blockbuster, demanding more, more, more for our audience?
Responding to a good story is written into our make up as human beings. Whether it is an epic like Lord of the Rings, or simply an anecdote shared with someone at the shops, we delight in following the twists and turns of a well-structured narrative.
At the same time, stories have a remarkable capacity to carry complex ideas with ease. If we stop and think about it, God's revelation of himself in the Bible could have been given in the form of a dry list of doctrines and truths. Instead, we often encounter the truth about who God is and his plan for us in the form of an account of a vivid character and their unfolding life-story.
All of this should make us wary of an attitude that regards the latest technological fad as indispensible for the proclamation of the gospel. At all times and in all places people of faith have rightly utilised available technologies to spread the good news. But the story the Bible tells is compelling by virtue of the truth it contains and the one of whom it speaks, not the medium by which its message is carried - and it will ever be so.
The challenge of ensuring that technology is the servant of the gospel and not its fashionable master is therefore one that we must always and everywhere meet...
John Lee
Comments
As a mathematician, I have often wondered how many dimensions heaven (or the new heaven and new earth) will occupy. As creator of the universe, God chose to make it in 3-dimensions - perhaps a bit like a human artist can choose to paint on a 2-d canvas, but in which space does God live? Note that a being who lives in 4 (or more) dimensional space could easily appear to walk through walls in our (3-dimensional) world.
The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity is nothing more than a few bells and whistles, with the same editorial policy as that risible publication Living Marxism. If you have a compelling message to proclaim, it hasn't been seen anywhere on this website.
Date:
2010-07-22 12:31:44
Author:
David Young