-=> Allen Prunty wrote to JIMMY ANDERSON <=-


 > Hey - saw The Shack with my wife last week - loved it!

 AP> Glad to hear that... is it a movie based on Biblical beliefs?  If it
 AP> is please let us know since it was in the Bible echo.

It is a story of God meeting with a man and him working through
some healing. Don't want to spoil it with more...

Not 'biblical,' nessasarily, and not 'religious' as far as one
particular demonination, but VERY "Godly," IMHO.

 > She had read the book more than once, but I had never
 > started it. That is now changed. Loved it so much I
 > wanted to read the book too... :-)

 AP> I had a suspicion it would be an uplifting type of movie from what I
 AP> saw.  I took my little cousins to see the new Beauty and the Beast on
 AP> reservation since they said one of the characters would be openly gay.
 AP> I must have been in the bathroom when it happened but I really didn't
 AP> see that.

I haven't seen it yet - I want to, just haven't made it there.

I have a friend that said it was PR and blown WAY out of proportion.
Nothing 'openly gay' about it, in her opinion.

 AP> The cartoon I've showed during many summer children's programs at the
 AP> Church, lockins and sleepovers.  It does have things that can be
 AP> paralleled into the Bible.  One being Forgiveness and unconditional
 AP> love.

 AP> In the cartoon, shortly after we meet Belle, she stops where and sings
 AP> to what? She stops at a fountain, and she tells a story in song to a
 AP> little lamb. A fountain is like a well, and in the Scripture, it's
 AP> typically the place a man and woman have a significant meeting (recall
 AP> Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, Moses and Zipporah, Jesus and the
 AP> Samaritan Woman). Well, in B&B, we see Belle singing to the
lamb: "She
 AP> doesn't discover that it's HIM till chaper 3"

Interesting!

 AP> Betcha never connected that "Mary had a little lamb, little lamb,
 AP> little lamb. Mary had a little lamb whose wool was white as snow" is
 AP> talking about the Blessed Mother who has a Son who is innocent and
 AP> pure.

Oh yeah - that's been shown to me before. :-)

 AP> What about what causes the prince in B&B to be cursed? Wouldn't that
 AP> be the sin of pride? Being spoiled, selfish, unkind; and pride causes
 AP> us to be isolated to the point that we curse ourselves. Pride was the
 AP> Original Sin, and it caused us to be disfigured, naked, ashamed,
 AP> lonely and doomed to die. And so after the prince commits this sin, he
 AP> becomes a beast: ugly, naked, ashamed, lonely, and doomed to die.

 AP> Our sin never affects us in isolation. Sin is like contagion: it
 AP> spreads. And so Adam and Eve's sin caused all of us and the rest of
 AP> Creation to crash and burn. In B&B, the curse spreads throughout the
 AP> castle, infects the servants, the forest, the world around the
 AP> property. Sin is never personal; it affects everyone eventually.

 AP> And only what can redeem Beast and his servants? Only if he truly
 AP> loves and is truly loved in return, right? And doesn't Belle bear that
 AP> love? She's the one to break the curse, she must give her love to him,
 AP> must give her word to him. Notice later in the film that it's only
 AP> when Belle says she loves him is the curse busted. This is so symbolic
 AP> of Mary's fiat to the Archangel Gabriel, when she said let it be".

Yes - all very true!

 AP> At the ball, notice the colors of Belle's gown: yellow and white.
 AP> Those are the colors of Mother Church, the Bride of Christ, the
 AP> redeemed. The colors of the Vatican flag hint at this.

Interesting. Never thought of that.

 AP> When Gaston (whatta jerk,) attacks Beast, where does he stab him? In
 AP> the side! The right side! Take a look at any crucifix and you'll see
 AP> that's exactly where Jesus was pierced (John 19:34).

 AP> And earlier when Beast released Belle after the ball, he in effect
 AP> accepted sin (the curse) and death. Recall Beast's response when his
 AP> servants warn him of the mob's approach: "It doesn't matter, just let
 AP> them come." This is a bit similar to when Jesus accepted our sin
 AP> (though he was sinless) and accepted His impending death, even death
 AP> on a cross.

 AP> But true love breaks the spell (remember that God is love). After Mary
 AP> gives her fiat, God is allowed to intervene (allowed to love) at the
 AP> ground level of our humanity to redeem us through the Passion and
 AP> Resurrection of Jesus. And in B&B, after Belle's fiat, we see Beast
 AP> rise from the dead in glorious light. His body shines forth as a
 AP> glorified body. This is totally an allegory in the movie for the
 AP> Resurrection of Christ!

 AP> And Beast's salvation also saves the whole castle (transforms all the
 AP> gargoyle's too!), all his servants and the world around him.

 AP> Beast can be seen as a Christ figure, in that Jesus is also known as
 AP> the Lion of Judah, an idea that C.S. Lewis used when writing the
 AP> character Aslan in his Chronicles of Narnia.

Another GREAT series of books!

 AP> Found out recently via a comment on an old blog post that the Prince's
 AP> name is actually Adam, this further adds to Biblical symbolism, since
 AP> the New Adam (Jesus) and the New Eve (Mary) in a perfect way undo the
 AP> sin of the first Adam and Eve. We see this played out in Beauty and
 AP> the Beast because Adam (the Prince) becomes a new man at the end (a
 AP> new Adam), undoing the past sin (most importantly with the love and
 AP> help of Belle [who can be seen as a type of Mary, a new Eve.]).

 AP> We see an even deeper connection now that we know the Beast symbolizes
 AP> Adam, we also can see how similar their reaction to sin is. After the
 AP> Original Adam sinned, he felt great shame, thought himself ugly and
 AP> hid himself. So too does the Beast do this!

 AP> Lots and lots of symbolism in that film... even the stained glass
 AP> windows you see :-)

VERY very cool! Thanks for that lesson!


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