Last month I was part of some Fight club 10 year anniversary celebrations. It was a bit of a Fight Club month. I was asked to write an article for the transit lounge about the theology of fight club and At the 10 year anniversary screening I did a talk to a packed Perth crowd of 12 (it was a small room so it was packed) about the theology of Fight Club too. Below is a copy of the Transit Lounge article and a copy of the talk. I would have like to have spent a lot more time on it so it's a bit scattered and disjointed none the less here it is.
Transit Lounge Article
I can still remember walking out of the cinema through the streets of Fremantle, stunned and feeling like I had seen something truly unique.
Ten years on, I have seen Fight Club (directed by David Fincher) and read the book, written by Chuck Palahniuk, numerous times.
Although denounced by some as a very unchristian film, it continues to resonate strongly with me and my faith. I see one of the film's two protagonists, Tyler Durden, as a Christ-like figure.
The premise is this: Jack works for an unscrupulous company earning good money with which he orders furniture for his apartment. Jack is living the good life—the American Dream—and finds it completely numbing and meaningless. Along comes Tyler to liberate him from this life.
In Christian theology we often talk about liberation and it is usually with regards to poorer people being liberated from oppression. Something a rich, white, Western male like myself can appreciate but cannot relate to.
In Fight Club, Tyler forces Jack to face the current reality of his world: injustice, love of money, obsession with the trivial; and to liberate him from that.
Below is a list of 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 even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
Fight Club: Jack quits job and Tyler 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.”
Fight Club: Jack has no family; those around him follow 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."
Fight Club: The first assignment for fight club members is for them to start a fight and lose.
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.”
Fight Club: Tyler Durden destroys both Jacks' apartment and the buildings of credit card companies in order to make everything go back to zero so that no-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."
Be warned: the film is graphic and brutal and deserves its R rating, but if you are looking for a film to show disaffected adult Western males that exemplifies liberation, I can’t think of a better place to start.
Talk from the Anniversary Screening
Two years ago I was doing alpha course and Nicky Gumbel told a horrific story of a Nazi death camp. It’s the story of a family man found guilty of some petty offence and sentenced to death. A priest steps in and is killed instead of the family man which the Gestapo agree to.
Nicky then went on to explain that we are like the family man and Jesus is like the priest, which is all fine and dandy until you realise that God is the Gestapo and that the priest died so that the family man can be friends with the Gestapo.
Now I’m sure we’ve all heard analogies like this. Stories like this to try and explain what Jesus life and death did. Stories like this is what theologians like to call an atonement narratives. That is it’s a story that describes the atonement “the reconciling, redeeming, liberating activity of God in Christ.” Obviously there’s bits of the Nazi death camp story that echo bits of the gospel but obviously any metaphor where a loving God is represented by a cruel guard at a Nazi death camp has got some problems too.
Now if you’ve been around in Xn circles for a while you have probably heard many stories like this. I can remember one from my youth group that involved a train and station master who puts his son in the road of the train to save the people on board or something like that.
Have people heard these kind of stories? And they’re usually slight variations on the same theme? To be technical that theme is called penal substitutionary atonement.
My problem with this story is that I think the gospel and what God has done through Jesus is too big to encapsulate in just one story. It’s about like Jesus talking about the Kingdom of God he didn’t just stick to the KOG is like a mustard seed he used many analogies. And that’s what we have to do with our atonement narratives. The atonement is like a multifaceted diamond. If we only stick to one story then we’ll end up making the gospel look like just a plate of glass. Of course there will be no one story that describes the “the reconciling, redeeming, liberating activity of God in Christ.” Completely.
This is where I’d like to introduce fight club. Now I’m willing to bet you haven’t been to a church service were the pastor has said ”let me just play you a clip from fight club to illustrate this point” In fact the First time I met Nathan à Baptist College à are you reading Chuck Phaulinuk à He looked so surprised I was sure I was going to get a ear bashing about it’s horrible morality etc.
Fight Club is in essence a story of liberation. In rich western Xy most Atonement Narratives talk about acts of reconciliation or redemption. Liberation occasionally might be framed in the story of sex addict or drug addict – who comes to the youth group to tell his testimony and how he has been set free. I certainly remember hearing that at my youth group, I also remember half the guys thinking they should get out of youth group and get into sex and drugs.
Personally I think it’s tragic that we have missed out talking about liberation. My generation 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. Our parents worked hard to give us heaps as I got set to inherit this hard work I couldn’t help but notice the injustice that had been left in it’s wake. So we said no thanks for a while bought cheap flannelette shirts and Nirvana records. But most of us have given up that idealism and like our parents have a well thumbed IKEA catalogue on the newspaper rack. I grew up in a generation that were the heirs of oppression. We could see the injustice in the world and new we were destined to benefit from it but had no way to change it.
Perhaps this is one reason why we as a generation loved escaping into movies like the Matrix and TV shows like Buffy the vampire slayer were there is some greater reality a computer program or vampires that would give us meaning because everything else staring us in the face would pale into insignificance.
It was specifically for generation X males that Chuck Palahniuk wrote the novel Fight Club for. Fight Club is a story of liberation from a society where the only valued role in life is to be an oppressor. Jack the main character in Fight Club works day and night for an unscrupulous company earning good money that he uses to fill his apartment with furniture. Fight Club is a novel for a generation “raised by television to believe that someday we'll all be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars.” (Fight Club the film) A generation raised to believe in the American dream, that we can be anything we want.
In Fight Club liberation comes in the from of the character Tyler Durden who convinces Jack to hit rock bottom. That is, to give up the desire to become a movie star, to not play the game, trying to be famous or powerful, to not even bother with his job or apartment to just drop out of the rat race altogether. For Tyler Durden hitting rock bottom is not a simple submission to the powers around. Rather it is to live in spite of the powers around despising all that they value. For me this is encapsulated in the way Tyler Durden says “you have to give up” to Jack. I could totally imagine Jesus saying this to the “you have to give up” rich young ruler or Zacchaeus the tax collector who gives half of what he owns repays people he has cheated four times what he has taken from them.
Jack is liberated by giving up on the what the rulers, powers and principalities of this world view as important. A respectable job, a nice house and nice furniture to fill it.
Paul famously wrote in Galatians for freedom Christ has set us free. But ask many rich western Xns what they have been set free from and I bet they might struggle. We often we would fall back to our Nazi death camp model and say something like freed from death and freed from judgment. Which is certainly true and will make a difference when we die but it can be hard to see how that can make a big difference while we are alive. What I like about what I see in fight club and in Jesus. Is that rather changing what might happened if you died tomorrow they change what might happen if you live tomorrow.
Fight Club is a violent film, I’d argue it’s Possibly the most violent pacifist movie ever made. It’s tough and confronting liberation is often similar to Jesus when he asks us to give up everything to follow him. Part of the reason why the book Fight Club may resonate with someone who identifies as a pacifist is that no one is forced to join and no one is allowed to just watch. Part of the ethos of Fight Club is to take down the current social order by sacrificing / causing violence to yourself. Participant disturb those around them primarily by hurting themselves and not hurting other people. The only time participants go and fight someone who is unwilling is with the strict instruction that they are to loose the fight. It is an exercise in empowering the other person rather than intimidating them. Like big moment at the end of the film were Tyler blows up empty bank buildings, wiping all debts causing a jubilee. Jesus big moment turning tables in the temple was also a violent act that doesn’t hurt anyone.
But like the Nazi story I started with Fight Club is not a perfect metaphor – It’s going to be hard to find a Xn justification for urinating in food and splice pornography into children’s films.
Probably one of the reasons that we don’t think Jesus when we see fight club is because doesn’t fit into classic penal sub framework. But to prove my point here are some gospel parallels with the film. I’m sure there are more.
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.”
---
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.”
---
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."
---
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;”
---
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."
At the end of the film Jack ends up living a life consistent with the beliefs of Tyler Durden. Doing this leads to him attempting suicide. At this moment Tyler (his mentor and example) dies and Jack goes on forever changed by Tyler. Jack asks himself “If you wake up at a different place at a different time could wake up as a different person”
Transit Lounge Article
I can still remember walking out of the cinema through the streets of Fremantle, stunned and feeling like I had seen something truly unique.
Ten years on, I have seen Fight Club (directed by David Fincher) and read the book, written by Chuck Palahniuk, numerous times.
Although denounced by some as a very unchristian film, it continues to resonate strongly with me and my faith. I see one of the film's two protagonists, Tyler Durden, as a Christ-like figure.
The premise is this: Jack works for an unscrupulous company earning good money with which he orders furniture for his apartment. Jack is living the good life—the American Dream—and finds it completely numbing and meaningless. Along comes Tyler to liberate him from this life.
In Christian theology we often talk about liberation and it is usually with regards to poorer people being liberated from oppression. Something a rich, white, Western male like myself can appreciate but cannot relate to.
In Fight Club, Tyler forces Jack to face the current reality of his world: injustice, love of money, obsession with the trivial; and to liberate him from that.
Below is a list of 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 even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
Fight Club: Jack quits job and Tyler 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.”
Fight Club: Jack has no family; those around him follow 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."
Fight Club: The first assignment for fight club members is for them to start a fight and lose.
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.”
Fight Club: Tyler Durden destroys both Jacks' apartment and the buildings of credit card companies in order to make everything go back to zero so that no-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."
Be warned: the film is graphic and brutal and deserves its R rating, but if you are looking for a film to show disaffected adult Western males that exemplifies liberation, I can’t think of a better place to start.
Talk from the Anniversary Screening
Two years ago I was doing alpha course and Nicky Gumbel told a horrific story of a Nazi death camp. It’s the story of a family man found guilty of some petty offence and sentenced to death. A priest steps in and is killed instead of the family man which the Gestapo agree to.
Nicky then went on to explain that we are like the family man and Jesus is like the priest, which is all fine and dandy until you realise that God is the Gestapo and that the priest died so that the family man can be friends with the Gestapo.
Now I’m sure we’ve all heard analogies like this. Stories like this to try and explain what Jesus life and death did. Stories like this is what theologians like to call an atonement narratives. That is it’s a story that describes the atonement “the reconciling, redeeming, liberating activity of God in Christ.” Obviously there’s bits of the Nazi death camp story that echo bits of the gospel but obviously any metaphor where a loving God is represented by a cruel guard at a Nazi death camp has got some problems too.
Now if you’ve been around in Xn circles for a while you have probably heard many stories like this. I can remember one from my youth group that involved a train and station master who puts his son in the road of the train to save the people on board or something like that.
Have people heard these kind of stories? And they’re usually slight variations on the same theme? To be technical that theme is called penal substitutionary atonement.
My problem with this story is that I think the gospel and what God has done through Jesus is too big to encapsulate in just one story. It’s about like Jesus talking about the Kingdom of God he didn’t just stick to the KOG is like a mustard seed he used many analogies. And that’s what we have to do with our atonement narratives. The atonement is like a multifaceted diamond. If we only stick to one story then we’ll end up making the gospel look like just a plate of glass. Of course there will be no one story that describes the “the reconciling, redeeming, liberating activity of God in Christ.” Completely.
This is where I’d like to introduce fight club. Now I’m willing to bet you haven’t been to a church service were the pastor has said ”let me just play you a clip from fight club to illustrate this point” In fact the First time I met Nathan à Baptist College à are you reading Chuck Phaulinuk à He looked so surprised I was sure I was going to get a ear bashing about it’s horrible morality etc.
Fight Club is in essence a story of liberation. In rich western Xy most Atonement Narratives talk about acts of reconciliation or redemption. Liberation occasionally might be framed in the story of sex addict or drug addict – who comes to the youth group to tell his testimony and how he has been set free. I certainly remember hearing that at my youth group, I also remember half the guys thinking they should get out of youth group and get into sex and drugs.
Personally I think it’s tragic that we have missed out talking about liberation. My generation 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. Our parents worked hard to give us heaps as I got set to inherit this hard work I couldn’t help but notice the injustice that had been left in it’s wake. So we said no thanks for a while bought cheap flannelette shirts and Nirvana records. But most of us have given up that idealism and like our parents have a well thumbed IKEA catalogue on the newspaper rack. I grew up in a generation that were the heirs of oppression. We could see the injustice in the world and new we were destined to benefit from it but had no way to change it.
Perhaps this is one reason why we as a generation loved escaping into movies like the Matrix and TV shows like Buffy the vampire slayer were there is some greater reality a computer program or vampires that would give us meaning because everything else staring us in the face would pale into insignificance.
It was specifically for generation X males that Chuck Palahniuk wrote the novel Fight Club for. Fight Club is a story of liberation from a society where the only valued role in life is to be an oppressor. Jack the main character in Fight Club works day and night for an unscrupulous company earning good money that he uses to fill his apartment with furniture. Fight Club is a novel for a generation “raised by television to believe that someday we'll all be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars.” (Fight Club the film) A generation raised to believe in the American dream, that we can be anything we want.
In Fight Club liberation comes in the from of the character Tyler Durden who convinces Jack to hit rock bottom. That is, to give up the desire to become a movie star, to not play the game, trying to be famous or powerful, to not even bother with his job or apartment to just drop out of the rat race altogether. For Tyler Durden hitting rock bottom is not a simple submission to the powers around. Rather it is to live in spite of the powers around despising all that they value. For me this is encapsulated in the way Tyler Durden says “you have to give up” to Jack. I could totally imagine Jesus saying this to the “you have to give up” rich young ruler or Zacchaeus the tax collector who gives half of what he owns repays people he has cheated four times what he has taken from them.
Jack is liberated by giving up on the what the rulers, powers and principalities of this world view as important. A respectable job, a nice house and nice furniture to fill it.
Paul famously wrote in Galatians for freedom Christ has set us free. But ask many rich western Xns what they have been set free from and I bet they might struggle. We often we would fall back to our Nazi death camp model and say something like freed from death and freed from judgment. Which is certainly true and will make a difference when we die but it can be hard to see how that can make a big difference while we are alive. What I like about what I see in fight club and in Jesus. Is that rather changing what might happened if you died tomorrow they change what might happen if you live tomorrow.
Fight Club is a violent film, I’d argue it’s Possibly the most violent pacifist movie ever made. It’s tough and confronting liberation is often similar to Jesus when he asks us to give up everything to follow him. Part of the reason why the book Fight Club may resonate with someone who identifies as a pacifist is that no one is forced to join and no one is allowed to just watch. Part of the ethos of Fight Club is to take down the current social order by sacrificing / causing violence to yourself. Participant disturb those around them primarily by hurting themselves and not hurting other people. The only time participants go and fight someone who is unwilling is with the strict instruction that they are to loose the fight. It is an exercise in empowering the other person rather than intimidating them. Like big moment at the end of the film were Tyler blows up empty bank buildings, wiping all debts causing a jubilee. Jesus big moment turning tables in the temple was also a violent act that doesn’t hurt anyone.
But like the Nazi story I started with Fight Club is not a perfect metaphor – It’s going to be hard to find a Xn justification for urinating in food and splice pornography into children’s films.
Probably one of the reasons that we don’t think Jesus when we see fight club is because doesn’t fit into classic penal sub framework. But to prove my point here are some gospel parallels with the film. I’m sure there are more.
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.”
---
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.”
---
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."
---
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;”
---
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."
At the end of the film Jack ends up living a life consistent with the beliefs of Tyler Durden. Doing this leads to him attempting suicide. At this moment Tyler (his mentor and example) dies and Jack goes on forever changed by Tyler. Jack asks himself “If you wake up at a different place at a different time could wake up as a different person”
