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damaris.org/filmandbibleWhy Films Matter Films impact us

powerfully

storytelling

Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our con-science in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.

Ingmar Bergman

laugh/cry

thrill/scare

faraway places bring to life

• Why is good for us to look at the world through different eyes?

My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. . . . Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented. Even the eyes of all humanity are not enough. . . .

. . . in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself.

C.S. Lewis, ‘An Experiment in

Criticism’

In a world where there are no longer books we have almost all read, the movies we have almost all seen are perhaps the richest cultural bond we have. . . .

The best of them remind us of human truths that would not seem as true without them. They help to remind us that we are all of us humans together. Frederick Buechner

No single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’

Abraham Kuyper

• What are the implications for our film watching of the fact that Jesus is Lord over every area of life?

expressing the beauty and brokenness of the

world

expressing the goodness and badness

of human nature

expressing harmony and division

expressing insights and misunderstandings

asking questions about the nature of reality

expressing the deepest longings of the human

heart

Why Films Matter to God

Creation

In the beginning, God created . . .

Genesis 1:1, NIV

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

Genesis 1:31, NIV

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Psalm 19:1, NIV

!

!

!

!

God created mankind in his own image . . . Genesis 1:27, NIV

Jubal . . . the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes. . . . Tubal- Cain . . . forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron.

Genesis 4:21–22, NIV

Art and culture are the outworking of

the image of God in humanity

Humans, of all creatures, are only complete and themselves when interacting with their environment.. . . People are known by what they do. . . . God made people to do the things that people do. . . . God let people loose to think up culture in all its forms.

David Thistlethwaite, The Art of God and the Religions of Art

three principal values

goodness

truth

beauty

De-creation

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. . . .

. . . Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 3:6–7, NIV

Art and culture express humanity’s

disconnection from God

© Teresa Alexander-Arab, used under a Creative Commons licence

goodness &

badness

truth &

deception

beauty &

ugliness

escapeconform holinessengagement

Re-creation grace hope

Whether through paint or sound, metaphor or movement, we are given the inestimable gift of participating in the re-creative work of the Triune God, anticipating that final and unimaginable re-creation of all matter, space, and time, and the fulfilment of all things visible and invisible.

W. David O. Taylor FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH:

CASTING A VISION FOR THE ARTS

New Creation

The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it.

Revelation 21:26, NIV Engaging with Culture

PAUL IN ATHENS

ENGAGE WITH WORLDVIEWS OBSERVING CULTURE • Agora, altar to 12 gods (nw corner of agora) • Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Apollo,

Artemis, Hephæstus, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite and Hermes

Observe culture carefully

BRIDGE

Find a connection

© Steve9091. Used under a Creative Commons licence

ARGUE FOR CHRISTIAN

Argue for Christian truth claims

double listeningFive Levels of

Engaging with Films

goodness

truth

beauty

Aesthetics

The world of sounds, the world of forms, the world of tints, and the world of poetic ideas, can have no other source than God . . .

. . . and it is our privilege as bearers of his image, to have a perception of this beautiful world, artistically to reproduce it, and humanly to enjoy it.

Abraham Kuyper

Emotions

© PHIL SHIRLEY, USED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS LICENCE

The moving image stirs our emotions rather than engaging our minds.

Ingmar Bergman

goodness

truth

beauty

worldviews

© Elke Sisco, used under a Creative Com

mons licence

Works of art ‘are not simply the oozings of subconscious impulses; they are the result of beliefs and goals on the part of the artist.’

Nicholas Wolterstorff

Surface see it as entertainment

Middle realise that there is a message

Deep realise traces of worldviews

All stories teach, whether the story-teller intends them to or not. They teach the world we create. They teach the morality we live by. They teach it much more effectively than moral precepts and instructions.

Philip Pullman

Traditionally, most philosophical investigation took place in the universities, and most spiritual reflection took place in the churches.

However, in recent years that seems to have changed. Now, arguably, most philosophical investigation and spiritual reflection takes place in the cinema.

Nick Pollard

positive deconstruction analyse evaluate

celebrate/challenge

points of contact points of tensiongoodness

truth

beauty

moralityETHICAL RESPONSES TO FILMS

• Is the film truthful? Does it deal with life with integrity?

We must recognise ‘ways in which movies either illuminate our world and our lives with glimmers of transcendence or cast shadows of brokenness and alienation.’

Gordon Matties

ETHICAL RESPONSES TO FILMS

• Is the film truthful? Does it deal with life with integrity?

• Does it ask the right questions?

• Is its morality consistent with Scripture?

• What stance does it take towards the moral behaviour within it?

spiritualitySpirituality concerns how humans relate to reality – to themselves, to each other, to the world around them and (most importantly) to ultimate reality – via their worldview beliefs, concomitant attitudes and subsequent behaviour.

Peter S. Williams

Our hope is to bring facets of the richness of the gospel to bear on the lives, beliefs, values, and identities of lost human beings.

Gregory E. Ganssle

TED TURNAU’S FIVE QUESTIONS

• What's the story? • Where am I (the world of the text)? • What's good and true and beautiful

about it? • What's false and ugly and perverse

about it (and how do I subvert that)? • How does the gospel apply here?

3 QUESTIONS FOR DYNAMIC FILM DISCUSSIONS

T: N: T:

What did this film make me Think (and feel)? What basic human Need is at the heart of this film? What is True (and false) in this film?

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