"Genesis: The Movie" An Interview with Robert Farrar Capon

[shernren]

Those who are familiar with me will know that I'm a big fan of Robert Farrar Capon. I was surfing the Net and guess what I found?

http://www.christianodyssey.com/gospel/capon.htm

Not all of it has to do with OT, of course, but it's still good stuff.

Tim Brassell: Good morning, Dr. Capon. One of the topics in your new book, Genesis: the Movie, is what you referred to as biblical literalism. What is biblical literalism?

Robert Capon: Well, of course the book has a long, careful answer to that question. A short answer might be that biblical literalism is simply a mistake in the way people read the Bible. The object of Genesis: the Movie is to help people stop reading the Bible as if it were a manual of instruction in religion or spirituality or morality or anything else and to start watching it as a film, presented to you by the Holy Spirit, who is the director.

TB: What is the difference?

RC: When you watch a movie, you don’t stop 10 minutes into the film and try to decide what it means. You cannot fairly say anything about the movie until you have seen the whole movie and hold it in your mind as an entirety—as a whole piece. And that is what needs to be done with the Bible. It has to be seen as one thing. So I’d like people to see biblical inspiration, not as a matter of word-by-word inspiration, but as scenes in the movie the way the director wants to show it to you, that is, scene-by-scene.
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[chaoschristian]

The object of Genesis: the Movie is to help people stop reading the Bible as if it were a manual of instruction in religion or spirituality or morality or anything else and to start watching it as a film, presented to you by the Holy Spirit, who is the director.

I like this, as I think it captures the spirit (ha!) of how these stories first would have been experienced. Each particular part of scripture needs to be experienced in its own light, and Genesis I believe is intended for a community experience. It makes me think of what happens at reinvigorated drive-ins around the country, where families gather, not just watch a film, but to be social and to share something.

RC: When you watch a movie, you don’t stop 10 minutes into the film and try to decide what it means. You cannot fairly say anything about the movie until you have seen the whole movie and hold it in your mind as an entirety—as a whole piece. And that is what needs to be done with the Bible. It has to be seen as one thing. So I’d like people to see biblical inspiration, not as a matter of word-by-word inspiration, but as scenes in the movie the way the director wants to show it to you, that is, scene-by-scene.

And while I'm ambivalent about what he is saying here, its enough to intrigue me into getting the book so that I can see his thoughts in full.

Thanks for the reference.

 

[rmwilliamsll]

reinvigorated drive-ins

one of the nice things about the internationalization of the net is to see little remarks like this. Drive ins are dead and gone here, with theatres following them. My kids went to driveins but my grandkids may never see one.

 

[artybloke]

It sounds like a good idea, and it is, but I would say that the Bible's not a movie with a single narrative thread; rather one with several narrative threads going in the same direction by different routes, all laid down side by side (paratactically, in lit.crit terms), and it's up to us to make the connections.

Of course, everybody has a slightly different experience of a movie, just as everybody has a slightly different experience of the Bible. We all make the connections that make sense to us.

 

[chaoschristian]

my first movie was at a drive-in that has since closed down and then re-opened. my kids have seen at least movie there now and that's kinda of neat

on topic: Artybloke said what I wanted to say, but I didn't know it.

reinvigorated drive-ins

one of the nice things about the internationalization of the net is to see little remarks like this. Drive ins are dead and gone here, with theatres following them. My kids went to driveins but my grandkids may never see one.

 

[vossler]

And while I'm ambivalent about what he is saying here, its enough to intrigue me into getting the book so that I can see his thoughts in full.

After what you said previously I would have thought you'd be intrigued enough to get the movie. It's far more difficult to have the community experience with a book, not to mention easier to see.

 

[chaoschristian]

After what you said previously I would have thought you'd be intrigued enough to get the movie. It's far more difficult to have the community experience with a book, not to mention easier to see.

I could always read it aloud