Theology for Dummies -or- Why I Will Never Be A Legitimate Academic Source

If you ask me about theology, I will rattle off movie quotes. Ask me about philosophy, and I'll tell you about the best fiction.

I've always been a fan of annotated texts. The concept of the "lowest common denominator" was not lost on me (as opposed to most of the other ideas in mathematics), although it is widely innapropriately applied to things other than math by way of faulty reasoning and my ability to apply such reasoning thereafter. In order to survive in the academic world, my cognitive activity is relegated to trying to reduce terms into something manageable; to a lowest common denominator.

I try and read philosophers and theologians and can carry my weight in the conversations that ensue. But that is only because I watch a lot of movies and read a lot of fictional (and largely hilarious) books. I have drawn 90 percent of my theology and philosophy from movies and fiction (only to go back and find out about the people's whose ideas they were originally).

All this to say that I watched Bruce Almighty again with Angeleri last night. If someone asks me about what I think and believe, I think the most direct way in which I could initiate this conversation would be to say, "see this first." Besides that, Morgan Freeman has easily usurped my previous model for God which was based on bad cartoons and the cieling of the Sistine Chapel.

I can say, without a doubt, that most of my thoughts on things are based out of fiction and movies first, only to be lent credibility from the real academic stuff. I watch Bruce Almighty and the Matrix trilogy for theology, I read Kurt Vonnegut for philosophy. I crack open CS Lewis' fiction and get more theology (his other stuff is good, but I honestly yawn through it). Give me more of the Chronic(what)cles of Narnia, Till We Have Faces, the Space Trilogy, and the Great Divorce (you can fight through Mere Christianity if you'd like). I watch Big Fish (and read it, by Daniel Wallace), and I Heart Hucabees, and Life Aquatic and I think, "Yes! This is my experience! This it truth!"

I don't think badly of myself for doing this. I just prefer art as a means to truth over "reason" as a means to truth. (An idea that is well-articulated in Big Fish).

So what does this mean? It means that I am always dangerously close to qouting movie lines. I only tell you this to expose my own fraud (not Freud). I just want you to know that if we're talking and it happens that we talk about something deep, I've got movie scenes going through my head.

My sociological views are based on stand-up comedy and music... it's complicated. So if ever you question the soundness of my thoughts and beliefs, read the subtitle "an irresponisble blog at best" and know that it is true.

The illumination of these facts will either lead you to believe that I am a farce (also an arse), or that I am really onto something (still, an arse).