On The Square

FTs

In recent years some of the most distinguished of Protestant theologians have entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. There are, among others, Gary Anderson of Notre Dame, Douglas Farrow of McGill, and R.R. Reno of Creighton. They were Anglican. From Lutheranism: Robert Louis Wilken of the University of Virginia, Bruce Marshall of Southern Methodist, and Leonard Klein, who is currently preparing for ordination to the priesthood.

There is a long history of converts enriching the theological life of the Catholic Church. One has only to think, for instance, of John Henry Newman, Louis Bouyer, and Avery Cardinal Dulles. They and others entered into communion before the ecumenical turn of the Second Vatican Council. The future of “mutualities of admonition” takes on different connotations in an ecumenical era. All of the more recent converts mentioned are, in various ways, ecumenically engaged, as was Bouyer and as is Dulles. It is a mark of ecumenical maturity and trust that those non-Catholics who are engaged with them know that the agenda does not include their following the “trajectory” that led Hütter and others into full communion. On the other hand, neither does it exclude it. Such are the tensions inherent in acting upon Our Lord’s prayer that 'they may all be one.'

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In two months the big-budget movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will be released. The Disney people are putting on a full-court press with evangelical and Catholic leaders. It is reminiscent of the promotion of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Of course, Gibson was responding to massive and vicious attacks on his film, beginning many months before its release. I gather from a couple of people who have attended a screening of the Narnia film that it follows Lewis’ story very faithfully with no watering down of the Christian themes. If so, I see no reason to carp about Disney making big bucks out of it. It could be a further encouragement for Hollywood to turn away from productions of deadly dull decadence, or at least to recognize that there is money to be made also in films affirming religion and virtue. There are few studios that operate on the basis of altruism or zeal for the gospel. If Disney gets richer, God’s people are edified, and some pagans are converted, that’s not a bad outcome. As Michael Novak might say, such is the genius of capitalism.