Theology and film

American filmmaker Martin Scorsese's theologically imbued cinematic approach arguably reached its apotheosis in his 2016 film Silence, an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō's 1966 novel. Through my theological film criticism, a novel constructive form of theologizing I call "theocinematics," I propose that Silence is both a cinematic theology about vocation in its meditation on a fervent young priest's discernment of the voice of Christ and Scorsese's modus operandi par excellence-Silence is film as theology and filmmaking as vocation. In my analysis, I draw from philosopher Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics and his concept of "the summoned self" to provide a framework for an intersubjective divinely given vocation. I also attend to film theorist Michel Chion's notion of the acousmêtre and its use in Silence to depict the summoning voice of Christ.

Published in "'The Universe is Indifferent': Theology, Philosophy, and Mad Men" (Cascade Press, 2016)

This essay explores the paradox of television show Mad Men's lead character, Donald Draper, from the perspective of philosopher Jean-Luc Marion's 'erotic reduction.' Rather than attempting to dissolve the paradox of Don Draper I argue that Draper is an exemplary fictional enactment of Marion's insistence that love seeks assurance -- not certainty.  Moreover, Draper's paradoxical nature vividly illustrates Marion's distinction between the 'seducer' and the 'lover' and, consequently, the 'idol' and the 'icon.' Thus Mad Men brilliantly traverses the distance between Draper's (and our) madness and iconicity by way of the lover's advance.

This essay explores, explains and critically evaluates - from a theological perspective - the presentation, portrayal and performance of the conceptulization of love in Nicholas Roeg’s cult-classic-art-house film Walkabout - with specific reference to Terence Kennedy’s book, Doers of the Word, Vol. 2, Ch. 34 and to Pope Benedict XVI’s first papal encyclical Deus Caritas Est. I will use these two works to theologically critique Walkabout’s expression of love.

This article examines Monty Python's Life of Brian and Mel Gibson's Passion of Christ. Both have negative christologies, but that of Life of Brian is ultimately shown to be closer to much traditional christological thinking than the Passion of Christ. The article contains some jokes and not too many spoilers!

This article examines the novel Atonement by Ian McEwan and the film version directed by Joe Wright, and reflects on the kind of view of atonement that is presented in dialogue with theological understandings of the term. It argues that the book and film permit us to consider atonement in terms of God’s creative and redemptive (re-)narration of the story of our lives.

Le piste di lettura del film drammatico Philomena (2013), diretto dal regista inglese Stephen Frears (1941-), possono essere molteplici. Lo stesso giornalista Martin Sixsmith, nelle scene iniziali del film, dichiara al suo editore che la vicenda dell’anziana signora irlandese presenta diversi spunti intriganti per un articolo, tra i quali il tema della ricerca delle proprie radici familiari e quello della diaspora irlandese. Ma si potrebbero intraprendere molti altri sentieri interpretativi: la forza dell’amore materno e filiale; la capacità liberante del perdono che sgorga dalla fede in Cristo; il fanatismo sessuofobico, la discriminazione degli omosessuali e il biasimo per i malati di AIDS; lo statuto etico del giornalismo ecc.
Il ricorso al film si rivelerebbe molto costruttivo per stimolare una riflessione sulla concezione cristiana del giudizio finale, animata dalla speranza che «la misericordia abbia sempre la meglio sul giudizio» (Gc 2,13).
Immediatamente prima che cali il sipario, risplende nel film un simbolo vivido e commovente di ciò che avverrà nel giudizio di Dio alla fine dei tempi. Chi non vorrà perdonare, percepirà quanto sia «estenuante» chiudersi per sempre alla misericordia. Intravediamo qui un’acuta intuizione sull’inferno, immaginabile come la condizione ultraterrena di «estenuazione» radicale ed eterna della persona impenitente. D’altra parte, la misericordia infinita di Dio avrà universalmente la meglio in paradiso, nella misura in cui ogni vittima, interiormente sospinta dal Consolatore a prendere parte alla «carità di Cristo» (2Cor 5,14), si scoprirà peccatrice perdonata e giungerà, per riconoscenza a Dio, a perdonare a sua volta i propri carnefici. Mediante il perdono di tutte le vittime della storia, persino i carnefici potranno essere perdonati dai loro peccati. Ma, per usare anche a loro misericordia, il Signore vorrà passare attraverso la compassione delle loro vittime.

Looking at the themes of the world, memory and the ultimate fulfilment, the book seeks to recover the symbolic languages which can assist a dialogue and mutual learning on the boundaries between theology, politics and arts.
Contents:
Preface
Introduction: Culture as a Theological Theme
PART I: THE WORLD
Chapter One: Images of the World in Karel Čapek and Isaac Bashevis Singer
1. The Transcendent in the Ordinary
The World as a Factory
The World as a Garden
The World as an Open Horizon
2. A Vanished Past in the Mosaic of the Present
Roots that Were Moved
Shadows of Hope
Forces Playing in the Universe
3. Concluding Remarks
Chapter Two: Theologies of the World
1. What Lies beyond Secularisation?
2. The World as a Gift
All that is Seen and Unseen
Cosmic Nature and Humanity
The Image of God
The Fall and Renewal
3. The World as a Task
Divine – Human Cooperation
Utopia as a Symbolic Mediation of Hope
The Journey of Deification
4. Concluding Remarks
PART II: MEMORY
Chapter Three: Heritage of Totalitarian Cultures in Folk Music
1. Vladimir Vysotsky: Interplay of the Historical and the Archetypal
Losers’ Point of View
The Tragic Human Condition
Tell Me Where Is the Land Lit with Icon-Lamp Light
2. Jaromír Nohavica: Breaking and Healing in Retrospective
Memory as a Burden
God, Where Have You Been?
Glimpses of Redemption
3. Concluding Remarks
Chapter Four: Redemptive Memory in Theology
1. Victimhood as a Positive Identity
2. Remembering God
Christ as the One Who Remembers
Redemptive Re-Membering
God Siding with the Victim
Doctrine versus Experience?
3. Giving Back the Past
Liturgical Remembering
Historical Remembering
Two Eschatological Horizons
4. Concluding Remarks
Part III:  THE ULTIMATE FULFILMENT
Chapter Five: Figuring the Ultimate Fulfilment in Central European Cinema
1. Guiding Desires in extremis according to István Szabó and Vladimír Michálek
Mephisto
Forgotten Light
2. Kieślowski’s Journey towards What is Real
Liberty
Equality
Fraternity
3. Concluding Remarks
Chapter Six: Love as the Ultimate Fulfillment in Theology
1. Estrangement of Love or Ambiguity of Conversion?
2. The Spirit as the Giver of Love
Human Freedom without Love
Love outside and inside of the Body of Christ
Kenosis of the Spirit
Two Hands of the Father
3. The Spirit as the Giver of Conversion
Disordered Inclinations in the Light of Love
Discernments of the Spirits
Restored Communion
4. Concluding Remarks
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

A short exploratory review of the figure of Jesus in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ and the figure of Luke in Stuart Rosenberg's Cool Hand Luke. Submitted for an undergraduate module on Theology and Film and York St John University, for which it was graded a C. The paper has undergone some minor typographical edits based on the feedback received after submission.

This film asks if and in what sense the Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi's film Life As a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease is about conversion. It asks whose conversion the film is about, and indeed whether a film can deal with issues of conversion at all.

Films are modern spiritual phenomena. They function as such in at least three profound ways: world projection, thought experiments, and catharsis (i.e., as dreams, doubt, and dread). Understanding film in this way allows for a theological account of the experience that speaks to the religious possibilities of film that far extend the portrayal of religious themes or content. Dreams, Doubt, and Dread: The Spiritual in Film aims to address films as spiritual experiences. This collection of short essays and dialogues examines films phenomenologically--through the experience of the viewer as an agent having been acted upon in the functioning of the film itself. Authors were invited to take one of the main themes and creatively consider how film, in their experiences, has provided opportunities for new modes of thinking. Contributors will then engaged one another in a dialogue about the similarities and differences in their descriptions of film as spiritual phenomena. The intended aim of this text is to shift contemporary theological film engagement away from a simple mode of analysis in which theological concepts are simply read into the film itself and begin to let films speak for themselves as profoundly spiritual experiences.

The immolated victim 77 Traditionalist Roman Catholicism and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ Bernard Doherty Book reviews 102 The Real and the Virtual 102 Language that poses a question 107 Scholar, monk and bishop 109 Editorial 'Film, faith and culture'