tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805190.post3640323084445375342..comments2024-03-01T07:35:49.740-08:00Comments on Come Reason's Apologetics Notes: Maybe Our Churches Need More Comic BooksLenny Espositohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04064209669748618955noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805190.post-33615387642702999272016-10-03T16:13:02.513-07:002016-10-03T16:13:02.513-07:00Great comments, Revynn. I completely agree.Great comments, Revynn. I completely agree.Lenny Espositohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04064209669748618955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805190.post-905004110943633642016-10-03T15:06:31.699-07:002016-10-03T15:06:31.699-07:00There's a lot to be said here about the church...There's a lot to be said here about the church and the arts as a whole. <br /><br />The Christian artist often feels a pressure to always include some sort of religious imagery or explicit teaching in their work, fearing that it won't glorify God otherwise. In the end, too many fall into the trap of sacrificing the work for the lesson and end up creating awkward characters in blatantly manufactured situations. If the message comes across at all, it comes across so heavily that the reader just feels preached at. It's not real, the characters aren't compelling or relatable and we end up with another pile of "Christian comic books" in the discount section. <br /><br />That's not to say that it can't be done. I think Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are great examples of two different approaches to telling Christian stories that are brilliantly executed and appealing to a large audience even outside of the "Christian fiction" subgenres. The Chronicles of Narnia are blatant allegory and it's clear that The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was written with the intent of retelling the biblical narrative. Aslan is an obvious Christ figure, his death is a clear picture of penal substitution, Edmund's time with the witch are blatant metaphors of temptation or the bondage of sin, etc. On the other hand, Tolkien's work is rife with pictures of the death, resurrection and glorification of Jesus (Gandalf), the incarnation and earthly mission of the atonement (Frodo voluntarily taking the ring to Mt. Doom), the second coming (Aragorn), yet all of these images are fluid and don't align as perfectly with the Christian narrative as Lewis's do. Aragorn is reluctant to take up his rightful throne, Gandalf is not all powerful, Frodo starts to look more and more like Gollum as the story progresses. The images are there, you just have to do a little more digging to find them. In the end, both are timeless classics of western literature. <br /><br />But works like these are disgracefully few and far between. Instead we have industries saturated with recycled Amish Romance, Casting Crowns rip-offs, etc. Even super popular songs like Chris Tomlin's "Good, Good Father" have lyrics that, intentionally or not, reflect some questionable theology. And, let's be honest, as ubiquitous as Chris Tomlin is in the western church, his stuff is really just not that good most of the time. It's repetitive and shallow. <br /><br />I'll be honest, as an armchair theologian, a beginner artist and hobbyist fiction writer, I would love to be "that guy" who can actually provide the church with something worth reading, but sometimes I feel like the training and skill requirements of doing so are beyond what I may ever be able to achieve in my lifetime. Most artists who focus on even a single field will spend years or decades honing their craft. The greatest secular comic book artists often create characters that are flat and cliche with awkward dialogue for the simple fact that all their skill is in the artwork. They don't know how to structure a story or create dynamic characters. In short, they don't know how to write. Someone that can create a story worth reading that delivers accurate theology, wrap it in eye-pleasing artwork and not make the reader feel like they're being "preached at"... that's a tall order. Worth aiming for, but tall.<br /><br />At this point, I'd settle for a comic book that I can give to my 8 year old. That is, something worth reading that isn't going to perpetuate the narrative she'll already receive from the world about how she needs to dress like a whore, have a Jessica Rabbit figure and be able to fight off a squad of 15 trained soldiers by herself like Black Widow.Revynnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04594976611816085816noreply@blogger.com