Theology for Dummies: High Concept

Seekers of Truth in Advertising will be thrilled with the current movie, "Snakes on a Plane." Aficionados of classic cinema will no doubt have to look elsewhere, but when it comes to being self-explanatory, it's hard to beat a title like that.

On the other hand, we've all seen "Coming Atttractions" that make it unneccessary to see the actual movie, so there is such a thing as giving away too much. In my case the title itself is actually overkill -- as soon as I see the word "snakes" I know to stay away.

This is an excellent example of what Hollywood calls a "high concept" movie. Anything you can describe in one sentence -- let alone a 4-word title -- is considered high concept. Obviously not high in the sense of lofty, but rather in the sense of taking precedence over story, characters, acting...

Any film where special effects, car chases, and/or the soundtrack should get top billing is a good example of high concept. Movies like Top Gun, Die Hard, and every Stallone picture after the first Rocky fit comfortably in this category.

[A slight oversimplification: I'm not sure Stop, or My Mom Will Shoot fits comfortably into any category.]

I'm really not a cinema buff; I think in TV terms. "Miami Vice" is the quintessential high-concept show; it's said that Brandon Tartikoff (head of NBC) wrote "MTV Cops" on a napkin, and the show sprang from that. "Seinfeld", on the other hand, became known as the show about nothing precisely because it's so hard to put your finger on.

If the same sort of classification were applied to books as well, I believe we'd find that in some ways, the ultimate high concept book is the Bible.

That seems absurd on the face of it, because the Bible is actually made up of 66 books: history, poetry, prophecy, teaching; all different writers; spanning hundreds of years. But I believe that the entire Bible exists to illustrate two basic ideas (hey, it's a big book -- I can use 2 sentences instead of just one).

1. God loves us in a way that, if He were human, you'd probably call irrational. Time and time again He reaches out to His people, only to be pushed away; over and over He believes in them, and they let Him down. He keeps reaching... He keeps believing... and "in the fullness of time" (what a wonderful phrase!) He sends them His Son. By the way, when I say "them", I mean of course us.
2. God uses the most unlikely people to accomplish great things. Abraham & Sarah were old; Moses was a fugitive; David was a shepherd boy; Mary was a young girl; Paul was a professional Christian-hunter. Two lessons from that: first, God doesn't need to use us but it delights Him to work in partnership with us. Second, no matter what you are, you're not ineligible (or exempt, or safe) from being called to His purposes. Or, as someone wiser (and funnier) than I said about the story of Samson (Jdg. 15:13-17), if God can use the jawbone of an ass, He can certainly use you.

There are unquestionably other Big Themes in the Scripture, but these are my favorites and in my eyes the most important. But hey, it's a game anyone can play -- go find your own! Read the Book, don't wait for the movie.