This article is a continuation of the last – Cultural Christianity. I included in that post a list of stories and books. These were my offerings of worthy works for my culture which I see has lost its way. For example, the story of Cinderella was included because of its beauty in describing how God has created life to be. Of course, no one believes in simple happily-ever-after stories because that understanding of marriage is not true without a lot of hard work. And that’s before we get to the penchants of our wild culture, ruined by so many contemporary cultural trends. Love of money and financial stress have caused mothers to put their children into child care. While I value the work of good childcare workers and appreciate their dedication, I consider mothers caring for their own children to be optimally in children’s best interests. The result of a culture that does not want either restraint or God has led to sexual and social chaos. Given all of this, I consider Cinderella to be a radical story for our day and age. It is a statement of defiance to the culture. I will explain more fully what I mean.
When I was a young married, too long ago to say, a few years into the marriage my husband decided to study film and television. After study and trying to feel his way forward into a career, he decided upon becaming a documentary filmmaker. He particularly goes for realism. At last, he could contribute to the culture as a Christian and turned his attention to socio-political documentary. While still a film student, he was naturally interested in seeing all manner of film – narrative as well as documentary. We ended up going to arthouse films among others. So we saw a couple of films by Luis Bunuel. Such an experience. Bunuel was an anarchist filmmaker with a penchant for socking his audiences in the face with his surrelist films, all coming out of his Communist outlook. His films did make me think and reflect, though…until they didn’t. To this day my husband and I make Bunuel film jokes. His films were bizarre and horrible. They were a very concentrated form of what the ordinary cinema world would become. It tries to sock us in the face with shock and ugliness – not always, by any means. I have so gotten used to shock value films that I was truly shocked when I saw a Hollywood film that portrayed a romantic relationship in a most beautiful and gentle manner. A beautiful spirit made this thing, an Australian as it turned out.
Too subtle by half, I hasten to explain, is my apology for causing confusion to readers. I thought I gave enough clues. My own journey has meant that I presumed the same of others but I do not think my journey was so common, especially for a Christian. I will go on to explain my reasons for the other books on my list next time.
Our World Our Faith 