Familiarity breeds contempt, so they [accurately] say.
To avoid such contempt, we all must re-view what we’ve taken for granted (at least from time to time), and the greater the thing we take for granted–the greater we should “realize that it might be lost.”
While reading G.K. Chesterton’s Everlasting Man, I was reminded of certain films that are helpful in granting a glimpse of a world without the Catholic Church. Taking a cue from Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, this trilogy of movies imagines cultures, societies, and worldviews void of Christianity, and the powerful consequence of such an absence. We all truly take the Church for granted, believer and unbeliever alike, and if someone needs that more clearly demonstrated, then have a movie marathon* with these titles (listed in order of world historical basis):
- Robert Egger’s The Northman (2022): This film depicts the lives of Vikings in a Europe before the Church. Perhaps in no other part of the world do so many yawn at the wonders the Church has done for their continent. Yet, before Europe’s conversion, it was a land of brutal paganism, superstition, violence, and darkness. Those who whine about the Church’s influence upon Europe can have a peek at what paganism was like in the land of the Vikings, and perhaps wake from their naive and idealized dream about pre-Christian society.
- Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto (2006): This film explores the Americas before Columbus, specifically regions of the Amazon. Countless cultural Christians, and atheists who enjoy the fruits of a Christian culture, have idyllic notions of a peaceful and free pre-Columbian America. False anthropologists and historians presume that the New World was a paradise, and that Catholic missionaries and the Church destroyed these perfect peoples. However, as archaeological research reveals, pre-Christian America hosted some indigenous nations, kingdoms, and empires that ran on unrestricted war, cannibalism, and ritual human sacrifice (all things Christianity has fought to end).
- Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018): Lastly, all those naysayers about the Church can see how a post-Christian America looks. How would 2020s USA be without Christ? What would family life and childhood be like if every sign and symptom of Christianity was eliminated from the culture? Well, this film shows a family that finds an alternate religion, an ancient pagan cult that the Church had once suppressed, because even if one is rid of Christianity, people will still want to idolize something: pleasure, power, prestige, pesos. So give Hereditary your time if you think Christianity is no big deal anymore, and then remember that we are quickly approaching a nation without the Church.
*Notice: all these films have intensely disturbing content and are only for mature audiences. What should we expect, since they depict paganism at its logical conclusion?
Holy Smack 