Aletheuo - Speaking The Truth

Narnia to Psytrance

05.01.2006 - By: B. Hearn

There was a good deal of media activity in preparation for the release of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). Christian organizations were promoting the film based on the C. S. Lewis classic. Sunday morning conversation was abuzz with enthusiastic folks preparing for a blockbuster with Christian allegory. My expectations were certainly high. I read all seven of the Lewis tales several years ago and could not put them down. I still remember how much impact these fictional works had on my faith at the time. As Lewis prefaced his first book; I had become “old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” And for a good while after finishing The Last Battle my thoughts were on adventure and “Chapter One of the Great Story.”

As I write; the movie has come and gone for the most part. My family and I enjoyed the film and we look forward to future installments from the Chronicles of Narnia. Yet as I understand now there is a misconception about Lewis’ work. That is, he never intended us to find allegory in his stories. Instead he referred to his work as “suppositional” or alternative history. In a letter to a Mrs. Hook in December of 1958 Lewis wrote:

"If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair [a character in The Pilgrim's Progress] represents despair, he would be an allegorical figure. In reality however he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, 'What might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?' This is not allegory at all." (Martindale & Root 1990)

Contrary to what many Christians think about the Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis didn’t wrap a Narnian motif around the account of Christ. Instead Lewis’ Christian worldview seeped into the Narnian world. Prior to writing The Chronicles, Lewis also wrote his Space Trilogy: Out of The Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. They too contain characters and themes based on supposal Christian worlds, not allegory. Although the “Green Lady” of Perelandra is the Eve of that world; Lewis wrote a disclaimer at the beginning of the book stating the characters are not allegorical. In fact Lewis’ Pilgrim’s Regress is considered his only allegorical work. You may be wondering why this is of any interest at all. Well, for me it has to do with Christian works versus the works of a Christian. Lewis’ example here is a good one to open with. He not only wrote books about Christianity such as Mere Christianity, but other good books with Christian nuances. Just as there may be a time to create predominantly Christian literature, there may also be a time to write a book as a Christian for those outside the body of believers. We often think our focus should be on the former. I contend we should look more to the later. To paraphrase a common quote attributed to Lewis: “What the world needs is not more Christian writers, but more writers who are Christians.” I would add to this and say we not only need more artists who are Christians, but artists who reveal the character of Christ.

I recently attended a presentation by the contemporary apologist Josh McDowell whose target audience that evening was the parents of teens and young adults. One of the topics he touched on was epistemology – basically how we know what we know. McDowell says each new generation of unbelievers and Christians alike are losing, or have lost for the most part, their ability to determine true propositions from false ones using any reliable means. The cultural milieu is one where epistemology is media-driven; where the “medium is the metaphor” (to borrow a phrase from Neil Postman.[1]) Today’s youth are more apt to build their worldview on what their friends say online; lyrics from their favorite artist, or a thirty-second interview with a Hollywood star, than on any sound philosophical foundation handed down by their parents. McDowell sees the problem as especially serious: (see his recent book: The Last Christian Generation.) I agree there is a problem – although I’m not so sure today’s is the last Christian generation. Nor do I believe the problem is entirely recent. The 18^th century Andrew Fletcher said, "Give me the making of the songs of a nation and I care not who writes its laws." Here it is not art controlling behavior directly, but indirectly through shaping worldview. Obviously any recent decline in the intellectual life is not solely connected to the arts or modern media forms, but many other factors as well: modern lifestyle and priorities, post/modern thought, pragmatism, scientism, and so on. Yet they play a part in the dynamic and secular unchristian forms are without a doubt dominant today. Perhaps there is an opportunity here for those of us who want to share Christ.

Speaking of which; this is my tenth year as a Christian. During the last decade I have engaged several skeptics on worldview issues. In my line of work one does not need to look hard to find someone skeptical or even hostile to the Christian worldview. Yet what I have learned, and what you are likely to hear from contemporary apologists is this: Living out the Christian life, as opposed to argumentation, is often the best way to draw others to Jesus. I used to think a great apologetic would effectively reach my software-developer peers. And in some cases a good argument carried out in a congenial forum is effective. And when I say “argument” I am referring to the proper sense of the word, not the modern pejorative. But for the most part, unbelievers are less interested in enlightened debate and more interested in evaluating those who claim to know Christ. They look to see what a Christian does under pressure; what he does in his spare time; how she treats others in difficult situations; how faithful he is in a rough marriage. The skeptic wonders if Christ really makes a difference in the life of a Christian. In many ways Pascal was right: “reason cannot decide.” In order for reason to make headway, the heart must first be softened by the Holy Spirit and very often by experiencing a real Christian living out his or her life with the character of Christ. Christians can impact the lives of unbelievers tremendously this way – by being in the world but not of the world.

You are probably wondering how I am going to pull this all together. But hold on, I have one more seemingly tangential thread to weave in…My grandfather who passed away several years back was a classical music enthusiast. In fact there was a write-up in the Muncie Star almost fifty years ago about his classical record collection, the largest in Delaware County, Indiana. Mom tells me the typical evening as a child in their house was filled with music, from Mozart to the Flamenco of southern Spain. I was exposed to the same sort as a child. Perhaps from lack of exposure I never really took to popular music. Even when I drifted away from the music I grew up with, I still preferred relatively obscure bands to the more popular ones of the 1980’s. And upon returning to classical music, my grandfather was disappointed with my preference for the dissonant Prokofiev over his Mozart. Today I spend most of my listening hours enjoying music rendered solely by computer with down-tempo middle-eastern melodies. While writing software I prefer the same style but with enough beats-per-minute to quell the most severe A.D.D. - and so I loath to think what my grandfather would say today about my musical interests.

When I became a Christian my exposure to “Christian” music began. Many of the classical hymns I very much enjoy. When my daughter learned to play on the piano “This is My Father’s World,” a personal favorite, it brought tears of joy to my eyes. However, I must admit I have not been able to appreciate the Christian music of the late 20^th century. I enjoy some of the very recent “contemporary” variety but usually due to the lyrics and not so much the musical content. Please do not misunderstand; I think Christian music today is making a huge positive impact on the body of believers and especially on our youth. I’m all for it! In fact I have taken my daughter to see Christian bands. One all-girl band promotes modesty and my daughter has really gravitated to it. As for me, I have not been able to find a source of Christian music to relate to outside of the lyrics. So I wonder why more Christians are not producing music in other genres? I realize there are artists out there who happen to be Christian and I cannot tell from what they produce. And I have not investigated genres such as Christian jazz. Perhaps it is because Christian musicians believe they cannot serve God writing music devoid of lyrics. J S Bach, were he alive today, would certainly not believe such a thing. His works were dedicated to Soli Deo Gloria (to God’s glory alone.)[2] Can a book be written without referencing Christian theology or Scripture and still be used to serve God? I think Lewis would say so.

The electronic music scene today is divided into many subgroups and has grown enormously in worldwide popularity. The subgroup I often listen to is called “psytrance” for its fast repetitive rhythms. If in this music there is any expression of worldview (through the CD title, artwork, track titles, sound clips for effect, etc.) it is almost never Christian. Most of the works released by top artists in Europe make reference to pantheistic worldviews. This is due in part to its origin. Another similar subgroup “goa” comes from the area of India where it is said to have originated. I felt fortunate the other day when I stumbled upon an enjoyable track called “Deer Park.[3]” A completely innocuous title I thought. That is until I found out Deer Park is where Buddha first preached after his supposed enlightenment. Fortunately psytrance rarely includes singing – at least not in English. So I have not tossed a track out of my collection for inappropriate lyrics. But why are there so few (if any) releases in this genre with a Christian theme? Now before we prejudge this particular music style as a priori unchristian, please keep in mind there is nothing particularly unchristian about the music itself. If the hard sound of Superchick I took my daughter to see recently is considered “Christian” I can assure you psytrance or goa is not unchristian by nature of its musicality. This is not a matter of aesthetics. No, the distinction exists because Superchick, for example, write music with Christian lyrics and psytrance artists use pantheistic track titles and cover art.

Allow me to pull this together: First; the current cultural milieu is one where arts and entertainment have a marked impact on worldview. The Christian worldview is becoming less of a live option in a vast sea of ideas. Many unbelievers are building their worldview on sinking sand; what they pick up from relationships, music, books, movies, chat rooms, blogs and even video games. I actually had a coworker tell me about a system of morality existing inside the virtual world of an MMOG (massively multi-player online game.) He played this game every spare hour, seven days a week, for over two years! Nearly all of his friendships either suffered or disintegrated. I had never heard of or seen anything like this before. At first I thought he was kidding me until he took offense to my smug attitude towards video game morality. Currently there are numerous MMOG titles and in 2004 the number of players worldwide on just one of the games was estimated at six million; and another more recent Korean game at 30 million [4]. So absolutely, worldview is being shaped even by video games.

Second, Christians are reaching unbelievers by first building trust-relationships and then sharing the Gospel message. These trust-relationships take time and often require us to be in the world but not of the world – living out the Christian life in front of those in our sphere of influence. It may involve sharing in similar interests and activities without compromising the Truth and getting involved in unhealthy interests and activities. In my workplace I have had more than one opportunity to build a trust-relationship through mutual interests such as music. Of course none of my unbelieving coworkers listen to contemporary Christian music. They do listen to everything from alternative and jazz to psytrance. Unfortunately there is rarely anything to be found in the lyrics, CD artwork and track titles of these music genres to point the listener towards Christianity. Nearly every other worldview however is represented and even glorified. Now I understand of course there are opportunities for the Christian to introduce an unbeliever to Christ through Christian music. You might invite a coworker to a Christian concert for example. It all depends on the individual’s taste. What I am saying however is a large segment of the population does not have access to music they relate to with any sort of positive Christian influence.

Thirdly, Christians have the potential to break into new areas of ministry and reach the unbeliever. Back to my particular interest in music…If a single Christian electronic music artist reached the top tier in the psytrance or goa scene, he or she would be poised to reach some for Christ. What an awesome thing it would be to see CD artwork, titles, and track names produced with a Christian theme. Even though lyrics are not part of the equation with this type of music, the impact could be significant. In conclusion: I believe what is needed are more Christians stepping out to reach the unbeliever by using their gifts and talents in modern media areas:

· More musicians who produce not just contemporary Christian music but also music in other genres dominated by worldviews contrary to the Christian worldview

· More actors and actresses who play not only in Christian roles (a real boon industry) but also those who are willing to reject inappropriate roles and who uplift us with wholesome performances

· More video game developers who are not just producing games with a biblical motif, but also those who refuse to produce games where people are “gibbed [5]” by high-velocity weaponry and where the challenge perhaps is to build rather than destroy

· More writers who create not only inspirational Christian books, but also who produce books influenced by their Christian worldview to inspire us in uplifting ways

In other words, more Christians ought to be engaged in creative works appreciated by both believer and unbeliever; artists who weave their Christian worldview into their work, and who do it to God’s glory. (1 Cor. 10:31) Now the 10^th chapter in 1 Corinthians does go on to say – “Do not cause anyone to stumble.” So I am talking about creative works not contrary to Scripture or offensive to the Holy Spirit. Along the lines of Scripture I am also thinking about what Paul says earlier in chapter 9:20-22: “…I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” Ultimately we have to deliver the Gospel message. The Holy Spirit does the work but we are called to be part of the process. Sometimes it is by building a trust-relationship first. In the current cultural milieu the door to trust is sometimes opened by sharing our gifts and talents in areas the unbeliever can relate to. Take for example a great sporting performance leading to an interview where glory is given to God. Often the athlete or great performer has immediate credibility among those who look up to them. In the movie Chariots of Fire the character Eric Liddell beautifully depicts the joyful use of God-given talent. At one point he explains to his sister why he is putting training for the Olympics above his missionary work: “Jenny, God has made me for a purpose, and he has made me fast. When I run, I feel his pleasure." The true story of Liddell goes on to show a powerful witness to the world. He refused to compete on Sunday and shared the Gospel powerfully with his fans. These were opportunities arising from the use of his talent as a great runner – an opportunity to share with unbelievers without compromising the Truth or Christ’s character revealed through him by God’s Holy Spirit.

In conclusion: There is a great opportunity for Christians to reach out to unbelievers through modern media forms. Given this, I decided to start work on a CD in a music genre typically devoid of singing; one where the Christian worldview goes completely unnoticed. Consider it a prototype to spark interest in some talented electronic musician out there. Here are some things I considered for my prototype: A Christian theme for the cover artwork; title of the collection; and individual track titles; a Bible verse corresponding to each track and a dedication of the work to Jesus. The following is my first attempt at such a work...

www.handcraftedmusic.org

Dedication:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!” Rev. 5:13

PsyTrance samples:
Up-tempo
Down-tempo

^[2] J S Bach would sign his works “SDG”

^[3] Deer Park, by Tripswitch, 2005 – click here for a brief sample.

^[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG

^[5] “Gibbed” – Term originating from the “Quake” series of games; Body is blown apart with flying fragments of flesh and streamers of blood. The destruction of human life is made out to be an amusing special effect.