Comments on: Avatar Review http://www.therenaissancechristian.com/2010/01/avatar-review/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=avatar-review Exploring the Spirituality of Everything Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:25:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: michaeldanner http://www.therenaissancechristian.com/2010/01/avatar-review/comment-page-1/#comment-357 michaeldanner Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:46:38 +0000 http://www.charliedean2.com/?p=474#comment-357 Agree on the review. I enjoyed the MOVIE EXPERIENCE of it all in 3D, but the story was pretty simple (which is the best way to tell a great story, IMO). Curious about your take on the religious themes. At points it seemed a bit pantheistic/animistic and yet they had a central deity that was personal and independent of the creation. In that way, it challenged me to think more carefully about how God relates to creation. In Avatar, the personal, distinct deity was not all creation, but was connected to all of creation through a sort of biological neuro-network. The deity was also able to control the creation towards a particular end (defeating the sky people). I also though the movie offered a critique of old-school missional approaches vs. incarnational mission approaches. Mission school/teaching vs. living with the tribe and becoming one of them, sharing their worldview. The second birth theme of Sam Worthington's character was also interesting. The deity was able to make him one of them, as he died to the old self and was raised again in new life as a tall blue dude. Interested in what you think of some of those ideas and where Cameron might have been going with all that. In many ways the religious aspects of the movie seemed very syncretistic to me, combining elements of Christianity, Buddhism, pantheism and animism.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('357','michaeldanner'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('357','michaeldanner','Agree on the review. I enjoyed the MOVIE EXPERIENCE of it all in 3D, but the story was pretty simple (which is the best way to tell a great story, IMO). Curious about your take on the religious themes. At points it seemed a bit pantheistic\/animistic and yet they had a central deity that was personal and independent of the creation. In that way, it challenged me to think more carefully about how God relates to creation. In Avatar, the personal, distinct deity was not all creation, but was connected to all of creation through a sort of biological neuro-network. The deity was also able to control the creation towards a particular end (defeating the sky people). I also though the movie offered a critique of old-school missional approaches vs. incarnational mission approaches. Mission school\/teaching vs. living with the tribe and becoming one of them, sharing their worldview. The second birth theme of Sam Worthington\'s character was also interesting. The deity was able to make him one of them, as he died to the old self and was raised again in new life as a tall blue dude. Interested in what you think of some of those ideas and where Cameron might have been going with all that. In many ways the religious aspects of the movie seemed very syncretistic to me, combining elements of Christianity, Buddhism, pantheism and animism.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Agree on the review. I enjoyed the MOVIE EXPERIENCE of it all in 3D, but the story was pretty simple (which is the best way to tell a great story, IMO). Curious about your take on the religious themes. At points it seemed a bit pantheistic/animistic and yet they had a central deity that was personal and independent of the creation. In that way, it challenged me to think more carefully about how God relates to creation. In Avatar, the personal, distinct deity was not all creation, but was connected to all of creation through a sort of biological neuro-network. The deity was also able to control the creation towards a particular end (defeating the sky people). I also though the movie offered a critique of old-school missional approaches vs. incarnational mission approaches. Mission school/teaching vs. living with the tribe and becoming one of them, sharing their worldview. The second birth theme of Sam Worthington’s character was also interesting. The deity was able to make him one of them, as he died to the old self and was raised again in new life as a tall blue dude. Interested in what you think of some of those ideas and where Cameron might have been going with all that. In many ways the religious aspects of the movie seemed very syncretistic to me, combining elements of Christianity, Buddhism, pantheism and animism.
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