In Swashbuckling Faith, author Tim Wesemann does something pretty amazing. He takes scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, and manages to glean Biblical truths from this fun but decidedly non-Biblical movie. As someone who has seen the movie numerous times and has parts of it memorized, it's interesting to look at various scenes in new ways. For example, let's look at the scene where Jack Sparrow (..excuse me, CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow...) is first introduced. He passes the dead bodies of some pirates and takes his hat off to them. Wesemann uses this scene to talk about how we should acknowledge the people who have gone before us and influenced us. Moving on from this, he talks about recognizing the Biblical elders and leaders. If you want to read this part of the book, click on the picture below, and it will take you to Amazon.com where you can take a sneak peek.
It's hard to take a movie like PotC (as we geeks will usually abbreviate it) and get Biblical lessons from it. But Wesemann does it well. And for fans of the movie or genre, it's a great way to use illustrations to understand the truths about God. Jesus spoke in parables and illustrations that people of his time would understand. Why not take one of the most popular movies in recent years, and use it to reach people's hearts towards God?
My only real gripe with the book is that it trades depth for breadth. In a little under 200 pages Wesemann has 32 chapters. That's not much detail for each chapter, and so it sometimes feels like there could be more discussed. There is no over-arching theme to the subjects, and so the chapters sometimes feel a bit disjointed. A connecting thread throughout the book would have been nice, but it's a minor complaint.
Overall, I found this book interesting, enjoyable, and worthwhile. A Christian won't find any earth-shattering truths about God, but will still find things that will make you re-think some of your attitudes towards Him.
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