Recently I saw a bumper sticker “I love Vampires” – really? You really love vampires? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a vampire as: the reanimated body of a dead person believed to come from the grave at night and suck the blood of persons asleep. That is what you love?
Vampires are immortal, removed from society, cold skinned killers.
Now vampires in Hollywood are magical, sexy, powerful, smart, talented. Hollywood has done such a good job in humanizing the vampire that people now want to be like them - love them.
I get it. I do – the glamour aspect of it all. It’s up on the big screen with all the Hollywood drama and glitz and glam. Beautiful girls and dashing young men. Youth, money, power – it’s all very glamorous – yet so very far from reality or humanity.
The Twilight Saga has created a phenomenally successful book and movie series empire and it is having an impact on our cultural society effecting our sense of self, our morals and our importance.
Dave Roberts has written The Twilight Gospel:The Spiritual Roots of the Stephanie Meyer Vampire Saga and is bringing it to the forefront of our minds that although the Twilight Saga is entertaining it is something not to be taken lightly.
In the Twilight Gospel, Roberts masterfully delves into the spiritual roots of the Twilight Saga without casting it out as a bad book, but just by eloquently bringing up some great discussion points about the themes in the Twilight Saga.
If you have read any of the Twilight books and are concerned about morality issues – this is a great book to help you see things in perspective. Roberts brought things to my attention that I hadn’t realized like how Bella is very clumsy, has low self-esteem and somewhat awkward at times, as many kids are, and then she magically becomes graceful once she is a vampire. What kind of message does that send to all the Twilight Saga fans? Unless you turn into a vampire you’ll remain dorky?
Then Roberts digs deeper into Alice – who wants it all. She is the epitome of materialism – beauty – money – acquisitions – most by which she acquires from cheating the stock market by her vampire ability to see into the future. Again – not a message I’ll be promoting to my children.
The Twilight Gospel makes you think, as opposed to just being swept away in a story. Money, sex, power and many other subjects are covered – to get you to think about it. Even if you are totally into vampires and love them – this is a great book just to get you thinking – and there’s nothing wrong with that!
About book:
The blockbuster Twilight Saga is being read by teenager and adult alike. These powerful novels are getting even more popular as the movies hit the theaters. Crisply written and with a gracious spirit, The Twilight Gospel will help teens, their parents, and their pastors discern what is good from what is unhealthy in the novels and equip them to be biblically literate readers.
From the back cover:
With these powerful novels getting even more popular as the movies hit the cinemas, the call for a Christian response is strong. What values and ideas do Meyer’s novels promote? What is good about them, and what deserves closer inspection?
The spirituality and worldview of the Twilight Saga are fascinating, but they do not sit easily with orthodox Christianity. This book carefully and graciously assesses what is praiseworthy and what is less so. It helps the reader to think more clearly about issues to do with occult spirits, life after death, myths and legends, sexuality, personal spiritual power, the culture of glamour and the lure of materialism. All these subjects are woven into the fabric of the Twilight Saga.
The central point of the book is to help teens (and their parents) discern what is excellent from what is unhealthy, helping to create robust, shrewd, and literate young adults.
I was provided a free copy of this book as part of doing a blog tour for LiftUse. If you are interested in reading some other reviews on this book here is the link to the blog tour http://www.litfusegroup.com/Blog-Tours/the-twilight-gospel-by-dave-roberts.html
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