Director of Reel Spirituality Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary
Movies may have been my first love, but as I emerged from Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, I was catapulted toward a different kind of obsession.
Robert DeNiro’s haunting portrait of boxing champ Jake LaMotta left me beaten and bruised. I watched as Jake destroyed his relationships with his brother, his wife and his fans. Jake ends up alone, in jail, literally banging his head against the wall, crying, “Why? Why? Why?”
As the film ended, Scorsese offered a curious counterpoint. The credits read, “All I know is this, once I was blind, but now I can see.” I recognized the blindness in Jake and me, but I wondered, “What did it mean to see?” A violent, profane R-rated movie had sparked a spiritual search. Film forged theology.
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Only years later, as a student at Fuller Theological Seminary, did I hear a theological term that approximated my experience of cinema and salvation—“general revelation.” Something was revealed to me through
Raging Bull—a sense of longing, need and desperation. Paul Schrader wrote the screenplay, Martin Scorsese directed the movie and Robert DeNiro gave the performance, but the Holy Spirit convicted me of sin.
From the beginning, since the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, God has offered revelations. God spoke and there was light (
Gen. 1:3). The heavens and the stars declare the glory of God (
Ps. 19). God appears in surprising places, from a pillar of fire (cf.
Ex. 40) to Balaam’s talking donkey (cf.
Num. 22). Lowly prophets arose to offer object lessons on God’s behalf. Ezekiel cooked dinner on a dung pile. Jeremiah strapped himself into a cattle yoke. They proved the theological also could be theatrical.
Churches may condemn movies for serving as a substitute religion or idol worship. Academic film scholars may dismiss movies as products of capitalist ideology, reinforcing cultural hegemony. I resolved to walk down the middle aisle, where most of us wander in the dark.
Revelation 101: Special and GeneralThe same God who spoke through dreams and visions in the Bible still is communicating through our celluloid dreams—the movies. As the Spirit of God raised up unexpected sources of wisdom during biblical times, so the same creative Spirit is inspiring actors, screenwriters and directors today. God not only is speaking through faith-fueled projects like
The Passion of the Christ or
The Chronicles of Narnia. The most important spiritual truths often are embedded within profane settings (cf.
Habakkuk).