I could be off here but I thought I heard a Jim Collins quote in there. As always Bell’s cultural exegesis is deafening. Great little short. And hey did you notice how he wrapped it up, what was the ‘yes’ Bell choose? His family, his walk home with his son. Powerfully subtle…
Thoughts on the film anyone?
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May 20, 2008 at 12:13 am
Bill
Just watched it. A couple of thoughts.
I thought good, but not “Wow!”, not entirely sure why, but here are some thoughts….
Maybe I am off on this, but I felt empty. It felt moralistic to me. Yes, choose the best. Do it! We should! I felt as if I heard a lot of should and ought, but didn’t sense how the Gospel spoke to the issue. I heard about the model of Jesus, I heard about the boy and shells, but it seemed to all fall short and flat.
I usually like Nooma, so I am not apt to be critical and I fear that I may be nit-picking…but in the economy of Nooma videos I thought it was a single, while many others of his videos have been homeruns.
May 20, 2008 at 1:31 am
setsnservice
Yeah Bill I get where your critique is coming from. His benedictory close was a charge without a clear ground in the gospel so pretty much anyone could say “yes I’ll do it, I’ll drop the good things for the great thing.”
He hit the cultural chord right on, but I don’t think this NOOMA gave his viewers enough symbolism or counsel to realize the Lord of culture. Jesus becomes an example but not a savior. Now in fairness Its often the case that Jesus is a ’savior’ or ‘propitator’ and not an example, we get a verdict but not a ‘come be my disciple in this particular’. Of course we need both, and for that matter the post-Christian West needs both as well.
We do need to understand the rythm of our lives and pursue the great as Bell so clearly put forth, and we also need to know daily that the Great one is pursuing us even if we fail and fall into the good-gods around us. Jesus, like his Father, loves to pursue Abram’s with their gods in tact..
May 20, 2008 at 12:25 pm
setsnservice
Bill I watched Bells video again and gave it some more thought. I think my earlier criticism’s above may be off base and this is why. There isn’t one model of paranesis in the NT there’s multiple models. Look at the way James argues for things in a believers life compared to Paul (ie the difference btw the way they position justification and imputation in relation to moral imperatives in a believers life; James tends to ground moral imperatives in OT wisdom categories or models).
I think what Bell is doing represents a James-ian model of paranesis with a heavy reliance on wisdom motif’s and things like Proverbs.
Should each NOOMA video be read in the context of the whole NOOMA series? How we answer that plays into how we critique individual films….these were a few of my latter thoughts man….