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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