Religion in Art

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I just watched Return to Me last night. The thing that struck me about it is that it treats religion as an important part of normal life. The people in this film are not strange, hypocrites, power-hungry, or repressed erotomaniacs. They are normal characters, for whom religion is a natural, normal part of their character. Bonnie Hunt, writer and director, obviously has a firm grasp on Roman Catholicism. One of seven children, one cannot but think that she is perhaps cradle Catholic herself. The religious theme in Return to Me is always natural and never overbearing, simply an extension of the characters and the story interacting.

This stands in stark contrast to evangelistic failures such as The Omega Code. The creators of this genre of film view art as propaganda: a vehicle for convincing unbelievers of the truth of Christianity. Poorly conceived characters bumble against one another in a badly-veiled metamorphosis of a Bible-story. To my knowledge, such efforts receive acclaim only from like-minded believers who lack the educated taste to realize how ugly the film truly is.

When religion creeps into the characters’ lines (and it seems to creep into a lot of them), they suddenly become mouth-spigots for God, even when they’re the villain. The role of religion in such films is always subjected to the end of proselytizing the audience. Ironically, the audience is always made up of those who need no such proselytizing and their friends, who have been forced to undergo viewing the film as some sort of hideous torture from the Spanish Inquisition. Often, they are unsuspecting. (After all, no one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition.)

Excellent reading on the topic of Christianity in the arts:

• Mystery and Manners O’Connor, Flannery. A series of prose essays on the creative disciplines and their interaction with an incarnational Christianity.
• Sham Pearls for Real Swine Schaeffer, Frank. Mr. Schaeffer has a real axe to grind against mediocre work in the arts by Christians. His earlier work includes a book entitled, Addicted to Mediocrity, the cover of which featured a house-painter with an Ichthus fish sewn into his back pocket roller-painting over the Sistine Chapel. He is quite angry, but with good reason.
• The Christian, the Arts, and Truth. Gabelein, Frank. This book is unfortunately out of print. I was fortunate enough to get a copy on the very last run that was printed. It is quite old and has been reprinted many times, so perhaps it may see printing again.

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