Matrix
Rowland Croucher
--
Shalom!
Rowland Croucher
http://www.pastornet.net.au/jmm/index.htm
(9900+ articles)
~~
Clergy/Leaders' Mail-list No. 3-107 (General Information)
GOD-TALK AND 'THE MATRIX'
by Terry Mattingly
The words of the scripture are clear: everything changes when
someone is born again.
"Before his first or physical birth man was in the world of the
matrix. He had no knowledge of this world; his eyes could not see;
his ears could not hear. When he was born from the world of the
matrix, he beheld another world," wrote Abdul Baha, son of the
Bahai prophet Baha'ullah, nearly a century ago. Truth is, "the
majority of people are captives in the matrix of nature, submerged
in the sea of materiality."
When freed they gain a "transcendent power" and ascend to a higher
kingdom.
Perhaps even to Zion.
Wait a minute. Does this mean that millions of moviegoers lining up
at 8,400-plus theaters to see "The Matrix Reloaded" will witness
the Bahai version of a Billy Graham movie? Or is this trilogy a
door into a kung fu vigilante Buddhism?
Or is it some kind of neo-Christian parable?
The World Wide Web is jammed with sites offering precisely that
spin. Isn't Keanu Reeves playing a super-hacker called Neo, a
messiah whose coming was foreseen by the prophets, a Christ figure
that is reborn, baptized, murdered and resurrected? Isn't his real
name Thomas Anderson (Greek "andras" for man, thus "son of man")?
Doesn't a character named Trinity save him?
Acolytes have compiled pages of similar references. Isn't Neo's
teacher Morpheus a John the Baptist figure? Why is their ship
called the Nebuchadnezzar? And it's a "Mark III, no. 11." Perhaps
that is Mark 3:11, which says of Jesus: "Whenever the unclean
spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, 'You are
the Son of God!' "
There will be plenty of fresh clues in "The Matrix Reloaded" and
the upcoming "The Matrix Revolutions." When it comes to spiritual
goodies, this franchise that critics call the "R-rated Star Wars"
has something to intrigue or infuriate everyone -- from Hollywood
to the Bible belt.
No one questions the impact of "The Matrix," which grossed $170
million in the United States, $460 million worldwide and influenced
countless movies, computer games, music videos and commercials. But
the devotion of its true believers is revealed in another
statistic. It was the first DVD to sell more than 1 million copies.
Meanwhile, Andy and Larry Wachowski have religiously avoided doing
interviews that might dilute the mystery surrounding their movie.
But a fan in a Warner Home Video online chat session did mange to
ask: "Your movie has many and varied connections to myths and
philosophies, Judeo-Christian, Egyptian, Arthurian and Platonic,
just to name those I've noticed. How much of that was intentional?"
To which the brothers replied: "All of it." While calling their
beliefs "nondenominational," they did confirm that Buddhism plays a
major role in "The Matrix." When asked if their work was shaped by
the ancient Christian heresy called Gnosticism, they cryptically
replied: "Do you consider that to be a good thing?"
While the first film draws images and details from many conflicting
traditions, its worldview is deeply rooted in Eastern religions,
especially Buddhism and Gnosticism, according to Frances Flannery-
Dailey of Hendrix College and Rachel Wagner of the University of
Iowa. Clearly, the big idea is that humanity's main problem is that
it is "sleeping in ignorance in a dreamworld" and the solution is
"waking to knowledge and enlightenment."
Writing in the Journal of Religion and Film, they note that the
Gnostic messiah brings salvation through a secret truth that lets
believers wake up and escape the shabby reality that surrounds
them. Through training in the discipline of "stillness," this
savior learns that what appears to be the real world is an illusion
he can manipulate with his will. It's a gospel of esoteric
knowledge, not repentance and grace.
But Wagner and Flannery-Daily ask: Where are the Gnostic gods in
"The Matrix"?
"Divinity may ... play a role in Neo's past incarnation and his
coming again as the One. If, however, there is some implied
divinity in the film, in remains transcendent, like the divinity of
the ineffable, invisible supreme god of Gnosticism, except where it
is immanent in the form of the divine spark in humans."
God-talk after "The Matrix"
---------------------------
Predicting the future is dangerous, especially when a world-be
prophet puts her thoughts in writing.
But that's what author Phyllis Tickle did two decades ago when she
wrote: "Books are about to become the portable pastors of America."
That turned out to be true. Now, in light of "The Matrix," she is
updating that prophecy about how Americans talk about faith.
It helps to flashback to a statistical earthquake that rattled the
book business.
In 1992 the company that dominates sales to libraries saw a
stunning 92 percent rise in its religious trade. Then in 1994
religious sales by the giant Ingram Book Group soared 246 percent.
In a few years this niche grew 500 percent, said Tickle, who has
covered this trend for Publishers Weekly and in several of her two-
dozen books.
The growth "was malignant," she said. "Bookstore owners kept
telling me people would vanish into that back corner where the
religious shelves were and stay for hours. When they did that, you
just knew they should have been going to see their pastors. But
they weren't doing that."
These seekers didn't buy into doctrines and denominations. They
didn't want "theology." They wanted new ideas, images and spiritual
stories. They wanted what Tickle began calling "God-talk" and
millions started finding it with the help of cappuccino and Oprah.
And in 1999 everything changed again.
"When 'The Matrix' came out, it became the best treatise on God-
talk that has ever been made," said Tickle. "It could not have been
done with a book. It could not have been done with words. ... The
primacy of place in creative, cutting-edge God-talk has shifted
from non-fiction in the 1980s to fiction in the 1990s and now it is
shifting again to the world of the visual, especially to the kinds
of myths and stories we see in movies such as 'The Matrix.' We're
talking about the manipulation of theological fantasies and this is
a natural fit for visual media."
"Theology," she said, is found in the world of doctrine, history,
academic credentials and ecclesiastical authority. But "God-talk"
thrives far from most pulpits. Its standards are flexible,
evolving, user-defined and rooted in small communities. This is a
true "democratization of theology," she said, and can been seen as
an extension of Protestantism's division into thousands and
thousands of independent denominations, movements and churches.
But God-talk leaders are more likely to work in popular media than
in religious institutions. As creators of "The Matrix" trilogy,
Andy and Larry Wachowski are touching millions of lives. The first
film grossed $460 million worldwide and shaped countless movies,
computer games, music videos and commercials. Now, "The Matrix
Reloaded" -- on a record 8,517 screens -- topped $130 million at
the box office in its first four days. "The Matrix Revolutions"
hits in November.
Writing in the Journal of Religion and Film, James L. Ford of Wake
Forest University argues that these films offer a powerful fusion
of themes from Buddhism, clashing brands of Christianity, Greek
mythology, cyber-culture and legions of other sources.
"It is impossible to know what narratives will become the
foundation myths of our culture," noted Ford, in his "Buddhism,
Christianity and The Matrix" essay. "But epic films like The Matrix
are the modern-day equivalent of The Iliad-Odyssey ... or various
biblical myths. Indeed, one might well argue that popular films
like 'The Matrix' and 'Star Wars' carry more influence among young
adults than the traditional religious myths of our culture."
Tickle can trace this trend for decades, from the generic God of
Alcoholics Anonymous to the nearly generic God of "Touched By An
Angel," from the rise of the self-help publishing industry to waves
of immigration that brought the mysteries of Eastern religion to
Hollywood.
Mainstream religious leaders can argue about the ultimate meaning
of all this, she said. But they cannot ignore it.
"The Matrix" has "posited a new theological framework," she said.
"Now we have to find out the details. What is the primal cause for
this world? Where is God? Who is God? Does what is going on in
these films support or oppose a basic Judeo-Christian approach to
morality? We don't know the answers to these questions yet"
---------------
Terry Mattingly (www.tmatt.net) teaches at Palm Beach Atlantic
University and is senior fellow for journalism at the Council for
Christian Colleges & Universities. He writes a weekly column for
the Scripps Howard News Service.
____________________________
Clergy/Leaders' Mailing List (Moderated)
This mailing list is open to all Christians via Internet e-mail.
Submissions welcome: <cle...@pastornet.net.au>
(in DOS ASCII Text format please if 'attached' or 'imported')
To subscribe, e-mail to: clergy-...@pastornet.net.au
with SUBJECT reading SUBSCRIBE
To unsubscribe, e-mail to: clergy-...@pastornet.net.au
with SUBJECT reading UNSUBSCRIBE
Copyright: Postings may be re-sent ONLY with all copyright
notifications intact.