teaching Biblical social values through The Kite Runner

I finally got around to watching The Kite Runner earlier. It was an above average movie, really worth watching, but I think I expected more from something that is screening for so long already.

At the UP faculty of Theology as well as the Department of Ancient Languages a strong emphasis is places on the Biblical Social Values research of Pilch, Malina and others. We read the Afrikaans translation of Windows on the World of Jesus (Vensters wat die Woord laat oopgaan) in our first year, this book is accesible for anyone, even without any theological training. We used the Handbook of Biblical Social Values from time to time, read a number of articles over the years dealing with this, and I’ve also bought the Synoptic Gospels and the Book of Revelation social values commentaries, and been using them whenever I preach from these books. By year four we’ve generally become sick of honor and shame (some of the most prominent values), but it was so much part of us that we’d probably never again forget about it.

Funny that the world of Biblical interpretation took so long to realise the value of knowledge on these social values. The Kite Runner again pointed out that these values are still very strong in the Middle East. The movie can be used to illustrate honor and shame, family relationships, group relationships, the role of the father, the place of woman in ancient society (which differ from modern chauvinism), the marriage process and I believe a whole lot more.