The process of understanding films is like the process of
understanding any other human knowledge.
The key is repetition and quantity of exposure until one begins to see
patterns. This is why a skilled
physician sometimes knows what is wrong with you before you finish describing
your symptoms. The offensive
tackle on the line of scrimmage in an American football game knows the play the
other team is about to run by the way in which the opposing team’s players are
standing. The chess master
knows the next six moves you are about to make and how he will respond to each.
In film theory, a theory popularized by director/actor
Francois Truffaut is the auteur theory. The theory posits that the author of a film is the
true author of a film, putting his or her unmistakable stamp on the final
product. The theory holds that
while great actors or producers can, and occasionally do, elevate films, the
major artist of a film is the director.
The “voice” of a director is discernable when viewing the director’s output
as a whole over the course of their career.
When you listen to Mozart every piece of music is different
but every piece is also the same, and every piece yells “Mozart!” It is the same with film directors:
Alfred Hitchcock (an innocent is caught up in events outside of his control),
Akira Kurosawa (the master and disciple, heroic champions, and cycles of
extreme violence), Jean-Luc Goddard (Marxist themes), Luis Bunuel (opposition to
organized religion and to traditional morality), Naruse Mikio (female protagonists caught in bleak and
pessimistic situations, with emotions raging under a calm surface), Martin
Scorscese (morally ambiguous protagonists who are often prone to violence and
feelings of guilt), Ingmar Bergman
(mortality, loneliness, sexual desire, religious faith), Tim Burton (the misunderstood outsider
who unintentionally hurts those for whom he cares), David Cronenberg (the uncomfortable merging of mankind and
technology), Jacques Tati (the
humor in normal everyday events), etc.
Just like a film director's body of work, the Bible has an identifiable voice, even though it was written by at least forty different people. It is remarkably self-consistent. Doctrine derived from the Bible can be judged as to its orthodoxy by its consistency with the total body of scripture. It truly can be said that the Bible has multiple authors and one author.
Those who claim that the Bible contains contradictions fail to understand a basic principle: God's ways are not our ways. Our understanding is limited; God's is infinite. Rather than contradictions, the Bible is full of paradoxes in which both answers are true. The Bible has multiple authors and one author. True freedom comes from submitting oneself as a slave to the Lord. Both free will and predestination are clearly taught in the Bible. Christians are strict monotheists but God exists as Three Persons. Jesus is fully human and fully divine. Jesus was at the same time a poor man and also the king of the universe. God demands perfection but we are incapable on our own of ever fulfilling the demand. We are to be in the world but not of the world.
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