| dc.description.abstract |
As a Christian minister I have
been trained in interpretation of the biblical text. This current interpretive exercise goes
beyond the biblical text, however, to include contemporary artistic expression. The
modern North American cultural setting is often characterized as becoming increasingly
secularized, but when one considers the creative expressions of the time it is clear that
North Americans are still grappling with the large questions of religious meaning.
Movies are the unique artistic contribution of the modern era and along with TV are the
primary theatre for contemporary story telling, self-understanding and quests for
meaning. The movie Forrest Gump has been chosen because it is a movie that, in a
postmodern fashion, plays with reality and draws from Christian theological and Western
mythological themes. Gump is a Christ-like figure who re-interprets the events of the last
few decades of the twentieth century in the United States of America. His memory and
influence of events are blatant subjective interpretations, even to the point of being
grafted into actual newsreel recordings. The movie does not claim to be a Christian
movie, but it clearly draws from the Christian religious tradition of the majority of its
U.S. audience. |
en_US |