I have a piece at the Gospel Coalition this morning that is part review and part analysis of the film Interstellar.
An excerpt:
If Interstellar were a religious text, the dogma it encodes could be called something like “scientific romanticism.” This belief system would hold that science will solve all of our problems one day, even the ones that by definition resist empirical observation and thus exist outside the purview of science (see Sagan’s Contact for another dogmatic specimen). Scientific romanticism works well as a narratival contrivance, but when employed to spice up the lives atheists who otherwise think that they have a clearer-headed view of the universe than those troglodytic believers, it can expose the scarcity of meaning available to those who eschew belief in God.
Read the rest here.
I do not appreciate the negativity of this article. Case in point: interstellar is not a religious text and thus we should not interpret it as such. Didn't we learn that in Hermeneutics 101. This movie is science fiction, or science fable, and so let's approach it as we would the Odyssey or something. Enough with SO many dismissive musings about utilitarian love and scientific romanticism. Every story can present messages stemming from bad ideology but we don't have to let those dominate our interpretation and prevent us from embracing the beauty of the narrative. Yes, Nolan is probably not a reformed Christian and yet rather than trying to get into his mind, let's be more post modern about it, like I think he actually intends. That is, let's interpret it from a Christian perspective, "plundering the Egyptians" or something like that. Let's think of connections and insights it can have with theology-- including but limited to how we explain/embrace causal relationships within and outside of the time space continuum as well as fundamental characteristics of humans such as our desire for life and what true life is. I could go on and on and I may after I watch it a second time. But all in all, I'm very disappointed with this GC post. Science is our friend, Christians NEED to embrace it as such rather than pit itself against it simply because many people interpret scientific facts in non-christian ways. And of course, as the title suggests, every good thing could be romanticized, even the hermeneutical method of assuming all things in life are to be interpreted like religious texts.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your commment, Anon. I meant no offense, and I am clearly in favor of charitable readings of cultural texts (I think I did that in my piece on Breaking Bad over at "On Faith" a while back).
ReplyDeleteI think it is also valuable to discuss the belief systems that inform a film (all texts have them, the Odyssey too, which has been explored thoroughly), particularly films that foreground belief systems like "Interstellar" does. This post just deals with that issue. If it wasn't explicit enough in the post, I liked the movie, I recommend it, but it left me wanting more in regards to the issues that it raises. I have no problem with those who just want to view it as a wild cinematic ride. It was that, but I think the film is asking deeper questions, and it is perfectly appropriate to deal with those.