02 Mar 2026: Meaning-Making in Movie-Watching for Spiritual Growth
Meaning-Making in Movie-Watching for Spiritual Growth
Brian Chan, DMin
Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Worship, Dallas Theological Seminary
Abstract
In a media inundated culture, movies from big screens to home screens to personal screens interpret life and reality for a contemporary generation hungry to understand the world they live in. Movies and the characters espouse worldviews that affect the minds’ of movie-watchers with aesthetic, cinematic impact. Movies can also be effective conduits for shepherding movie-watchers, especially when movies invite an exchange of ideologies. When pastors curate dialogues over movies, a generation searching for meaning in stories will benefit from conversations about understanding the world. This article is about the impact of movies interpreting reality in experientially, sensate ways, and how pastors can shepherd helpful dialogues with movie-watchers to shape minds for spiritual growth in three specific ways
Introduction
People live in a media culture of screens playing movies, TV shows, and streamed episodes. People are immersed in a movie culture. Movies are stories on screen that make meanings about life, society, and the universe. What do moviemakers really want to do by entertaining audiences? They want to tell stories that shape minds, and, in so doing, they shape society. How do moviemakers do this? By making meanings about life and reality that are experienced through stories.
The Bible places an importance on the shaping of the mind for godly transformation and spiritual growth. Shaping the mind requires renewing it (Eph 4:23), which involves not only adding knowledge from biblical teachings but also comprehending worldly philosophies to not conform to them in our thinking (Rom 12:2). What we focus on and our patterns of thoughts also affect our states of mind (Col 3:2, Phi 4:8). Having a mind that views reality and thinks in a certain way according to the Holy Spirit and not the flesh interconnects tangibly with how we live (Rom 8:5-7). We are to keep our minds from being taken captive by worldly philosophies that contradict biblical teachings and the gospel (Col 2:8) and to have “the mind of Christ” to address the philosophies of the world (1 Cor 2:14), unless erroneous perceptions lead us astray. We’re called to have mentally, calm minds that can defend against the enemy’s lies, and we’re to submit all perceptions and ideologies to the authority of Christ (2 Cor 10:4-5). According to the Bible, it is essential for the mind to bear right beliefs, perceptions, and thinking about reality[1] for healthy spiritual growth and transformation. Movies interact with people’s minds by presenting meanings about life and reality through stories, even as Jesus corrected perceptions with parables.
Some movies edify Christians’ biblical worldview. Other movies challenge Christian beliefs and require thoughtful consideration. Based on the Bible’s establishment of the importance of the mind for transformation, churches can shepherd movie-watching experiences for growth in Christlikeness. In this article, I will discuss how movies make meanings for movie-watchers that affect the mind, and address three dialogical ways – according to worldviews, aesthetic experiences, and theological engagement – pastors can shepherd movie-watchers in thoughtful conversations for spiritual growth.
Movies Make Meanings Aesthetically
Entertainment meaningfully engages people even while people watch movies for escape. Stories truly entertain by bearing meaning. Ever been frustrated by a movie that seemed pointless? An exchange of ideas takes place at the movies, “even while the primary purpose for going remains entertainment or escapism.”[2] It doesn’t matter if a movie-watcher’s primary reason for movie-watching is not to find meaning, because meaning is sewn into a story, presenting views of the world, or worldviews, that attempt to make sense of life.
As movie-watchers immerse in a storyworld, movies facilitate meanings to them in “a mix of cognitive, aesthetic, ethical, and affective components.”[3] Ideologies about reality, identity, community, morality, and politics not only take place intellectually, but also imaginatively, emotionally, and relationally.[4] Movies activate the imagination and give intangible ideologies a viscerally felt sense. People may, thus, perceive the message about something affectively before they perceive it intellectually. They may feel the meaning of an idea before they have reasonable thoughts about it. They may perceive ideologies relationally through connections with characters on screen and by empathetically stepping into the characters’ point of view before grasping messages rationally.
Thus, messages of a movie do not sit on the surface of the screen plain for an audience to cognitively perceive. Rather, stories that take a viewer for an emotional, aesthetic experience hide meanings below the surface, leaving room for discovery of the messages. The experience of discovery delivers an effectual impact. Such is the quality of good storytelling. Good stories masterfully weave meaning into the characters, events, and story arcs. The inescapable point is cinema is one place where ideological exchanges occur[5] on literary and aesthetic levels, whether people intend to find meaning in movies or not. By interpreting reality, life, and identity in a variety of artistic ways, movies are potent conduits for affecting the mind.
Movie-Watchers are Predisposed for Meaningful Impact
Movies also affect minds, because audiences naturally seek meaning in things. There is a psychological fittingness between movies and movie-watchers. Movies deliver a sense of a meaningful whole with a beginning, middle, and end to a series of otherwise disparate events, and movie-watchers seek a meaningful ordering of the events in their lives. When audiences watch characters move through a plot, they psychologically interact with the characters as the characters learn, struggle, react, and make choices.[6]
Stories on screen are perfect nexuses for people to explore meanings in life, relationships, and life-events. As Stanley D. Williams states, storytelling “is basically a philosophical pursuit wherein we explore what is true and false, and how to live our lives better and happier.”[7] Stories store meaning,[8] and people go to stories, because they’re trying to make sense of the world and understand the meaning of their lives in it.[9] Robert McKee writes that people consume stories as a “prime source of inspiration” in an effort “to order chaos and gain insight into life.” [10] “The impulse to tell stories is rooted in our desire to understand ourselves and others.”[11] Stories shape souls through people’s flight from reality into storyworlds.[12] Then they return back to the real world affected in some way to deal with life. For our real human endeavor is not to escape the world but to make sense of it,[13] and stories on screen provide us fertile sandboxes to experientially play with meanings about life. Mark Allan Powell states it well: “Stories have the power to shape life because they formally embody ‘the shape of life.’”[14] Movies affect spiritual growth, because movie-watchers readily seek meaning.
Habit of Movie-watching in a Media Culture
We live in a media culture where movie-watching constitutes a lifestyle of practices on big screens in a theater, home screens before a couch, and personal screens wherever you are. The habit of movie-watching is accessible, normal, and pervasive. Clive Marsh states, “Meaning making needs ‘habits.’ Whether or not a person consciously chooses to be cognitively stimulated or challenged emotionally, an entertaining trip to the cinema does these things too. And a habit of film watching feeds this need.”[15] Meanings more potently seep in the mind through a habit of movie-watching.
People’s habitual practices shape what they become and how they act. A habit of movie consumption, including television, renders a constant curation of meanings to people, delivering a stream of interpretations about life. People act and behave according to their perceptions of reality and what things mean to them, and habitual movie-watching must play a part in shaping perceptions. If one movie bears potency to impact a viewer’s mind in a single experience, a habit of movie-watching marinades change in a person’s mind over a process.
An important question is: what are the stories in our culture that people experience on screens? What are the ideological interpretations about life, self, and relationships of our times? Because “the stories of our culture – repeated regularly in various ways – are shaping our imaginations and desires.”[16] And how can we shepherd movie-watchers of Christ to faithfully steward the messages they receive for spiritual growth?
I would like to suggest that pastors can use three dialogical ways of shepherding movie-watchers in our media saturated culture: 1) Decipher worldview(s) in movies, 2) Discuss how abstract messages are enfleshed, and 3) Dialogue with movies for spiritual growth.
1) Decipher Worldview(s) in Movies
When we watch a movie, we enter a world as the moviemakers view it,[17] a world defined through their lenses, from writing to directing to editing. James S. Spiegel asserts, “Every film offers a worldview, a set of beliefs and values for understanding how the world is and how it should be.”[18]
A worldview is a set of beliefs and values, that is, propositions of what are true about reality, including the meaning of the universe, humanity, truth, morality, relationships, and purpose. But a worldview is more than stated beliefs; a worldview is “a fundamental orientation of the heart” toward beliefs “that can be expressed as a set of propositions or as a story.”[19] In a movie, characters’ beliefs about reality manifest as actions and choices which affect the plot. Stories are effective repositories for worldviews, reflected in storyworlds, expressed in plots, and born by characters. Paul Hiebert observes that civilizations throughout history have captured their views of the universe in their stories to find meaning in life.[20] Society not only proposes truth-claims but tells stories to create a construct of reality. Enjoying a movie involves experiencing interpretations of reality.
To decipher the worldviews in a movie, consider the following questions:
- What is the ah-ha lesson that the plot builds to, which ushers the protagonist to the main turning point or climax?
- Observe the literary clues of foreshadows, repetitions, symbols, significant actions and choices, dialogues, monologues, voice overs, and epilogues and what these mean throughout the plot.
- Listen to the scoring and look at the picture colors to ascertain the tone of scenes. Tones are attitudes that cast interpretations on what you see, whether validates, celebrates, condemns, draws suspicion, or more.[21]
All these elements weave into a tapestry of meanings and a message as the plot develops until the conclusion. For example, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014) shows Cooper operating from a worldview of naturalism. In the beginning scenes, we see he does not believe in the supernatural but only in a reality that is measurable and testable by physical means. Spoilers are coming, in case you want to watch it before reading further. The film then misdirects the viewer to suspect the “they” are supposedly supernatural beings appearing to help save people from an apocalyptic destruction. Only, in the end, the solution for human preservation was nothing supernatural; the “they” were future humans who evolved to become multi-dimensional beings and could make time physical. It’s a mindbender. The ending completed the view of naturalism as the explanation for the universe and the answer to humanity’s plight.
Lead a discussion on a movie’s worldview(s) to shepherd movie-watchers into examining how people understand what the world is and what it should be. Is the movie’s view of the world theirs or in what ways is it not? In examining worldviews, movie-watchers can be spurred to reflect on the robustness and authenticity of their own worldview.
2) Discuss How Abstract Messages Are Enfleshed
As alluded to earlier, how a movie effectively delivers worldview notions involves enfleshing beliefs with a “human feel”.[22] That is, stories make intangible ideologies and philosophical interpretations have shape, texture, weight, sound, and color. Truth-claims crafted with an aesthetic feel, feel more real. That’s why The Passion of the Christ (2004) hit deeply for many watchers, because it made Christ’s sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins taste honey-sweet, have the texture of splintered, jagged wood, smell of baked bread mangled with blood-soaked dirt, and sound like a chorus of birds crescendoing to the howl of a dying wolf before her cubs. The concept of redemption was felt, and it embossed a visceral impression.
Have you watched the multi-Academy Award winner, Whiplash (2014)? Spoilers are coming again. Recall the scene of Andy’s first class session in the prestigious studio band, when Fletcher increasingly berates Andy for playing the wrong tempo. Andy ducks from a chair flung at his head by Fletcher. Then Fletcher tells Andy to count the beats, and he slaps Andy’s face hard on every fourth beat.
Later in a revealing scene, Fletcher tells Andy, “There are no two words more harmful in the English language than, ‘good job,’” which was his statement condemning mediocrity. By telling a story about Charlie Parker, Fletcher gives his message that those possessing a potential for greatness have to be pushed beyond limits, even if the push is punishing and abusive. The end scene delivers a validating tone using close-up shots, lighting, and eye-contacts with smiles between Fletcher and Andy. The tone affirms Fletcher’s ideology as the moral of the story. This is my sum-up of the moral of the story: potential greatness in a person is imprisoned in mediocrity unless the potential is inhumanely punished into realization. While this movie does not provide concrete content for a worldview of the universe, like Interstellar does,it does something similar: it provides an ideological principle on this is the way things are in life.
The scenes were painfully intense. The slaps, shouts, and blood on the drums accomplished one thing: they enfleshed the moral of the story, embodying the message with grit, mass, and texture. Movies make our hearts palpitate and our hands sweat over abstract messages. And the Bible does the same. Biblical storytelling, as Leland Ryken states, aims “to recreate an experience in concrete rather than abstract form” because “literature is incarnational.”[23]
So, we can ask, in what ways are meanings, ideologies, and morals of the story felt in a movie? How are they enfleshed and how are intangibles made tangible? And do we sometimes buy into messages because we were moved to? You may not fully agree with the moral of the story in Whiplash, but were you moved to buy into it by an aesthetic experience of it?
3) Dialogue with Movies for Spiritual Growth
Movies engage people in dialogue over its proposed meanings and messages about life and reality. Movie-watchers should respond theologically. Pastors can shepherd movie-watchers to first “listen well” to what a movie says (e.g. proposed worldview), and, in so doing, trains people to intelligently and aesthetically perceive the messages and cries of the world.
Then faithful responses are needed for healthy dialogues. Without responses, watchers receive but do not interact which dismisses a movie’s dialogical invitation. Passive and irresponsible experiencing of entertainment[24] affect our minds in ways we do not intend and renders the risk of being taken mentally captive by philosophies according to human ways, instead of walking in the radical views of Christ (Col. 2:8). Faithful response can include these considerations:
- To what extent do you agree or disagree with the meanings proposed in a movie from a biblical worldview? Explain why.
- Do the meanings in a movie illuminate biblical principles? That is, does a movie deepen an understanding of a biblical teaching that enables the viewer to embrace it and live it more fully?
- In what ways do moviesreveal things about the movie-watcher and the society he or she lives in? Is there something important we learned about society from the movie?
- Do meanings proposed in a movie challenge the movie-watcher to live more authentically within his or her biblical worldview?
Movie-watching can be instrumental for shepherding spiritual growth if we facilitate theological, philosophical dialogues through small groups, church events, or casual movie outings. In a culture of habitual movie-watching, pastors can curate deep conversations with movies that already invite dialogue over meanings about reality and how to live.
Applying a biblical framework to conversations about movies intended to affect views of the world can be a fertile way to shape minds for spiritual growth.
[1] James W. Sire, Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling (InterVarsity, 2000), 24.
[2] Clive Marsh, “On Dealing with What Films Actually Do to People: The Practice and Theory of Film Watching in Theology/Religion and Film Discussion,” Reframing Theology and Film: New Focus for an Emerging Discipline, ed. Robert K. Johnston (Baker, 2007), 152. However, escaping into a storyworld is where the magic of an aesthetic experience and meaningful impact happens. If we don’t escape, a movie is impotent to affect us.
[3] Marsh, “On Dealing with What Films Actually Do to People,” Reframing Theology and Film, 153.
[4] Jeremy S. Begbie, Abundantly More: The Theological Promise of the Arts in a Reductionistic World (Baker, 2023),xvii.
[5] Marsh, “On Dealing with What Films Actually Do to People,” Reframing Theology and Film, 153.
[6] McGinn, The Power of Movies, 51-52.
[7] Stanley D. Williams, The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue and Vice for Box Office Success (Michael Wiese Productions, 2006), 98.
[8] Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews, 27.
[9] Robert K. Johnston, Craig Detweiler, Kutter Callaway, Deep Focus: Film and Theology in Dialogue, Engage Culture, ed. William A. Dyrness and Robert K. Johnston(Baker, 2019), 9.
[10] Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and The Principles of Screenwriting (HarperCollins, 1997), 12. And Hiebert states that civilizations’ “myths look beneath the surface world at what is really going on in this world.” Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews., 28.
[11] Kelly James Clark, “Story-shaped Lives in Big Fish,” in Faith, Film & Philosophy, ed. R. Douglas Geivett and James S. Spiegel (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 42.
[12] The storyworld is a “secondary world,” emphasizing an alternative, fictional reality, but a world still that we enter in. James W. Sire, How to Read Slowly: Reading for Comprehension (Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 1989), 92-93. Sire uses “secondary world,” a term from J.R.R. Tolkien.
[13] N.T. Wright, Broken Signposts: How Christianity Makes Sense of the World (HarperCollins, 2020),5.
[14] Mark Allan Powell, What is Narrative Criticism, ed. Dan O. Via, Jr. (Fortress, 1990), 52-3.
[15] Marsh, “On Dealing with What Films Actually Do to People,” Reframing Theology and Film, 152.
[16] Mike Cosper, The Stories We Tell: How TV and Movies Long for And Echo Truth (Crossway, 2014), 51.
[17] Robert K. Johnston, Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue (Baker, 2000),119.
[18] R. Douglas Geivett and James S. Spiegel (Eds.), Faith, Film and Philosophy: Big Ideas on the Big Screen (InterVarsity, 2007), 9.
[19] James W. Sire, Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept (InterVarsity, 2004), 122.
[20] Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews, 31, 45.
[21] Johnston, et. al., Deep Focus, 57.
[22] James W. Sire, How to Read Slowly: Reading for Comprehension (Waterbrook, 1989), 57-58.
[23] Leland Ryken, How to Read the Bible as Literature (Zondervan, 1984), 59.
[24] James Harleman, Cinemagogue (Cinemagogue, 2012), 42.