Pascal’s God-shaped hole working its way into literature and film

“An old saying goes, in order to experience Easter you must go through Good Friday first. According to The Dark Knight Rises, the third instalment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, even superheroes aren’t immune to this tenet. The film provides a thorough examination of the themes of sacrifice and resurrection, two of the fundamental principles of the Christian life.”

The previous instalment of the Dark Knight trilogy, The Dark Knight, was the story of Batman as suffering servant. At its climax, Harvey Dent becomes Batman’s Judas as Batman decides to take responsibility for Dent’s crimes so that those sins could be forgiven and the people of Gotham saved. As a result, in The Dark Knight Rises “we meet Bruce Wayne, beaten and battered, hidden, in isolation from the world and all relationships. He has seemingly lost everything, his health, his reputation, and the love of his life. All has been lost for the sake of the people of Gotham.”

The villain of the latest film, Bane, “throws Batman into a prison described as a literal hell on earth where the suffering is not physical, but the hopelessness sprouting in the hearts of its inmates when they look up at the sky, knowing that escape is impossible. From this, our Dark Knight is resurrected, conquering “death” and then later conquering the Enemy, bringing freedom.”

“Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is a retelling of the real Messiah-hero story.” What is the significance of the story of Easter being retold in the garb of Batman?

Firstly, it shows us the continuing resonance of the Easter story. It is a real story; “real stories are ones that reflect true things about life, human nature, and the world we live in.” Secondly, it shows us that “people, whether they realize it or not, long for the gospel. There is something in the story that resonates with us, even if we are resistant to the message on a conscious level. We’re wired for it. Maybe it’s Pascal’s God-shaped hole working its way into literature and film.”

As we celebrate Eastertide together, we can reflect that the real Messiah-hero story continues to impact on the lives and imaginations of many in our world even when transposed into other stories and mediums. This Eastertide, may we come to know the real Messiah-hero deeper ourselves and step into his story of death and resurrection for ourselves.

(This post is based on material from http://www.patheos.com/blogs/schaeffersghost/2012/08/the-dark-knight-resurrects/, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/schaeffersghost/2012/07/dark-knight-rex/, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/schaeffersghost/2012/07/the-rocks-cry-out-finding-the-gospel-in-very-unexpected-places/, http://bustedhalo.com/features/a-light-in-the-dark-knight, http://thatfilmchannel.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/batman-must-die-an-analysis-of-the-dark-knight-trilogy/).

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Brice Randall Bickford - Pictures of Adolf Again (Bill Fay)

Music update

The first single from the album ... “Now” ... shows that Paramore is back in full force. "It just feels like the perfect way to start this new journey we are embarking on not only as a band but as a movement," the band wrote. "To show people that you can lose battles but come back and win full-on wars. You can rise from ashes. You can make something out of even less than nothing. The only thing you have to do is keep moving forward."

"My grappling with spirituality is … I’m not a church going person. Any first year divinity student could debate circles around me with religion. But I’m not talking about religion, I’m talking about spirituality. It’s important to me to try and understand what my perspective is on a higher power, and to understand what role that sort of belief might play in my life. It’s critical to me to think about this stuff – a lot." (M. C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger)

The Relatives’ sound bridges the gap between traditional Gospel, Soul and Psychedelia. In the early 1970’s, they recorded three obscure singles and a previously unreleased session—all of which are compiled on the acclaimed 2009 anthology, Don’t Let Me Fall. The release of the anthology brought The Relatives back together as a band, planting the seeds for their 2013 Yep Roc release, The Electric Word, which was recorded and produced by Jim Eno of Spoon.

Ricky Ross will be releasing a new solo album ‘Trouble Came Looking’ in April and touring Scotland, Wales and England in April – May to support it. Ricky began writing ‘Trouble Came Looking’ as the wheels started to fall off the economy. It’s a modern Celtic folk album about the helplessness we all felt as governments signed off billions to protect the banks and institutions, and then sat back and watched as normal people lost everything.

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Hiss Golden Messenger - I've Got A Name For The Newborn Child.

Improvisation: The ability to create something spiritual

Here are some thoughts I dropped into a funeral address recently for a man who had been a big fan of trad jazz:

St Paul says that God’s children are those who are led through life by God’s Spirit (Romans 8). Jesus said that God’s Spirit is like the wind which “blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going” (John 3. 7 - 8).

Being led by God’s Spirit is a lot like improvising in jazz; you take the tune into yourself and you allow it to take you to places you wouldn’t otherwise go. The essence of jazz is improvisation; you take a traditional tune and do your own thing with it. Sonny Rollins once said, “Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one’s own.”

Another aspect of jazz is that however far out you go when improvising you always return home to the tune at the end. In this passage St Paul says the same thing. Wherever God’s Spirit may lead us in life, we return to God at our end knowing him as Father and sharing the glory and blessings that Jesus himself enjoys.

There is a lot more on improvisation and faith to be found in my co-authored book, The Secret Chord.

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Sonny Rollins - There Is No Greater Love.

Windows on the world (238)

Saffron Walden, 2012

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Eric Whitacre - Lux Aurumque.

Art and Protest: Resistance is fertile

Interesting show at the Daniel Libeskind Space (166-220 Holloway Road, Islington N7 8DB) but you'll have to be quick to catch it, as it is only on from 3rd to 5th April. Evenings from 18:00 to 20:00 when booking is required. No booking required for day-time entry (11.30am - 4.30am).

Art and Protest: Resistance is fertile is a Guerilla Galleries show. Guerilla Galleries seek to engineer, produce and curate an annual series of exclusive shows, exhibitions and events. They provide a platform for emerging artists and talented creatives to showcase and bring their work to new audiences.  

Pouka, a commission4mission member, is contributing work to the show which documents and celebrates the passion, pain, and power of protest through film, photography, fine art and more exponents than you can wave a placard at. Exploring scenes and re-examining snapshots of demonstrations and protest actions from living memory captured, re-told and innovatively delivered by a carefully selected band of artists and creatives in true Guerilla Galleries style.

This three-day show offers candid insight, fresh perspectives and levels of honesty previously unseen in themed shows of this nature. Art and Protest is not about choosing or taking sides, it's about artists telling tales and allowing an audience to decide.

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Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Ohio.

Searching for a post postmodern theology in art and literature

Interesting reflections on art and spirituality from David Jasper can be found here. Among those whose work is considered are Paul Celan, Le Corbusier, Ding Fang, Anselm Kiefer, Stanley Spencer and Bill Viola.

Some of these reflections recur in Jasper's The Sacred Community, part of a trilogy using art, literature and theology to explore themes of desert, body and community. In this book, Jasper draws upon a rich variety of texts and images from literature, art, and religious tradition to explore the liturgical community gathered around - and most fully constituted by - the moment of the Sanctus in the Eucharistic liturgy.

Jasper has written of the series that, with:

"The Sacred Desert ... my research has ranged from some of the earliest of Christian theologians - the Fathers of the desert such as St. Anthony - to writers on the 'deserts' of the modern world, both geographical and interior ... I have worked with art historians and artists including the prominent video artist Bill Viola, whose installations capture both the fertility of the desert for the human spirit, and the desolations of the desert of the modern cityscape. My work now continues this project, exploring the aesthetics of asceticism in the Christian tradition and in art and literature.

One colleague has described my work as a search for a post postmodern theology. I am concerned to ask where we might begin to find and articulate a theology as the Christian churches and their traditions in the West at least fall into decay. The canvas of my thought is therefore broad and eclectic, from medieval mystics like Meister Eckhart to contemporary radical theologians like Thomas J J Altizer. I have learnt much from the great 'desert' texts of the twentieth century in various disciplines - from Karl Barth's Römerbrief and Heidegger's Sein und Zeit to T S Eliot's Wasteland and Arnold Schoenberg's unfinished opera Moses und Aron. My work is therefore deeply interdisciplinary though at the same time thoroughly theological, asking questions in the spaces and interstices between disciplines and ideas. The aim is to write a new kind of (un) systematic theology."

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Arnold Schoenberg - Moses und Aron.

Easter coverage and services

This was our Easter coverage in the Ilford Recorder which provided a good opportunity to share something of what Easter means to Christians.

In common with many other churches, the Holy week and Easter Day activities and services at St John's Seven Kings were particularly well attended this year. 30 children enjoyed Easter crafts, stories and songs provided by our excellent team of helpers. 70 people attended our Good Friday Devotional Service, a considerable increase on the previous year.

On Easter Day our three services were attended by 194 people, again a significant increase on the previous year. Our curate, Santou Beurklian-Carter gave an excellent sermon at our 10.00am service using broken, hollow and full Easter Eggs for her visual aids while our choir led the worship with a well performed anthem and a new communion hymn by Lester Amann.

While posting about media coverage, Peter Banks and I have also been encouraged by the piece about The Secret Chord in the current edition of Notice Board which comes with The Month. Click here to see the article.  

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After The Fire - Starflight.