Theology, philosophy meet film

Some of us see dead people.

OK, maybe we don’t see them the way Haley Joel Osment’s character does in “The Sixth Sense,” not as the souls of the recently deceased still unable to let go of life.

But we see them in the sense that movies, especially the movies of pop filmmakers such as M. Night Shyamalan, reflect something more than what we see up on the screen. Subtext, the messages that lie behind the most obvious of the dancing images haunt us every bit as much those ghosts hiding under Osment’s character’s bed.

Don’t believe me? Then maybe you need to go and listen to Ralph Winter, producer of such Hollywood blockbusters as the “X-Men” trilogy, Tim Burton’s 2001 remake of “Planet of the Apes” and the two “Fantastic Four” films.

Your chance will come on Wednesday when Winter will give an 8 p.m. lecture titled “The Storytelling Landscape: The Challenges for a Christian in Hollywood” at Whitworth University.

Winter’s talk will be part of a three-day Faith, Film and Philosophy conference that will include talks Thursday and Friday at Gonzaga University.

At 7 p.m. on Thursday, Thomas Hibbs, a professor of ethics and culture at Baylor University, will speak on “Spiritual Quests in the Films of M. Night Shyamalan.” And at 7 p.m. on Friday, Michael Foley, professor of philosophy and theology at Baylor University, will speak on ” ‘Gattaca,’ ‘The Truman Show,’ ‘S1m0ne’: The Platonic Vision of Andrew Niccol.”

Both talks at GU will be in the university’s Jepson School of Business. Winter’s talk at Whitworth will be at Cowles Auditorium. All are free and open to the public.

The three lectures are part of a series that Whitworth history professor Dale Soden and Gonzaga philosophy professor Brian Clayton have organized over the past few years under the overall title of “Physics and The God of Abraham.” The idea, explains Soden, has been to bring in speakers, primarily physicists, to “talk about issues related to science and religion.” Then last year, Soden and Clayton discovered that they had a common interest in pop culture.

“And so we decided,” Soden says, ” ‘Well, why don’t we try to put together a conference on theology, philosophy and film.’ “

Clayton took the lead in providing the series’ academic content, soliciting scholars – such as Hibbs and Foley – from around the country to submit proposals. Soden, meanwhile, concentrated on Winter – a guy whose children attended Whitworth and who, in addition to working locally with Spokane-based North By Northwest Entertainment to produce the film “Hangman’s Curse,” had visited the campus previously.

“He frequently talks about issues related to Hollywood and, at some level, how to identify yourself or how to have an influence over some of the moviemaking that is going on, whether it’s an implicit or explicit Christian perspective,” Soden says. “So that seemed to fit in a larger sense with what we were trying to do.”

Winter has been in Australia producing “Wolverine,” the “X-Men” prequel starring Hugh Jackman that carries a scheduled 2009 release date, and so wasn’t available for interviews.

But Soden was able to offer his own take on Winter’s talk: “He said, ‘I’m interested in this whole issue of storytelling and how that’s translating itself into various genres or various expressions in Hollywood. And what does that look like?’ “

Winter, of course, will talk about his experiences as a Christian working in Hollywood. What makes his lecture particularly intriguing is that, aside from “Hangman’s Curse” – the movie version of Christian author Frank Peretti’s novel – hardly any of the titles pegged to Winter’s resume offer overt Christian messaging.

“I just hope it’s provocative in a way that gets people thinking a little bit out of the box, out of the traditional categories,” Soden says. “And I know that’s what Brian is hoping for with this whole conference, you know, on the one hand find a way to stimulate pretty serious academic and philosophic thinking and on the other hand engage a broader audience.”

“From Hibbs and Foley in particular,” Clayton says, “we have two academics who are interested in the intersection of faith, reason and popular culture – popular film, especially.”

Some of this might be over the average movie fan’s head. But all of it should attract the thinking movie fan. At least that’s what Soden hopes.

“I think the goal would be that people realize that film can be a great vehicle for raising serious issues of human identity and the way in which we experience the world and what are ultimate ends for human beings and what are ethical questions,” he says. “They offer great possibilities for serious thinking about the big questions of life.”

For more information about the Faith, Film and Philosophy Lecture Series, call (509) 777-3275. Or go online at www.gonzagafaithreason.org/physics-and-the-god-of-abraham.asp.