COMMENTARY: Theology Plays Out on Big (and Little) Screens

c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) With Homer Simpson hitting the big screen, creator Matt Groening isn’t worried about the competition because “minute per minute,” he muses, “we probably have more jokes in our movie than `Harry Potter’ or `Live Free or Die Hard.’ ” According to a new genre of culture-watchers, their proximity on […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) With Homer Simpson hitting the big screen, creator Matt Groening isn’t worried about the competition because “minute per minute,” he muses, “we probably have more jokes in our movie than `Harry Potter’ or `Live Free or Die Hard.’ ”

According to a new genre of culture-watchers, their proximity on the summer release schedule isn’t all the Simpsons and Harry Potter share in common; both play a role as theological shapers of today’s filmgoers.


That the Simpsons are fertile ground for spiritual questing may be news to some, but not to journalist Mark Pinsky, author of “The Gospel According to the Simpsons.” He studied more than 300 episodes of “The Simpsons” and discovered that religion was a recurrent theme.

As he noted: “Apart from Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell, America’s best-known evangelical is probably Ned Flanders!”

(Recently, in a quasi pop-religion-versus-ancient-religion publicity stunt in the United Kingdom, a 180-foot painting of Homer Simpson lifting a doughnut heavenward was painted next to the 17th century chalk outline of a pagan fertility symbol.)

In the 1960s I witnessed the divine moving beyond the religious arena and into our movies and music that sudden brimmed with sacred lyrics. The Doobie Brothers belted out “Jesus is Just Alright.” Norman Greenbaum declared, “You gotta have a friend in Jesus/ so you know that when you die/ he’s gonna recommend you to the spirit in the sky.” George Harrison sang his tribute to Krishna, “My Sweet Lord.” Joni Mitchell’s “Ladies of the Canyon” weighed in with all the fury and insight of an Old Testament prophet, denouncing consumerism, fame and apathy about the environment.

Catholic sociologist the Rev. Andrew Greeley was one of the first to officially identify the “pop-theology” trend, noting in his book “God in Popular Culture” that film is “a theological place, the locale in which one may encounter God. Popular culture provides an opportunity to experience God and to tell stories of God, to put the matter more abstractly, to learn about God and to teach about God.”

Just how pervasive is the influence of popular culture in shaping a younger generation’s theology? Former longtime Publishers Weekly religion editor Phyllis Tickle observed in her book, “God Talk in America,” that “more theology is conveyed in, and probably retained from, one hour of popular television, than from all the sermons that are also delivered on any given weekend in America’s synagogues, churches and mosques.”

It seems indisputable that for many Americans the locus of spiritual dialogue has migrated out of the church and into popular culture. Religious leaders are dealing with it in different ways.


Take Harry Potter.

James Dobson and his Focus on the Family have renounced the entire series, saying, “Given the trend toward witchcraft and New Age ideology in the larger culture it’s difficult to ignore the effects such stories (albeit imaginary) might have on young, impressionable minds.”

The Church of England has released a guide using Harry Potter to stimulate discussions with young people about the relevance of Christian faith. Oxford Bishop John Pritchard noted, “Although the fictional world of Harry Potter is very different from our own, Harry and his friends face struggles and dilemmas that are familiar to us all.” Former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey described the series as “great fun and a serious examination of good and evil.”

Pope Benedict XVI criticized the fantasy series, describing it as “deeply distorting Christianity in the soul before it can grow properly.”

Lev Grossman asked in a Time magazine piece why we love a world where dragons are real and religion is the fantasy. He wrote, “If you want to know who dies in `Harry Potter’ the answer is easy: God.”

The very fact that religious leaders and others are weighing in on Harry Potter is evidence of the influential role popular culture plays in theological education. It is an important phenomenon with serious implications for how and where we ask and answer our spiritual questions.

As Mark Pinksy observes, “when young people sit in a sanctuary pew or a lecture hall to hear someone discuss religion, a veil of skepticism often descends over their minds, filtering what follows. Yet when they are at home or in their dorm rooms, on their couches, watching an animated comedy, their minds tend to remain more open.”


Who engages these open minds is the question. The answer has profound implications for both faith and culture.

(Dick Staub is the author of “The Culturally Savvy Christian” and the host of The Kindlings Muse (http://www.thekindlings.com). His blog can be read at http://www.dickstaub.com)

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