I recently read and watched Fight Club, again both one of my favourite books and films. So I thought I might say a little something of why I like this story so much.
Darby Ray author of "Deceiving the Devil" describes atonement as “the reconciling, redeeming, liberating activity of God in Christ.” I think this is a pretty succinct and broad summary of atonement, covering everything conservative substitutionary atonement through to liberation theology and many other ideas. My guess is that we have too often in the west we have overly focused on the redeeming and reconciling parts and neglected the liberating part of the triad.
Overlooking liberation may have been for good reason. In the west we usually don't think of ourselves as being needed to be liberated. At best we see ourselves as the oppressors from whom others needed to be liberated. For me and many of my peers there is a feeling amongst us that the life of an oppressor is not something we chose but something we inherited. We were born into a world where it was impossible to buy a shoe that had not been made in a sweat shop and where third world inequality and environmental degradation was just seen as part of the natural order. An old friend of mine (white and male) once lamented that he wished he had been born black and female, then he'd at least know what to fight against. We are a generation who have an awareness that there is something wrong with the world. We love escaping into movies like the Matrix and TV shows like Buffy the vampire slayer where the main characters are the only ones who realise there is something really wrong with the world whilst everyone else just walks along like zombies.
Many people have sought to find Christ like atonement narratives in the Matrix and Buffy. Whilst they might be there I prefer to look in Fight Club. Where the Matrix and Buffy set up dualistic universes (a "flesh" reality and a greater "spiritual" reality) Fight Club does not do this. There is no overarching vampire or matrix that we need to discover and fight, rather the evil is being perpetrated by us and the systems that we comply with. In Fight Club Tyler Durden is the Christ like figure who walks into Jacks life. Tyler forces Jack to face the current reality of his world, the injustice, the love of money, the obsession of the trivial and to liberate him, an "heir of oppression" (my term) from that. There is much Xns can learn about atonement from Fight Club.
Here are some of my favourite Gospel and Fight Club parallels...
Fight Club
Darby Ray author of "Deceiving the Devil" describes atonement as “the reconciling, redeeming, liberating activity of God in Christ.” I think this is a pretty succinct and broad summary of atonement, covering everything conservative substitutionary atonement through to liberation theology and many other ideas. My guess is that we have too often in the west we have overly focused on the redeeming and reconciling parts and neglected the liberating part of the triad.
Overlooking liberation may have been for good reason. In the west we usually don't think of ourselves as being needed to be liberated. At best we see ourselves as the oppressors from whom others needed to be liberated. For me and many of my peers there is a feeling amongst us that the life of an oppressor is not something we chose but something we inherited. We were born into a world where it was impossible to buy a shoe that had not been made in a sweat shop and where third world inequality and environmental degradation was just seen as part of the natural order. An old friend of mine (white and male) once lamented that he wished he had been born black and female, then he'd at least know what to fight against. We are a generation who have an awareness that there is something wrong with the world. We love escaping into movies like the Matrix and TV shows like Buffy the vampire slayer where the main characters are the only ones who realise there is something really wrong with the world whilst everyone else just walks along like zombies.
Many people have sought to find Christ like atonement narratives in the Matrix and Buffy. Whilst they might be there I prefer to look in Fight Club. Where the Matrix and Buffy set up dualistic universes (a "flesh" reality and a greater "spiritual" reality) Fight Club does not do this. There is no overarching vampire or matrix that we need to discover and fight, rather the evil is being perpetrated by us and the systems that we comply with. In Fight Club Tyler Durden is the Christ like figure who walks into Jacks life. Tyler forces Jack to face the current reality of his world, the injustice, the love of money, the obsession of the trivial and to liberate him, an "heir of oppression" (my term) from that. There is much Xns can learn about atonement from Fight Club.
Here are some of my favourite Gospel and Fight Club parallels...
Fight Club
Only when Jack truly gives up his will to live is he saved.
Jesus
Luke 14:26. "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
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Fight Club
Jack quits job and Tyler Durden destroys all that he owns.
Jesus
Matt 6:24-34. "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
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Fight Club
Jack has no family, those around him following Tyler Durden and his followers become his family.
Jesus
Mark 4:34-35. "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."
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Fight Club
The first assignment for fight club members is for them to start a fight and loose.
Jesus
Matt 5:38-39. "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;”
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Fight Club
"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We are all part of the same compost pile." Tyler Durden
Jesus
Matt 7:1-5. "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?”
---
Fight Club
Tyler Durden destroys Jacks apartment, and destroys the buildings of credit card companies in order to make everything go back to zero so that non one is in debt.
Jesus
Luke 18:22. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
Author of Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk. Has also written the books Survivor, Invisible Monsters Choke, Lullaby, Diary and Haunted. They are all really good.
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8 comments:
Fantastic post. fight Club has always been for me a very spiritual movie, just in terms of the themes of fighting against an oppressive system, truly testing yourself as a path of spiritual enlightenmnet etc. So you basically put into a blog post a lot of the stuff I've alwys thought, so I'll prob go post it up on my site-no need to chnage ur thoughts.
Love the parallels too.
Thanks Digger!
I can highly reccomend any of Chuck Palahniuk's books too. They're almost the only fiction books I read.
Wow, now I don't feel so bad that I really enjoyed Fight Club as well. It's very dark, but it touches your spirit and asks difficult questions about men, belonging, desire, monotony and spirituality. Great blog!
you just blew my mind. I'd say more but I remembered the first rule of fight club...
Wow, thanks guys. Maybe my Xns who like "fight club" gang is bigger than I thought.
Choice write up Chris!
I like your style ...
How do I explain why I watch and love movies like Fightclub to everyday evangelicals (not that I am one)? I'll refer them here...
Hey anonymous,
Thanks for praise and good question. I'll write a response in a new post soon.
I'm a little surprised that such an interpretation of Fight Club could be referred to as a Christian analysis. It appears much more that you're pointing to where Chuck Palanhuik plagiarized the New Testament. I didn't find much original in the film or book that hasn't been said better in some other source.
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