Movie influence

1. God and Movies

2. Would God Love Movies?
Movies are about stories. The Bible is full of stories.

3. Movies and the Bible
Movies are visually dramatic stories. About 70% of the Bible
is also visually dramatic stories. The Bible, as inspired by
God, makes extensive use of images, drama and storytelling.
Only 30% of the Bible deals with doctrines or theology or
rational arguments.

4. Cinematic and Biblical Images
Cinema is above all a visual medium. Likewise the Bible uses
many images to convey its messages.

5. Dramatic Biblical Images
Both Cinema and the Bible use dramatic images to
underscore the truths they proclaim.
Like a good sermon, a good movie provides powerful images
for its themes.
Jean Valjean – forgiven Peter’s Vision – New Rules

6. Compelling Stories in the Bible and Cinema
A good story touches us and compels us to think and act in
new ways.

7. Movies: Contemporary Collaborative Art
Making a film requires the creative efforts of a host of people.

8. A Film’s Story
All the different creative inputs from all the collaborators
making a film are unified by the story of a film. Good movies
have good stories with interesting characters. They can be
like powerful sermons to help us understand the issues
involved in living responsible lives.

9. Worldviews
A worldview is a collection of beliefs about life and the
universe that a person (or group) uses to make sense of life
and to guide them in how they should live.

10. Worldviews in Movies
Movie stories convey values and worldviews. They can and
do influence and persuade audiences to adopt certain
attitudes and points of view regarding how we should live.

11. Some Deny That Movies Convey Worldviews
Some persons think that movies are just for entertainment.
Samuel Goldwyn, Hollywood producer quipped, “If you want
to send a message, use Western Union (telegraph).” Despite
the fact that movies are a form of entertainment, their stories
typically feature heros and villains with principles of right and
wrong, based in some idea of what the world is like – in short,
a worldview.

12. Viewing Movies With Discernment
Because movie stories and characters often have worldviews
that differ from or are opposed to a Christian worldview, it is
important for Christians to view movies critically to discern
what is true and what is false about them. Many times films
convey messages that we can agree with, but also messages
that we can not accept as Christians.

13. Movies as “Church” Services
Geoffrey Hill in Illuminating Shadows writes:
“…we congregate at the cinematic temple. We pay our votive
offering at the box office.”

14. Movies as “Church” Services
“We buy our ritual corn. We hush in reverent anticipation as
the lights go down and the celluloid magic begins.”

15. Movies as “Church” Services
“Throughout the filmic narrative we identify with the hero.
We vilify the antihero. We vicariously exult in the victories of
the drama.”

16. Movies as “Church” Services
“And we are spiritually inspired by the moral of the story, all
the while believing we are modern techno-secular people,
devoid of religion.”

17. Movies as “Church” Services
Yet the depth and intensity of our participation reveal a
religious fervor that is not much different from that of
religious zealots.”

18. Do Movies Have The Power to Convince Audiences?
If a good pastor in a church has the power to convince
her/his congregation, certainly a good movie has equal or
more power to convince since it employs dramatic stories,
professional actors, strong visual images and sound tracks,
enormous financial resources, all coordinated by media
professionals.

19. Movie Power Utilized by Commercial Interests
Many manufacturers pay to have their products featured in
films because they know the power of movies to sell their
products. An actor hero using some name brand item makes
that item more popular with the audience.

20. Do Average Persons Use Worldviews?
Consider persons standing in line for a movie. A person
comes late and tries to but-in towards the front of the line.
Someone in line objects to this. This shows that (s)he has an
idea of right and wrong (ETHICS-what is right/wrong), that
everyone know this is wrong (EPISTEMOLOGY- nature and
grounds of knowledge), that “first come – first served” and
“what goes around comes around” is the way the world
works (METAPHYSICS-fundamental nature of reality). In
short we all operate day to day with a worldview.

21. Are Worldviews Relevant or Important?
Worldviews often begin with the ideas of a philosopher or
thinker. The average person on the streets usually thinks
that these “ivory tower” thinkers have little importance to
them.

22. Metanarratives
A worldview is a collection of beliefs about life and the
universe that a person (or group) uses to make sense of life
and to guide them in how they should live. A worldview is
often referred to as a metanarrative or overstory, a big picture
kind of story that gives meaning to our own personal stories.

23. Questions Answered by a Worldview
1. What is real?
2. What is the world
around us like?
3. What is a human
being?
4. What happens after
death?
5. How can we know
anything?
6. What is right and
wrong?
7. What is the meaning of
human history?

24. The Elements of a Worldview Story
All worldviews have a story or explanation for:
1. What was the original state of humans and the world?
2. What is the source of the problems that humans have?
3. What needs to be done to remedy these problems and to
live a fulfilled life?
4. These elements are like the basic elements of the
Christian story: Creation, Fall, Redemption

25. PreModern Worldviews
Most ancient cultures believed that gods (or a God)
controlled human destiny. These gods needed to be deferred
to for humans to live successfully. These worldviews were
common from 3000 BC to 1600 AD.

26. The Worldview of Christianity 1
A Christian Worldview says that a Creator God brought our
Universe into being. He created man as a free agent to care
for and rule over our Earth-Region with the task of serving
and preserving mankind and Earth’s creatures, in the process
imaging His character by showing love, faithfulness,
truthfulness, thankfulness, justice, forbearance and joy to all
creatures.

27. The Worldview of Christianity 2
But Mankind chose to selfishly seek their own interests and
to ignore God’s desires. God has allowed evil to exist,
possibly a consequence of His bestowing the freedom to
choose between good and evil. God came and lived among
us to show us how to truly be alive and to deliver us from
destruction. His death shows us his love and his
resurrection shows us that in His power, our deaths merely
usher us into a new existence with Him. He will return at
some future time to make all things new, erasing the effects
of mankind’s sins.

28. The Worldview of the Rationalist or Modernist
A rationalist/modernist person views man’s irrational and emotional
nature as the source of mankind’s problems. Organized religions
based on emotions of fear or hatred are a major cause of the world’s
problems in this view. This worldview says that living by logical and
rational principles is the solution to our problems. Science and
technology (based on reason and logic) will help us solve our
problems and build a better future. Variations of these ideas occur
from the 1700s.

29. The Worldview of Romanticism
Romanticism in the 1800s developed as a reaction to the
rationalism of the 1700s. Romantics said that the essence of
a person is their emotions. The individual’s freedom and
irrational feelings were supreme goals over impersonal
rational philosophical systems. Self-fullfillment was the
supreme moral imperative. Variations of these ideas appear
from the 1800s.

30. The Evolutionary Worldview
In this worldview, nonliving matter over long periods of time
organizes itself into simple living organisms and these develop in
complexity, eventually becoming self-conscious and reflective beings.
In this worldview, there is a progression from simple to complex life
forms and in its earliest version (Victorian Evolutionary Worldview),
an increasing degree of perfection. This view involves Rationalism
but there is no meaning so persons create it for themselves through
relationships they develop with others. Variations of these ideas
occur from 1859.

31. Christian Existentialism
In the 1860s, the writings of Soren Kierkegaard, a Christian, were
published and slowly gained some acceptance. He felt that a person
needs an irrational “leap of faith” to find meaning in life. One’s faith is
beyond logical proof, can not be reached through reason. A person
begins living in a selfish way, eventually despairs at finding no
purpose, makes a “leap of faith” now following God’s rules, and finally
devotes his life to serving the Creator, following the Spirit’s inner
promptings rather than legalistic rules and regulations. Kierkegaard’s
ideas led to the worldview of existentialism.

32. The Worldview of Atheistic Existentialism
Friedrich Nietzsche in the 1870s proposed an atheistic
existentialism. He wrote that “God is dead”, the concept of
God no longer being necessary to explain existence. This
worldview sees the universe as meaningless, leading to
despair since there are no moral standards for humanity.
Thus a person must create their own morality. As man has
evolved from apelike ancestors, mankind will eventually
evolve into supermen (Ubermensch) using their “will to
power” to replace the “weak” values of Christianity with the
“hard” values needed to survive and flourish.

33. The Worldview of Monism
A monist worldview says that all life is essentially one and
the same. When we think and act as if we are different
(emphasize and exercise our distinctiveness), so we create
problems for ourselves and this planet. We find harmony
with ourselves and the planet when we recognize and live out
our unity with all things, our interconnectedness. Sin and
redemption are because of wrong and right thinking
respectively. All the religions of the world are merely masks
for the same God.

34. The Worldview of Dualism
A dualistic worldview believes that the world and all things
are composed of two co-eternal, opposing forces (good and
evil). Existence is a combination of physical/spiritual or
mind/body or mind/matter. The Star Wars Movies adopt a
dualistic worldview in that the “force” has a dark and light
side (evil vs good natures).

35. The Worldview of Fate
Some persons feel there is a force, Fate, which directs and
determines how our lives unfold. Fate is seen as an all-
powerful and impersonal force to resign oneself to. For
most persons with this worldview, fate is an impersonal
force. Fate becomes a substitute for God. When everything
is going well, this Force is carrying you on its crest. If a
person wants to do something shabby, the blind Force of
fate, which has no morals, will not interfere with a person’s
twisted desires or plans.

36. The Worldview of Existentialism
This worldview sees human life as dominated by chance and
ultimately meaningless, with no underlying purpose. God is
an unnecessary concept. Humans lead themselves to
“angst” or despair if they try to find a deeper meaning. We
must create our own meaning through the relationships we
develop with each other and this planet. Humans are totally
free with no rules to live by. Since we create our own lives,
we can blame no one but ourselves and must take
responsibility for all the choices we make. Systems of
beliefs are impositions, forms of oppresive slavery.

37. The Worldview of Postmodernism
Postmodernism rejects all absolutes. Life is seen as
meaningless. Reality is a chaos from which each person
makes their own order, sense and purpose. Collective
groups (cultures) construct their own reality, their beliefs and
interpretations and impose them on others. We are not
really individuals who are independent and free thinkers but
are products of the culture we are raised in with all the
prejudices and biases of that culture. Cultures use language
to control and oppress those in the culture.

38. Wiccan or Neopagan (New Pagan) Worldviews
This worldview rejects Christianity and other religions that
are male biased. They worship earth gods/goddesses,
especially the ultimate goddess, Sophia or Gaia, rather than
the Christian God seen as a “Sky” God. Some persons see
environmental problems as originating who are
environmentalists see are Wicca or Neopagan with a focus

39. End of Presentation

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