The first book I wrote was The Gospel According to Tony Soprano. Not many people of Christian faith were watching that show. There are a lot of people outside the faith that are. I ended up with people actually in the Mafia reading the book. One sent a letter to Christianity Today; I have since then begun a dialogue with him. He is considering literally leaving a life in the mafia for faith. For me that’s what it’s really about. Those are the people I want to write to. Those are the people I want to be in conversation with and I want to be telling the story of God to.

The story is everywhere we look. As preachers that is the best thing I think we can do — to be able to identify the redemptive story in art, film, and music and all around us because it really teaches us about people’s yearning for God. Then when we identify that we see the thirst. Then we better know how to address it.

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Preaching: You talked a bit about the rediscovery of mythology and how The Matrix films speak to that. What do you see as the place of mythology in postmodern culture and how do we as communicators of the gospel move in on that?

Seay: I have been strongly influenced by Joseph Campbell, who talks a great deal about what are the elements that are present in a great story. Part of what he acknowledges — and many others, and I hope we acknowledge — is that we’ve got the best story of all time and it’s interesting to examine what are the dynamics that make that the case. The reality is that in this generation I think that there is so much despair, and hope and distrust. There is a yearning for a simpler day, a simpler understanding of the universe, when people try to make sense of it through these mythological kind of heroes.

When we look at these different heroes, I think we get a better sense of who people really are. There are certain types of heroes. You look at even comic books like Superman and you get this kind of Abrahamic figure in many ways. It’s fascinating for me as a storyteller to look at. Ultimately as preachers that’s what we are — we are story tellers, and we ought to be able to look at a story and pick it apart to figure out what makes a good story. I do a little bit in the back part of the book and we’ll have more on the website for pastors about Campbell and storytelling and mythology.

Preaching: George Lucas picked up on Joseph Campbell also, and he cites Campbell as an influence on the mythology that lies behind the Star Wars films. Have you thought anything about the characters in those films?

Seay: Yeah, for me that was the one I grew up with predominantly. I think the church didn’t quite know how to respond to Star Wars at the time but we knew there was this epic battle between good and evil. Now most of us have figured out this is an opportunity to again talk about the real battle between good and evil and what is really going on in the world. Star Wars is a major force in storytelling and examining how we tell great stories.