Cinema Grandpa (conclusion)

BOB

David and I had a tête-a-tête in the kitchen, and he posed an interesting question. If I remember rightly, David, it was that how theology and the movies talk to each other is just as important as what they say. How they communicate.
                                 (looks at David questioningly)

DAVID

(more animated than before lunch)

I mean, after hearing Grandpa, movies communicate not just with words but with pictures and music. With feelings.

CLIVE

Movies communicate primarily with emotions, that’s true.

DAVID

Yeah, but it’s unconscious, you know? Theology’s conscious, it’s deliberate. You don’t just dream your reactions.

ROBIN

In other words, Davey, how does theology do it?

DAVID

Yes. And ethics. Theological ethics. Christian ethics. How do they think things through before they say what they’re going to say?

BOB

All right. How shall we think through “Where Joe Lives”? I always say (pause) we start with experiencing the movie. We sit there and watch it, not thinking about it very much but letting it take hold of us in whatever way it will. Later—this is what I do, but I’m a college professor and I teach the stuff—you make a few notes while the movie’s still fresh in your mind. You ask yourself, what was the main character’s moral problem? You put what you know about theology and ethics beside this. You look back into the movie for a standard of theological judgment.

CLIVE

Alister McGrath calls it casting theology like a net over the experience, to capture its meaning.

BOB

My sense is that Joe’s story is about his and his community’s need for redemption.

DAVID

You mean from sin?

BOB

You could say Joe was sinful in that he separated himself from God’s love by running away.

CLIVE

You could say he had to recover his understanding of what it means to be human.

BOB

His family and friends had to be turned around from their judgmental and indifferent attitudes.

CLIVE

It’s practical theology, my lad. At Nottingham, students of many religious sensibilities come to our classes: born-again Christians, other kinds of believers, secularists. We’ve found that these students are more alike than they are different. They’re all trying to work out meaning for themselves and, lo and behold, they’re using the same media products to do it, including film. We try to show them how to engage critically both the media and their own meaning-making efforts.

ROBIN

(looking at his watch)

Oh, my goodness, Clive. You have a plane to catch, don’t you?

BOB

(lurching forward in his chair)

I’m ready when you are, old man.

CLIVE

One more word with our clever pupil, gentlemen. David, for theology and ethics to have a dialogue with culture, including the movies; a critical dialogue: it’s vital. Vitally important. It’s what the church has been doing for 2,000 years. Keep asking questions, my lad. You’ll go a long way.

The sound of a barbershop quartet, singing about love in the springtime, takes over.

INSERT  —  David’s face, smiling abashedly but with pleasure.

The four stand up and shake hands. The animals stand up, too, looking quizzical and alert. Clive and Bob leave the frame.

FADE OUT.

As the credits roll the song continues, overlaying the sounds of people and equipment in a bowling alley.

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