The Power of a Critic

I was listening to an interview with writer/director Nicolas Meyer the other day on Page One - The Writer's Podcast (Episode 109). He was the writer and director of one of the greatest movies ever: Star Trek II - The Wrath of Kahn, and he has an incredibly interesting autobiography, The View from the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood. I'd recommend it for any Star Trek fan or anyone interested in the movie business. (I actually blogged about this book back in 2009 when I first read it in The Magic of Movies post.)

In this interview, he talked about the difference between a critic and a reviewer:

"A reviewer is somebody who is telling people who has not seen the movie whether they should spend their time and their money going to see the movie. But as Anatole France defined the function of the critic... (and he paraphrases Anatole France) 'the critic's function is to narrate the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.'... Critics assume that you have seen the movie and you are comparing your soul to theirs in response."

I thought that was a beautiful description of the two roles. Of course, it applies to all media (television, books, podcasts, blogs, etc.) 

That distinction speaks to me as a pastor, as well. I see these two roles at work among preachers. I know many mediocre preachers who simply try to explain and apply the text. But that's a lot different than "narrating the adventures of your soul."

I think that explains why so many people struggle with reading the Bible. We've taught them to approach it in a very clinical and sterile way, mostly because of the importance or correctly handling the Word of God - which is an understandable and noble motivation. But in the process we have turned people into reviewers of the Bible. People often lose the aspect of a personal encounter with the living God through the reading of His Word and miss having their souls transformed by it.