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“Mimesis” concerns the character of representation. Aristotle held that there was an analogical relationship whereby words referred to a world distinct from them, and so, he said, “art imitates the works of nature”.1 Film, for example, begins with the raw material of space and time, but then re-presents them in new ways. It follows that, in our writing about the dialogue between philosophy/theology and film, we cannot simply rehearse the literary-oriented specifics of plot and character, but must, rather, examine how persons, places, and things are visually framed – or, perhaps, not framed – within a filmic image.

As for “hermeneutics”, a good definition is the one Paul Ricoeur offers, when he speaks of hermeneutics as “the theory of the rules that preside over an exegesis – that is, over an interpretation of a particular text or group of signs that may be viewed as a text”.2 A key question is whether theological and philosophical insights are there to be discovered in the text, or are they, as it were, “discovered” by the reader. There is a sense, I suggest, in that interpretation must be creative in order to be exact.

1 The clause “art imitates nature” can be found in several passages in the Aristotelian corpus: Phys. 1943 21, 1993 17; De Mundo 396b12; Poetics 14473 14-17, 1448b4-24. All references (except De Mundo) refer to Richard McKeon’ s The Basic Works of Aristotle (New York: Random House, 1966). 2 P. Ricœur, Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation, trans. Denis Savage (New Haven, 1970), p. 8.

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The picture on the cover is taken from Gabriel Axes’s 1987 masterpiece Babettes Gæstebud (“Babette’s Feast”). The first Danish film to win best Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, it has regularly been treated as a narrative of Christianity. What warrants such an interpretation? We can note, for example, that the film is full of references that associate Babette with Christ. Babette, though once a famous chef in Paris, but now “poor among the poor”, plays out what may be called a “passion” by sacrificing herself to redeem her community, through the symbolically apt medium of a communal meal.

The story centres on Babette, eucharistically-minded, but is more principally about two sisters, Martine and Filippa, repressed yet dutiful daughters of a strict pietist priest, who has founded a maintained a strict Lutheran brotherhood, and advocates an asceticism that denies “fleshly pleasures”, in favour of the glories of heaven. To celebrate the anniversary of the Founder, Babette (who unbeknownst to the community has won a lottery in France) prepares a meal – “un vrai diner francais”, she says – for the community in which she sacrifices all she has. Babette’s agape meal (a kind of sacrament) is, indeed, a meal that mysteriously effects the salvation of the community. The guests emerge to a quiet, starlit night, proclaiming blessings, their spirits exalted, reconciled, united, no longer fearful.

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Obvious theological responses suggest themselves. Axel’s film, creating as it does a challenge to Christian theology about its own central meal, is pregnant with the sort of symbolism that brings into focus the Eucharistic quality of the feast, a blessing of the present moment. Twelve sit down for a meal, with red wine at its heart. At this unexpected abundance, the General speaks of the gift of grace, describing it as infinite and unconditional. He says:

Everything we have chosen has been granted to us. And everything we have rejected has also been granted.

This is a sacramental moment, celebrating the abundance of this world, and a conquering of the yearnings for a better world elsewhere. Babette’s Feast sharpens theological engagement with such questions. Theologians, however, cannot simply quarry film for good illustrative material. As I suggested above, this approach is a mistaken one. Certainly, Theology looks for confirmation of its own content, but it also expects to be challenged – what Larry Krietzer calls “reversing the hermeneutical flow”3 – and even radically questioned in the process.

It has been a great pleasure to be involved with the publication of Veritas for the first time. I owe particular thanks to my colleagues in the department

3 L. J. Krietzer, The New Testament in Fiction and Film: On Reversing the Hermeneutical Flow (Cornell University Press, 1993).

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in Theology and Philosophy, and also to the student editorial team who were willing to devote their time to this edition of the journal. Along with Dr Ralph Norman’s essay, “Reason and Reality”, we are pleased to include a contribution by one of our Sixth Form students, Harry Davis (L6R2), on the philosophical legacy of Johann Gottfried von Herder.

Below, you will find three essay competitions addressing fundamental questions related to the dialogue between philosophy/theology and film. There is also my own short piece, “Forty-Seven Aphorisms on Various Theological Themes”. The end result of this edition undoubtedly reflects both the outstanding ability of our students and the enduring value of studying Theology and Philosophy.

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