Companions,
This past weekend I got to see Christopher Nolan's new film, Inception. I've been a Nolan fan for several years, not only because of his fascinating way of story-telling, but particularly because of his incorporation of both "big questions" and neuroscience into his films.
One of the very big questions in Inception is the nature of reality.
No spoilers here!
But there is a line that Mal, wife of the main character (Cobb) says to her husband at one point that I think bears some discussion here.
I don't have the quote exactly. But the gist of it is something like this:
"You know there is more than one reality."
Throughout the film, that point is made eminently clear. The deal is that not all "realities" are equally stable, but as long as they seem plausible, those who are in them are convinced the experience they are having is completely real.
Call it postmodernism, pluralism, or the product of far more constant exposure to all of the varying views, perspectives and realities of the global community-- including the idea that there is a global community-- and you see that Mal's statement can also be understood as a frame for the context in which we are sent with God's mission announced by and in Jesus.
A frame-- not the only one.
But a frame that is becoming increasingly relevant on several levels of reality in this world.
Though not all.
And it's a frame that causes significant degradation of any frames claiming there is only one reality on such levels.
Or at least, in such multi-realitied levels, one might expect to find the collapse and ruins of "dreams" that there is just one reality.
But again, that multi-reality obtains on some levels does not mean it obtains on all. There are some where it does not-- or does not do so sufficiently yet to be noticed or even noticeable.
So we find ourselves in a challenging situation-- living not simply in "the world" but in multiple worlds-- some of them acknowledging only one reality, and others aware of multiple realities-- and still called to be not "of the world" or "of the worlds."
It's not a new situation for Christians. The apocalyticism in our earliest roots had already embraced a multi-worlds and multi-reality paradigm. A challenge is that that very apocalypticism has also been deeply buried, rejected, even forbidden-- and in some ways forbidden most of all in the modern world.
We have resources-- biblically and historically-- for such a time as this. But since most of us (if not all of us) have grown up in modernism, a modernism that at once declares there is only one reality and enacts that belief in such a thoroughgoing way that it easily enacts a relativistic nihilism, we may not know how to access or use them-- and may have considerable reticence about doing so now.
How do you seek to live and engage God's mission in the multi-realities or singular reality where you find yourself?
Peace in Christ,
Taylor Burton-Edwards
4 comments:
An excellent film in the postmodern context. Nolan is a master storyteller who is enable to engage 5 different levels of reality at the same time.
I thought an interesting discussion of the film is the idea of a totem that Nolan introduces. Others have even put forth that Nolan provides the watchers of the film with a "totem" so that they can stay grounded in reality. It might be a minor spoiler but this concept of totem (something that keeps us grounded in reality as we explore other realities) cannot be overlooked by the church today. What is our totem? For Methodists: would we introduce the quadrilateral as our totem?
I don't know but I think we could a big discussion on totems.
My honest response to the quadrilateral as totem?
It lacks the necessary heft and specificity to function in that way.
The General Rules would be a far more specific, weightier one.
Not the "Three Simple Rules" version, either-- the genuine articles.
Peace in Christ,
Taylor Burton-Edwards
The General Rules provide a weighty "practical totem", but I was wondering about a weighty "theological totem" If in the post modern context we are exploring new realities of a God conversation, what totem can keep us grounded in theological reality or are we in danger of losing reality all together and every one making their own reality? Apostle's Creed?
Nicene Creed? I believe this was Cobb's dilemma: He lost his grounding in functional shared reality.
I don't know...maybe there isn't a functional shared reality anymore and we have all resorted to individual totems...to tell ourselves what is theologically real for us.
To me the film asks a lot more questions than it answers and that always makes for a great and repeated conversation. Thanks for the stimulating posts.
Pax
Stephen,
If I am asking the question about Methodists-- what lets us know we're actually still maintaining the doctrine, spirit and discipline with which we started-- I'd still say it's the General Rules.
If we're talking more broadly as Christians-- the sacraments: baptism (think about how often being immersed in water is equated with waking up in the movie!) and Eucharist (made known to us in the breaking of the bread).
Peace in Christ,
Taylor
Post a Comment