Collide Magazine

Into the Purple

Scott McClellan - Originally posted Monday, July 28, 2008

As an alumnus of both Fuller Theological Seminary and the University of Southern California’s film school, Craig Detweiler might be the closest thing we have to an expert on the convergence of film and faith. In 2003, Detweiler co-authored the universally lauded A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture, and in 2008 he’s at it again.

First Detweiler created Purple State of Mind, a documentary that reunited Detweiler with his college roommate, John Marks (who co-directed the film with Detweiler). Purple State of Mind features a series of conversations about faith, doubt, and what happened to their relationship when Craig and John lived together during their sophomore year at Davidson College. The film’s description reads, “It was Craig’s first year in the faith, John’s last.” Together John and Craig laugh about their college days, get agitated while defending their perspectives, and discuss life’s big questions as only friends can. Through the dialogue of its two main subjects, Purple State aims to encourage the viewer to pursue a similar dialogue in his or her own life.

In addition to making a film, Detweiler also kept himself busy writing about film. His new book, Into the Dark: Seeing the Sacred in the Top Films of the 21st Century, engages the highest rated 21st-century films according to users of the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Specifically, Into the Dark finds grand themes such as identity, community, and history present in this century’s most important films. Detweiler effortlessly exegetes the films in question, effectively connecting their subject matter to the greatness of God and the brokenness of mankind.

Both Purple State and Into the Dark suggest that Detweiler’s theology demands he seek out, not avoid, individuals and media that do not profess a distinctly Christian worldview. In doing so, Detweiler can serve as a guide of sorts as we connect and communicate with the increasingly “unChristian” world around us. Recently, I talked with him about his new film, new book, and why anyone should care about what films have to say.

COLLIDE: In some ways, the tense conversations between you and John in Purple State make an argument that it’s easier not to have those kinds of conversations.

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Craig Detweiler: That’s a great point. I think the film illustrates why we often shy away from going deeper with our friends. Things can get pretty testy. They can get pretty personal, but I hope the film demonstrates the need to go deeper, to press past our differences, and find a common ground despite very different ways of viewing the world.

COLLIDE: What has been the response to the film so far?

Detweiler: We’ve shown it in about 15 different cities, and it’s been amazing to see the differences based on the composition of the city itself. In San Francisco people were coming after me as a Christian for being so fundamentalist. In Waco, TX, the students at Baylor University brought out everything a pastor ever said to them about how to talk to atheists. It was like drawing from the Evangelism Playbook. Page 15, “This is how you deal with an atheist.”

I think it’s been great for [me and John] to do the tour together, give both sides of the argument, and [give] every member of the audience a chance to connect in some way.

COLLIDE: Tell me a little bit about the brand new book Into the Dark.

Detweiler: I would call it a bit of a quest. I didn’t start with any agenda other than to find and watch the most important films of the 21st century, and to do that I turned to the collective wisdom gathered at the Internet Movie Database. I said, “What do the most passionate film lovers consider the most impacting movies?”

I started there, and while watching the films I tried to look carefully at what questions were being asked, what longings were being expressed, what hopes were being proffered. Out of that I was surprised to discover how both timely and timeless God’s first question to humanity remains. (Genesis 3:9, “But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’) That the things God was asking people in Genesis 3 and 4 continue to drive the most important movies of the 21st century—films like Memento and Eternal Sunshine and Pan’s Labyrinth.

COLLIDE: You’ve been to both seminary and film school, but I’m sure a lot of Christians wonder what film has to do with theology.

Detweiler: What do they have to do with each other? Pastors and filmmakers are both storytellers trying to connect with people at the deepest level. I guess watching films helps me understand the parabolic nature of Jesus—his ability to tell stories as smart bombs that only explode after you walk away from the conversation. And, frankly, I feel that my skills in Bible study and drawing meaning out of Scripture have actually helped me to see film more clearly as well, to really take the substance of film seriously [and] look at film not just as entertainment but as potential for a divine encounter. And that extends way beyond film. I want to develop a sacramental view toward life, so that I can find God throughout everyday life. I’m not interested in the absence of God from culture; I’m actually interested in the presence of God within day-to-day life.

COLLIDE: Along those lines, in the book you mention being encouraged as a young believer to exchange the secular for the sacred. How do you counter that mindset?

Detweiler: I think increasingly the next generation of ministers and worship leaders understand that God is in the “stuff-ness” of life. They’ve experienced God through pop culture. They’ve experienced God through friendships. They’ve experienced God through unexpected and unexplainable moments of beauty. So they’re in search of a theology that matches their experience.

That old sacred/secular split has not been able to withstand our everyday experience, which suggests otherwise—that God is present and speaking to us through television shows like Lost, through authors like Stephen King—The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile—and through Top 40 radio.

COLLIDE: In the book you talk a lot about one of my favorite films, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and you point out that screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is asking a lot of existential questions such as, “Why am I here?” and “How do I get out of this mess?” But what difference does it make to a pastor if some screenwriter is asking these kinds of questions? What can pastors do with that kind of information?

Detweiler: All too often I feel like our sermons are answers to questions that people may not be asking. I would suggest film and TV provide a proper starting point for today’s ministers to understand the terms and the locus of people’s longings. The answers may be timeless, but the questions are extremely timely.

They’re rooted in particular types of ennui that may be connected to technology and that may be connected to postmodern problems of isolation, dislocation, and disintegration. The challenge is to connect the timeless truths of Scripture to the timely expressions of longing found in our art, our music, and our movies.

COLLIDE: That implies a requirement of both biblical knowledge and cultural insight, I guess.

Detweiler: That’s it. The 21st-century pastor must be trained in the art of interpretive leadership because the congregations are overwhelmed by electronic inputs. And it’s not enough to say, “Turn off the TV.” You have to help them interpret all of that information. It could be disinformation. It could be misinformation, or it could be genuine transformation that is taking place through electronic media.

For more information about Purple State of Mind, visit www.purplestateofmind.com. For more information about Into the Dark, visit www.bakeracademic.com.