This article first appeared in the journal of the College
of Preachers
Movies, Myth and Preaching
By Dwight Longenecker
Modern Myth Making
Last year the book shop chain
'Waterstones' and The Daily Telegraph both ran a poll
asking for readers 100 best books of the century. The front
runner in both surveys was J.R.R.Tolkien's mythic masterpiece, The
Lord of the Rings.
This year the newspapers and magazines
are looking forward to the release of the new Star Wars film.
The new film is another chapter in director George Lucas' nine-part
science fiction saga which relates the mythic struggle of the
Skywalker family against the evil empire and it's dark Lord.
Intellectuals
may sneer at Tolkien's furry-footed hobbits and Lucas' inter-galatic
heroes, but both
works have millions of devotees of all ages around the world.
As the church continues to wring its hands over how to communicate
the Christian message, we might do well to consider some of
the film-maker's tricks of the trade.
Myth Master
In his book, The Writer's Journey Christopher
Vogler noticed that the success of the Star Wars films
were based on repeat ticket sales, "People were going
back to see these films as if seeking some kind of religious
experience." Vogler tried to discover why audiences found
the films so compelling, and his work led him to the writings
of mythologist Joseph Campbell.
Campbell's book, The Hero With
a Thousand Faces considered the dream stories, myths
and legends from civilisations around the world. Linking
his findings with the psychology of Jung, he sought to interpret
the myths, and discover the pattern of symbolism which they
held.
Campbell outlined the mythic story
as one which takes the hero on a quest. After the call to adventure
and a refusal of the call the hero goes on to meet a mentor,
face challenges which culminate in the ultimate test at the
'inmost cave' where he claims his reward, and goes through
a 'resurrection' before returning victorious.
With
innumerable permutations, this is the pattern of mythic storytelling
common to all humanity.
Myth makes good movies because it powerfully draws each member
of the audience into the quest of the hero. When it works well,
the mythic movie is a minor sort of religious experience. The
hero's journey of discovery is one of self-growth, enlightenment,
and ultimately of faith. As the audience bond with the hero
they share his journey and spiritual discovery.
Sigmund
Freud wrote, "The
truths contained in religious doctrines are after all so distorted
and systematically disguised that the mass of humanity cannot
recognise them as truth." Joseph Campbell realised that "the
old teachers...told the Truth not in obtuse religious jargon,
but in the exciting and mysterious language of myth.
Myth and Truth
J.R.R.Tolkien--a
devout Catholic--understood the power of myth as well. In
his biography of Tolkien, Humphrey
Carpenter relates Tolkien's conversation with C.S.Lewis which
led to the great man's conversion.
Lewis had come to believe in God,
but could not relate to Jesus' 2,000 year-old death. Lewis
shared Tolkien's excitement with myth, and understood how myth
interests and involves the audience in a vicarious way. Tolkien
asked Lewis why he couldn't transfer his appreciation of sacrifice
from the myth to the true story.
"But, said Lewis, myths
are lies, even though lies breathed through with silver."
"No." said Tolkien "They
are not.
You call a tree a tree, and
you think nothing more of the word, but it was not a tree
until you gave it a name.
You call a star a star, and say it is just a ball of matter
moving on a mathematical course. But that is merely how you
see it. By so naming things and describing them you are only
inventing your own terms about them. And just as speech is
invention about objects and ideas, so myth is invention about
Truth."
Tolkien
went on to explain that although the myths were woven through
with error, they also
reflected a fragment of the true light as well. The light began
to dawn for Lewis: "Then the story of Christ,"he
said,"is simply a true myth, a myth that works on us in
the same way as the others, but a myth that really happened."
For Lewis, the myths were testimony
of the 'light that enlightens every man.' (Jn.1.9) They looked
forward to the 'true myth' of the gospel. The stories of incarnate
gods, annual deaths and risings all echoed forward the story
of Christ.
The Old Testament stories with
their typology of Christ looked forward in a different way.
Here the stories had a symbolic, legendary and mythic quality,
but they were locked into history--pointing in a way no pagan
myth could--to the myth become fact in Jesus Christ.
Myth and the Bible
The Bible story from Genesis to
Revelation is the greatest 'true myth' ever written. Sweeping
from the dawn of creation to the mystic summary of all things,
the story is a great saga of redemption which fulfils and completes
all the lesser stories made by myth-makers both past and present.
The whole story of salvation history
in the Bible follows the mythic pattern. Mankind--like the
hero--is called to adventure in Abraham, he meets the mentor
figure as Moses and Elijah experience their mystic visions
at Sinai. The nation of Israel overcome tests, enemies and
temptations on their way to the promised land.
In Christ the story reaches its
summary as in him all mankind face the ultimate test and the
inmost cave. From there he defeats Satan, rises again to lead
us victorious with the prize of eternal life.
Not only is the whole Bible story
a great recapitulation of the mythic pattern, but nearly every
individual story in the Old Testament--and many in the New--take
us through the same pattern of Call, Challenge, Test, Death
and Rising.
The earliest Christian commentators
understood this and interpreted the Old Testament with unashamed
typology. Seeing the Old Testament pre-figuring the story of
Christ, engaged the imagination and made both stories burn
with a fresh relevance and intensity.
Missing Myth
While the Bible stories work mythically--they
have more power than the pagan myths because they are fundamentally
historical. They are the stories of God's real inter-action
with his people.
But the usual Christian pattern
in preaching and study is to take the stories, squeeze a moral
or a theological point from them, then toss them aside. From
the neglect of these vibrant stories one might conclude that
we would have preferred divine revelation to be a nice fat
book of systematic or moral theology.
Instead God has chosen stories
of full-blooded men and women engaged in the mythic struggle
to overcome the forces of evil, find redemption and win a share
in eternal life. Stories which are 'true myth' are God's way
of communicating in the world.
Why is it therefore, that so many
Christian communicators turn away from this full-blooded way
of communicating? Perhaps we are frightened of the ambiguity
and 'messy-ness' of story. Maybe our training and theological
education hasn't given us the tools or the mentality to cope
with myth, drama and story. Perhaps our own imaginative and
emotional resources are too stunted to cope with the challenge
of myth.
Imagination and Myth
At
the heart of myth lies a conflict, and any storyteller will
agree that conflict is what holds
the audience's interest. The first rule of the scriptwriter
is not to bore. The way not to bore is to make an imaginative
use of conflict.
Conflict engages the imagination.
In myth the hero is engaged in conflict from the call to adventure,
through his battles and tests, right up to the supreme ordeal
of the inmost cave. So too a sermon which has no conflict has
no interest.
Imagination works on the truth
to be conveyed and transforms it into a conflict in which the
congregation can take part. This might be through the creative
use of story--in which a main character goes through a process
of discovery, or through the imaginative use of planning, so
that each point builds on the next and takes the congregation
through the conflict of discovery.
The use of imagination and conflict
will force the sermon to be a dynamic progress to truth through
thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis rather than a bland statement
of truisms. Revealing this progress through story enfleshes
the truth and captivates the hearer.
Imagination and conflict not only
maintain interest (our main aim is not entertainment) but they
are also the means the myth-maker uses to engage the audience's
emotions, for emotions are the stimulants of action.
Emotion and Myth
Screenwriter
Michael Hague makes no apology for his films appealing to
the emotions. He quotes
another well-known screenwriter and director who says, "I
want to move them so strongly that they leave the cinema thinking."
Like it or not, people act according
to their emotions, and preachers should not be ashamed of touching
emotions in sermons. This doesn't mean emotions should be touched
in a crude and manipulative way.
The wrong way of engaging emotions
is to use cheap jokes, guilt or sentimentality. But this form
of emotionalism is not not only damaging, but it is also superficial.
It doesn't penetrate, doesn't convince and doesn't last. Furthermore,
most people see what is being done, and even if they fall for
the trick, distrust and dislike it.
Instead myth engages the audience's
emotions indirectly. The audience bonds with the hero, and
shares his emotions vicariously. This experience of emotion
is cleaner, deeper and longer lasting. This happens naturally
with good narrative preaching. So for example, we bond with
the prodigal son, and vicariously experience his temptation,
his sorrow as he falls from grace and then the joy of his eventual
reconciliation.
The imaginative conflict in the
myth therefore engages the emotions, and once the emotions
are fully engaged, like the scriptwriter said-- the hearers
go out thinking.
Intellect and Myth
By encouraging the use of emotion
in preaching we are not discouraging the intellect. Script
analysts teach that the world created in the film must be intellectually
satisfying. Not only must nothing be inconsistent, but there
has to be an intellectual sub-structure to the whole film.
Likewise, the Mythic-Biblical
sermon will be a sermon about the interaction of God with real
people. It will not be primarily theological, but as in Tolkien's
theory, the story will be 'a new world' and thus a new vehicle
for theological truth, and like the film-maker's advice, the
world will need to be consistent, logical and intellectually
sound.
A mythic-Biblical sermon may consist
only of the story, but more often it will be accompanied by
an intellectual explication of the story, its relationship
with Scripture and its application to Christian living. This
'preachy bit' will be most effective when it too is imaginative
and not too explicit--leaving room for individual interpretations
and allowing leeway for the Spirit to move the hearer's own
imagination and make fresh connections.
If
we want them to "go out
thinking" they need something to think about. A story
of God and people which is undergirded by powerful theology
and profound spirituality gives far more to think about than
a theological treatise which neatly dishes out the answers.
Myth and Worship
The homilly is set within the
heart of the Eucharist--and this liturgical placement makes
the mythic-Biblical sermon even more powerful. The mythic sermon
engages the hearers with the hero thus putting them into a
little journey of faith; so the good mythic-Biblical sermon
will bind the audience to a hero of faith and by engaging their
imagination, emotion and intellect lead them to a vicarious
experience of faith.
Within the Mass such sermons should
lead to a climax where the story points to the gospel. The
intellect will then connect the hero's story to its fulfilment
in the gospel and the hearer will be brought to a closer bond
with Christ.
The Eucharist is a celebration
of the incarnation, and the mythic-biblical preacher acts as
a 'sub-creator'--enfleshing the truth of Christ in a story.
The whole process reflects the incarnation and points to that
mysterious union of Christ with us.
The mythic-biblical sermon which
engages the imagination, emotion and intellect will thus be
the perfect preparation for communion and that deeper, more
mysterious transaction which is a sharing in the body and blood
of Christ.
Published in Fellowship Paper
of The College of Preachers No. 104, June 1997
Bibliography
- Christopher Vogler,
The Writer's Journey, Boxtree, 1992
-
Joseph Campbell, The Hero
With a Thousand Faces, Fontana, 1988
-
Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R.Tolkien,
a biography, Allen and Unwin, 1977
-
C.S.Lewis, Is Theology Poetry? in Screwtape
Proposes a Toast, Fount, 1966
-
Michael Hague, Writing Screenplays
That Sell, Elm Tree Books, 1992
Dwight Longenecker used to be a country
vicar. He now works for the St.Barnabas Society and as a scriptwriter,
film critic and freelance author.
