The Hero Cycle and Jesus Christ

Sometimes a great starting point for discussing the deeper meanings to life with people who might not care to converse about such things is to start from somewhere not as personally intrusive, such as talking about movies.  Or maybe watch a movie and bring up discussion questions after the movie, which might lead one down a trail towards openly speaking and sharing your views on life and God.  For the Christian, this of course would mean sharing the teachings about humanity, sin, evil, good, God, and salvation found within the Bible.

Almost any movie can do this, since most movies follow the hero cycle laid out by Joseph Campbell in THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES. 

 

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Isn't that Luke Skywalker?

The overarching narrative of the Bible also follows this hero cycle.  Christ is the hero who through death was able to bring life to all.  Since most stories, especially fairy tales, follow this cycle, almost every movie contains elements that can be paralleled to those of the Bible's salvation narrative. Thus most stories can be used as good springboards to sharing the Gospel.