By Paul Lundberg
With regard to work, changes in the American and global economy have undermined stable, lifelong careers and replaced them with careers of lower security, more frequent job changes and an ongoing need for new training and education. It’s no longer a straight upward path: getting your foot in the door, working hard for your first promotion, and then moving into management or trading up for another position in the same field. Young adults know that a variety of skills, ever-expanding social and professional networks, maximal flexibility and constant retooling are necessary in approaching any career today. In other words, the cowboys’ rifles just won’t do the trick anymore; you need that high-tech, multipurpose gizmo that the mysterious stranger has locked around his wrist.
Getting back to the movie [Cowboys and Aliens], this gadget around the main character’s wrist does suggest a couple of possible themes for theological reflection. If this character has had some sort of contact with another world, could we not use this as an opportunity for Christological and anthropological reflection? Is there a way to use this character to reflect on the two natures of Christ or the nature of human beings as made in the image of God? Other themes within the movie include power, fear and freedom; each of these could be developed in a way that contrasts a worldly and a spiritual perspective. For instance, one could reflect on the difference between technological power and the power of God as seen in the saints.
In dealing with these themes, I have found it beneficial to harness as much as possible the power of images, which author Leonard Sweet has called the language of the twenty-first century. With the newcomer’s high-tech gadget, one might juxtapose at least two iconographic selections: the shackles frequently depicted in the darkness at the base of the icon of the resurrection and the pierced hand of the crucified Lord. Each of these images could facilitate discussion on the aforementioned themes.
Finally, it is worth saying that, as much as we can use pop culture positively, we should not neglect to critique it negatively when necessary. We are called to be saints, not rugged, individualist cowboys; neither our own nor our collective human efforts can save us from the Enemy, death and sin (or the thoughts from which sin comes). Jesus Christ alone saves.
We who are seeking so earnestly after independence cannot be reminded enough of this truth. Nor can we be reminded often enough that success in career or personal finance is not the highest goal in life. As comfortable as we can become in this world, we could benefit from remembering the description of the early Christians in the Letter of Diognetus:
“Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs. They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life … Yet, although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike, as each man’s lot has been cast, and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth. They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land … It is true that they are ‘in the flesh,’ but they do not live ‘according to the flesh.’ They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.”
As we go about life here on Earth, in a time of ever-faster change and a proliferation of cultural mashups, we should remember that for us there is only one story that really matters: the story of Christ.
Paul Lundberg taught high school after earning degrees at Wake Forest and UNC-Chapel Hill. Upon graduating from Holy Cross with an MDiv in 2008, he served as a pastoral assistant at the parish of Holy Transfiguration in Marietta, GA. In 2010, he joined the Office of Vocation & Ministry at Hellenic College as Assistant Director.
Praxis, Spring 2011, Vol. 10, Issue 3: Pop Culture
