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Film as Theological Text
Series 1: Justice
This series is designed for six sessions focusing on justice, the first four of which are included in this REACH packet. While each session is designed to stand alone, there is a coupling of films for each of three sub-themes:
- the criminal justice system in the United States: A Time to Kill and Dead Man Walking;
- the enslavement and Holocaust of Africans via the Atlantic: Amistad and Sankofa; and
- the enslavement and Holocaust of Jews in Europe: Schindler's List and Life is Beautiful.
Where possible, it is suggested that the films be shown in the sequence indicated above.
Among the themes intrinsic to any discussion of justice are the following: history, suffering, respect, power, equality, freedom, and reconciliation. These themes are reflected in each of the films in the series.
Reflections on Justice:
Where there is no true justice, there can be no right.
—Augustine of Hippo
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
—Theodore Parker
If you stick a knife into my back nine inches and pull it out three, that is not progress. ...Progress is healing the wound.
—Malcolm X
The holy thing in life is the participation [in the struggle for] these processes that give body and form to niversal justice.
—James Luther Adams
It's difficult to take seriously an apology that is not coupled with atonement.
—Susan Shown Harjo
It is only by confronting evil, violence and injustice that we can ever hope to overcome them ... And while we may never taste the fruit of our labor, we are not required to be successful, we are only required to be faithful.
—Martin Sheen
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Centering Readings:
I am afraid of nearly everything:
of darkness, hunger, war, children mutilated.
But most of all, I am afraid of what I might become:
reconciled to injustice,
resigned to fear and despair,
lulled into a life of apathy.
Unchain my hope,
make me strong.
Stretch me towards the impossible,
that I may work for what ought to be:
the hungry fed,
the enslaved freed,
the suffering comforted,
the peace accomplished.
—Source Unknown |
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Closing Words:
A small prayer...that my ego-needs get smaller and smaller, my fears become more present and admittable and that my love for myself and others expands to fill me with wonder and awe.
—A Thoughtful Woman |
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Summary and Discussion Guide: A Time to Kill |
Information:
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