Why We Watch Movies

This post is a draft of a presentation to be given on opening night at the Long Island Movie Night event.

Why, as Reformed Christians, do we watch movies? What justification, if any, can we give for spending a couple of hours at a time sitting passively in front of a screen? Beyond that, how can we rationalize inundating ourselves with the words, images, and actions of films which so often militate against our faith and the commandments of our God?

Film has been called "the art form of the twentieth (and, by extension, of the early twenty-first) century." Motion pictures have taken over the place formerly held by other public art forms in previous centuries. Whereas once painting, drama, literature, and music were important forms of public art, forms that had a nearly universal appeal and a massive popular and communal significance, we find that, to a large extent, film is left to us now as the one incarnation of art which we all enjoy together.

And that is not neccesarily a bad thing. Film has a remarkable capacity to incorporate the salient features of other art forms. Film unifies in its single format components of drama, literature, music, visual arts, and so on, and provides them with a nearly limitless platform for expression.

So far I have explained why Joe Pagan might justifiably be interested in watching movies. But what about our case as Christians?

Consider Augustine's comment on Exodus 12, where the Israelites are recorded as taking the riches of Egypt with them when they left:

“Whatever has been rightly said by the heathen, we must appropriate to

our uses.... For, as the Egyptians had...vessels and ornaments of gold and

silver, and garments, ...in the same way all branches of heathen learning ...

contain also...instruction which is...adapted to the use of truth, and

some most excellent precepts of morality; and some truths in regard even

to the worship of the one God are found among them. Now these are, so to

speak, their gold and silver, which they did not create themselves, but dug

out of the mines of God’s providence ... . These, therefore, the Christian ...

ought to take away from them, and to devote to their proper use in preaching

the gospel. Their garments, also--that is, human institutions such as are

adapted to that intercourse with men which is indispensable in this life--

we must take and turn to a Christian use.”

On Christian Doctrine, Book II, Ch. 40

This concept, known as "plundering the Egyptians," is related to the Creation Mandate in which God commanded Man to subdue the earth and rule over it in obedience to Him. It also ties in to the Great Commission, where Christ ordered his servants to disciple the nations. This is part of what we ask for when we pray, "Thy Kingdom come." We see this approach to pagan culture in Paul's actions on Mars Hill; we catch a glimpse of it in John's Apocalyptic vision of the "wealth of the nations" being brought into the New Jerusalem.

As Christians we are to privileged to discerningly appreciate the legitimate cultural productions of the world's societies, and to seek to appropriate what is good in them for the expansion of the Kingdom of God. By examining such productions in the light of God's revelation, we separate the wheat from the chaff, praising what is excellent and condemning what is wicked. For, as Augustine, Calvin, and Kuyper have taught us, whatever is excellent among the heathen is the work of the Spirit of God.