Viewpoint The Catholic imagination of
Dogma
By ANDREW M. GREELEY
Canadian pop singer Alanis
Morissette as God? A God who does cartwheels? How blasphemous can a film
be?
Is the film Dogma blasphemous? If it is, the blasphemy
is Roman Catholic. Only someone who has attended Catholic schools and goes to
Mass every week, as does director Kevin Smith, could possibly have dreamed up
this zany, daffy, sometimes crude and tasteless, over-the-top movie.
Is it really blasphemous, however? Blasphemy involves the
intention to do harm to God or religion or faith or the church. Clearly there
is no such intent in Dogma. It assumes God is a comedian (or,
perhaps, a comedienne). Otherwise, it says, why the platypus?
Is God offended by the movie?
Unlike those religious fanatics who are trying to ban the film, I
claim no special access to the mind of the deity. I suspect, however, that God
understands that the humor of the film is a prelude to making some very
serious, and funny, theological points.
I am not endorsing Dogma. Some people will find it
profoundly offensive. But then they dont have to see it.
The crowd of young people who filled the theater the night I saw
the film was not offended. They laughed, they cheered, they applauded God at
the end. God presumably welcomes applause whenever its offered.
One young woman said to her date as they left the theater,
Do you think God is really like that?
He thought about it and replied, I sure hope so. I see
no reason why anyone should want to deny such young people the opportunity to
see it.
The theological points click off at the end as if Kevin Smith was
fully aware of what he was doing, though he may be so possessed by the Catholic
imagination that he doesnt have to reflect consciously on what he is
telling the audience about God.
The deity is incomprehensible, strange, hidden, absent, mysterious
and also loving; indeed, God is love. Incidentally, God is playful,
too.
The notion that God is often absent, or seems to be absent, will
offend fundamentalists (of whatever denomination, including Catholic) who
picture God as whispering in their ears several times every day and telling
them exactly what he wants them to do.
However, since St. Augustine, at least, mature Christians have
known God is a deus absconditus an absconded God. Where God has
absconded to and why is pure mystery.
Obviously God is everywhere and still is present. But God
doesnt seem to us to be around or to be interested in us. God certainly
seemed to have absconded during the wars and massacres of this century. How
could God have been absent during the Holocaust? How could God permit the
needless accidental death of a single child? How could a God who claims to love
all of us as his children possibly require that we all die? What kind of a
parent lets his children die? There are simply no easy answers; indeed, no
answers at all to that question.
God seems to have absconded through much of Dogma only
to appear with a loving flourish at the end. It is the way it is with God, the
film says, and it does us no good to complain. God is, as the characters keep
saying, strange. Wed better believe that.
And Morissette as God?
Isnt God an old white male? Unlike the fundamentalists,
Kevin Smith doubtless understands that all God talk is metaphorical it
tells us what God is like, not what he is. It tells us we are all created in
Gods image and likeness, and each of us reflects something of Gods
beauty and goodness. The Catholic imagination leads us to believe not that God
is like Morissette but that she is like God. She reveals to us something about
God.
And the cartwheels?
Is not Gods wisdom presented in the biblical wisdom
literature as playing and dancing? And did not God have to be playful to design
the world to fit our mathematical theorems? And are quantum theory and chaos
theory not only playful, but almost jokes?
Could not all of these truths have been taught without the
films frequent vulgarity and tastelessness? Doubtless. But the young
people who are Kevin Smiths fans probably would not have come to such a
film. Moreover, even if they do go to church next weekend, they are not likely
to hear sermons that portray Gods strangeness, playfulness and love so
vividly.
Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling
novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion
Research Center. Check out his home page at www.agreeley.com or
contact him via e-mail at agreel@aol.com
National Catholic Reporter, December 17,
1999
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