Aug 12, 2022
In a recent video on the
Pints with Aquinas
channel, Gregory Pine, O.P. voiced
his concern that mass entertainment, particularly music and movies,
is often an obstacle to achieving the heavenly end of contemplation
for which we are made. What is noteworthy is that unlike the
typical Catholic commentary on pop culture, Fr. Pine does not focus
so much on the moral content of music and movies as how their very
form affects us bodily, psychologically and spiritually.
In this discussion inspired by
Fr. Pine’s points, host Thomas Mirus and filmmaker Nathan Douglas
specify some elements of music and film which are obstacles to the
contemplative life, but also suggest how, rather than simply
eschewing music and movies, we can engage with better art in a
deeper way which serves the contemplative end of man.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
6:31 Fr. Pine video
recap
11:08 Risks of treating media as
“junk food” rather than demanding better media
14:44 Cultivating openness to
more artistic films
17:31 Discursive reasoning is
not the highest mode of contemplation
20:26 Music is the most simply
contemplative art form
22:58 The relation of film to
reality
25:13 Advertising and glossiness
in modern cinema
29:38 Problem with putting
Catholic content into Hollywood forms
31:28 A film’s editing rhythm
can hinder contemplation
38:24 Learning intuitively to
tell hackwork from good craft
42:15 Rhythmic excitement
doesn’t equal mediocrity
46:23 Conclusion of film
discussion
48:02 Applying Augustine’s
theory of evil as privation to art
49:34 The necessity of both
lower and higher forms of music
55:46 In what sense should
Catholics “engage with pop culture”?
59:33 Pop music dominated by
computers, focused on lyrics, lack of melody
1:07:53 The personal element in
art
1:12:08 Music, the senses, and
contemplation beyond words
1:18:22 Music’s stimulation of
the body
1:22:45 Using music to indulge
emotions
1:27:09 Can music be
“immoral”?
1:32:06 Mistaking slow for good
in film
1:34:11 Educating the faithful
for artistic depth
1:43:50 Can sense images serve
the spiritual life?
1:49:18 What music communicates
about reality
1:56:20 There’s no formula for
beauty
2:01:08 Simple receptivity to
God’s beauty
2:03:54 Recommended resources
Resources:
Fr. Gregory Pine, “I stopped
listening to music.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVh4rHubNOc
Elizabeth-Paule Labat,
The Song That I Am: On the
Mystery of Music
https://litpress.org/Products/MW040P/The-Song-That-I-Am
Etienne Gilson,
The Arts of the
Beautiful
https://www.amazon.com/Arts-Beautiful-Scholarly-Etienne-Gilson/dp/1564782506
Criteria: The Catholic Film
Podcast
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/category/criteria
CCP #126: How Charlie Parker’s
Music Changed My Life
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/126-how-charlie-parker-changed-my-life
CCP #28: An Introduction to
Maritain’s Poetic Philosophy w/ Samuel Hazo
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-28-introduction-to-maritains-poetic-philosophy-samuel-hazo
Nathan Douglas,
The Vocation of
Cinema https://vocationofcinema.substack.com
Fr. Pine’s lecture on literature referenced by
Nathan https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/literature-as-philosophy-fr-gregory-pine-op
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