4 minute read
Channelling questions
EMMA HINDS talks to Sarah Olowofoyeku about the way in which TV can help us to wrestle with the big themes of life
WITHIN the first three weeks Mirror and You, that are about who we are of lockdown, BBC viewer in a virtual world and how that impacts numbers increased by 23 per us. Next year we’re going to see a lot of cent, and by April, new streaming television about self, community and how service Disney Plus had doubled its we respond to disaster.’ number of global subscribers to Wondering why things are the way 50 million. Films and TV shows kept they are, Emma says, is a very human many people company during a time characteristic. ‘We have experienced it when they weren’t able to see friends with the outbreak of Covid-19. There are or family, go out to eat or do much of big questions about why it has happened, anything. Perhaps some of the material but also what it means for who we are as broadcast was doing more than humans and how we define ourselves. Is entertaining. TV, says playwright Emma our purpose just to go to work and does Hinds, can provoke thoughts about the that change when suddenly we can’t go bigger questions in life. to work?
Emma has recently co-authored, with ‘As somebody who has a faith, I will fellow churchgoer Alex Booer, a guide always say that those questions are a kind to the TV series Good Omens. ‘If you’ve of God-signature in every human being. watched the TV show and you enjoyed They’re placed in us almost like a homing it, no matter what you believe or where device. But a lot of writers focus on them you land politically, our book would be because they are interesting questions, interesting for you,’ she suggests. ‘We and they’re universal. Everybody is have written it with the idea of asking different, but everybody wonders.’ big questions about how we interact Emma believes that TV and other forms with the world and what kind of world of art are the best way to grapple with we are living in.’ those questions.
While the guide, Ineffable Love, is about ‘When we engage with the arts, we one programme in particular, she agrees are opening up a different capacity of our that religious themes can be found in minds,’ she says. ‘We’re more receptive many shows. ‘One of the big themes Everybody is different, to bigger ideas and concepts, and less that comes up a lot in TV but everybody wonders defensive. ‘What we is the idea do as humans of questioning our purpose and where we when we produce art is something that are in the universe. You can see that in is sacred in itself. Our act of creation is shows like Doctor Who. But even in more reflective of God’s own act of creation.’ upbeat shows, such as New Girl, there is Emma studied imaginative theology still the question of “who am I and what is at the University of St Andrews, a field my purpose?” which she says looks at the ways the arts
‘TV often responds to the times,’ she communicate theological ideas and how adds. ‘So in the past couple of years God can work through the arts. we’ve seen a lot of TV shows, like Black She explains how imaginative theology
could play out: ‘If you’ve watched the end of Gladiator, for example, you may feel something that resonates with the idea of a world beyond, seeing loved ones on the other side or having a continuance of a soul into another realm. I believe those moments create a possibility for an encounter with God.
‘God can be found in so many more places than we think. We can find the truth of Jesus through the arts, TV, music and films that we absorb and that we love. And to me, it is a tremendous message of love that the Creator of the universe
Emma Hinds
inhabits our creation and is so interested in us.’
Emma has sensed God speaking to her through the art form of literature. When she had a breakdown in her twenties, she found reading helpful. ‘The Lord of the Rings has always been one of my favourite books, but it was so meaningful and wonderful to reread Tolkien at that time,’ she says. ‘And some of the lines of those books have stayed with me. I felt
that God impressed them on my heart.
‘Those encounters are always comforting and encouraging because you feel that the God of the universe is interested in your emotions. It is that feeling of not being alone. God can speak to us through the words we might hear in books, film or television, and the message is: “I am here, I know what you’re going through, and I care.”’ l
