Brad, I would add to your most recent post that I find value in a film like Kite Runner (haven’t seen it) even if I don’t experience a personal transformation or see redemption depicted. A good many people don’t feel that there is any hope in life and are left in despair. Films like this are trying to find a way to interpret life apart from hope. I don’t find personal satisfaction in art like this, but it is instructive. What’s more, I think that a film ending hopelessly is in many ways better than a film that ends in hope, if that hope is derived exclusively by the redemptive power of human love, self love, etc. Those films just reinforce the message that we don’t need God. They reinforce that we can find all we need right here around us.

Our conversation on “God and art” will continue this Sunday with thoughts on music. Much modern classical and popular music expresses despair. Understandably most Christians recoil from it. I think that our best response to despair and suffering is to call attention to the suffering of the innocent One, and not to expect non-Christian art to see hope.

Posted in Culture |