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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Faith Sustains Us

"Faith sustains us in the hour when reason tells us that we cannot continue -- that the whole of our lives is without meaning. Faith and reason are the shoes on your feet. You can travel farther with both than you can with just one."

That quote is from Babylon 5's episode "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars".

Like C. S. Lewis's Narnia series and J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, JMS' Babylon 5 series has a lot of Christian themes interspersed throughout. I think Babylon 5 is for late twentienth and early twenty-first century Westerners what Tolkien and Lewis envisioned for their works at their time in the early twentieth century: a way to tell the Christian story afresh.

Perhaps JMS didn't intend it to be the re-telling of the Christian message to the extent that Lewis and Tolkien did. Nevertheless, for the discerning Christian, there is much in his series that can tell the Christian message afresh, from an alien's point of view, so to speak.

If you want the Christian message properly and contextually told, well, then that's what the Church and preaching is all about. From the pulpit, Bible studies, and reading the Bible, there the gospel is preached and teached in all it's glorious purity -- for you.

Yes, faith sustains us in the hour when reason tells us that we cannot continue (JMS); moreover, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11.1).

1 comment:

guyverv said...

this is one of my favorite episodes. i always find it fascinating that an atheist is able to pinpoint such truths regarding faith and god