PAUL TILLICH AND THE POSSIBILITY OF REVELATION THROUGH FILM OXFORD THEOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS Editorial Committee J.BARTON N.J.BIGGAR M.J.EDWARDS P.S.FIDDES G.D.FLOOD D.N.J.MACCULLOCH C.C.ROWLAND OXFORD THEOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS THETHEOLOGICALEPISTEMOLOGYOFAUGUSTINE'SDETRINITATE LuigiGioia(2008) THESONGOFSONGSANDTHEEROSOFGOD AStudyinBiblicalIntertextuality EdméeKingsmill(2009) ROBERTSPAEMANN’SPHILOSOPHYOFTHEHUMANPERSON Nature,Freedom,andtheCritiqueofModernity HolgerZaborowski(2010) OUT-OF-BODYANDNEAR-DEATHEXPERIENCES Brain-StatePhenomenaorGlimpsesofImmortality? MichaelN.Marsh(2010) WHATISALOLLARD? DissentandBeliefinLateMedievalEngland J.PatrickHornbeckII(2010) EVANGELICALFREEWILL PhillipMelanchthon’sDoctrinalJourneyontheOriginsofFreeWill GregoryGraybill(2010) ISAIAHAFTEREXILE TheAuthorofThirdIsaiahasReaderandRedactoroftheBook JacobStromberg(2010) CONTRASTINGIMAGESOFTHEBOOKOFREVELATION INLATEMEDIEVALANDEARLYMODERNART ACaseStudyinVisualExegesis NatashaF.H.O’Hear(2010) KIERKEGAARD’SCRITIQUEOFCHRISTIANNATIONALISM StephenBackhouse(2011) GENDERISSUESINANCIENTANDREFORMATION TRANSLATIONSOFGENESIS1–4 HelenKraus(2011) BLAKE’SJERUSALEMASVISIONARYTHEATRE EnteringtheDivineBody SuzanneSklar(2011) Paul Tillich and the Possibility of Revelation through Film A Theoretical Account Grounded by Empirical Research into the Experiences of Filmgoers JONATHAN BRANT 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordOX26DP OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #JonathanBrant2012 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2012 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData LibraryofCongressControlNumber: 2011944150 TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby MPGBooksGroup,BodminandKing’sLynn ISBN 978–0–19–963934–2 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Dedicated to Tricia and Isaac, naturally Acknowledgements I would like to thank my D.Phil. supervisor, Professor George Pattison, for unstintingsupportthroughoutmytimeatOxfordUniversity.Thereareother academics whose input has been vital: Dr Pete Ward of King’s College, London was influential in the genesis of the research, discussed many of its ideas and read a draft of the manuscript; also Dr Gabriella Elgenius, Dr Heather Hamill, and the support staff at the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford aided me in the preparation and the enactment of the empirical research that forms part of this book. Fellow students have also contributed more than they might imagine and, more importantly, have enlivenedthejourney.ProfessorPaulFiddesandDrJolyonMitchellexamined the thesis that forms the basis of this monograph. In their engagement with my work they managed to balance generous-spirited reading with searching critical evaluation. Their comments and suggestions have, I hope, been incorporatedintoandimprovedthispublishedversion. Theempiricalresearchwould,ofcourse,havebeenimpossiblewithoutthe cooperation of the Latin American filmgoers who gave of their time and shared their lives and their love offilm with me. The staff ofthe Cinemateca Uruguaya provided me with credentials, an excellent location toconduct the interviewsandaccesstotheirremarkablearchivesandlibraries. Fortheprovisionoffinancialresources,IwouldliketothanktheArtsand HumanitiesResearchCouncilforthedoctoralresearchawardthatmadestudy with the Theology Faculty of the University of Oxford a possibility. Trinity College, Oxford also provided me with a Graduate Research Award which helpedwiththeexpensesofthetworesearchtrips. Mostimportantly,Iwouldliketothankmyfamily—especiallymywife,my son,andmyparents—fortheirunwaveringloveandgenerosity,expressedin somanydifferentways. Contents ListofTables ix ListofAbbreviations x PartI ImaginingaResearchProject 1 Cabramarcadoparamorrer 1 Introduction 5 I.1 Thepurposeandgenesisoftheproject 5 I.2 Anoverviewofthebook 9 1. ReligionandFilm 15 1.1 Description:Religionandfilmthroughthetwentiethcentury 15 1.2 Evaluation:From‘filmquafilm’to‘multipleperspectives’ 21 1.3 Imagination:Howtoresearchthepossibilityofrevelation throughfilm 44 PartII TheTheologyofPaulTillich 47 WalktheLine 47 2. A TheologyofRevelationthroughCulture 49 2.1 ReasonsfortheturntoPaulTillich 49 2.2 Atheoreticalaccountofthepossibilityofrevelation throughculture 50 3. FromHighCulturetoPopularCultureandFilm 82 3.1 PaulTillich:Theologianofpopularculture? 83 3.2 PaulTillich:Theologianoffilm? 95 PartIII TheEmpiricalResearch 113 Blow-Up 113 4. ResearchingFilmgoers’Experiences 117 4.1 Selectingaresearchparadigmanddevelopingamethodology 118 4.2 Themethodsandinstrumentsofthequalitativeresearch 135 5. ContextualizingtheResearchData 156 5.1 OnexperiencesresemblingTillich’stheoreticalaccount 156 5.2 Onthesettingfortheresearchproject:Montevideo,Uruguay 157 5.3 OnengagementwithLatinAmericancinema 159 5.4 OntheimportanceoftheCinematecafilmclub 167 viii Contents 5.5 Onrespondents’useofreligiouslanguage 171 5.6 Ontherespondentsandthefilms:Focusondictatorship 179 6. GroundingtheTheoreticalAccount 182 6.1 Theory-drivenanalysis:Onthesixaspectsoftherevelatory experience 183 6.2 Data-drivenanalysis:Fromindividualmomentto communallife-practice 205 PartIV Illuminations 215 Nuevereinas 215 7. TheTheoryinLightoftheEmpiricalResearch 219 7.1 Thefilm-viewerencounterinlightoftheempiricalresearch 221 7.2 The‘SpiritualCommunity’inlightoftheempiricalresearch 223 7.3 Theeventofrevelationinlightoftheempiricalresearch 227 7.4 Thecontentofrevelationinlightoftheempiricalresearch 230 Appendices 236 IndexofFilmsReferenced 248 Bibliography 250 Index 265 List of Tables Table5.1. Filmsbysubjectmatter 168 Table5.2. Filmcharacteristicbyitsimportance 171 Table5.3. Experiencebylocation,companions,andtime 171 Table6.1. Theinterviewrespondentsselectedforcongruity 182 Table6.2. Theinterviewrespondentsselectedfordifference 183