Gromit suddenly discovers he's reading a sci-fi novel with an agenda

Warning: This post addresses mature concerns that Christians must be on guard to face.

“Plays, novels and even paintings touched on such themes as homosexuality, sado-masochism, transvestism and incest; and it was in Germany that Freud’s writings were most fully absorbed by the intelligentsia and penetrated the widest range of artistic expression.”

Paul Johnson, Modern Times 114 (HarperCollins, 1983).

If you have visited my Booklist, you know that I am presently reading a plethora of books, two by Paul Johnson. The book quoted above, Modern Times, has an excellent chapter called “Waiting for Hitler” that describes the transitionary period in Germany’s history between the two World Wars. This particular section of the chapter goes into considerable detail describing how the liberals, Marxists, and humanists took over the theater, cinema, novels, and other arts to sway the populace of Europe in general and Germany in particular. Johnson calls this “cultural trench warfare” and I found it insightful as a description of how Germany was desensitized toward evil so that the people would be prepared to receive Adolf Hitler about a decade later.

“What particularly distinguished Berlin was its theatre, by far the world’s richest in the 1920’s, with a strongly political tone. . . . Some playwrights were committed revolutionaries, like Friedrich Wolf and Ernst Toller, who worked for Erwin Piscator’s ‘Proletarian Theatre’, for which George Grosz designed scenery. Bertholt Brecht, whose play Drums in the Night was first staged in Berlin in 1922, when he was twenty-four, wrote political allegories. He was attracted to Communism by its violence, as he was to American gangsterism, and his friend Arnolt Bronnen to fascism; Brecht designed his own ‘uniform’, the first of the Leftists outfits—leather cap, steel-rimmed glasses, leather coat. When The Threepenny Opera, which he wrote with the composer Kurt Weill, was put on in 1928 it set an all-time record for an opera by receiving over 4,000 performances throughout Europe in a single year. But the bulk of Berlin successes were written by Berlin sophisticates, more notable for being ‘daring’, pessimistic, problematical, above all ‘disturbing’, than directly political: men like Georg Kaiser, Carl Sternheim, Arthur Schnitzler, Walter Hasenclever, Ferdinand Bruckner and Ferenc Molnar. Sometimes the ‘cultural Right’ went for a particular play, as when it tried to disrupt the first night of Der fröhliche Weinberg by Carl Zuckmayer (who also wrote the script for The Blue Angel). But it was really the theatre as a whole to which conservatives objected, for there were no right-wing or nationalist plays whatever put on in Berlin. . . .”

Id. 112-113. But the influence of these mission-minded artists transcended merely the theater, moving into opera, film, and painting. No field of art was considered insignificant in promoting their agenda.

“Berlin was also the world-capital in the related fields of opera and film. It was crowded with first-class directors, impresarios, conductors, and producers: Reinhardt, Leopold Jessner, Max Ophuls, Victor Barnowsky, Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, Leo Blech, Joseph von Sternberg (The Blue Angel), Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder (Emil and the Detectives), Fritz Lang (Metropolis). . . . Against this background of talent, craftsmanship and expertise, Germany was able to develop the world’s leading film industry, producing more films in the 1920s than the rest of Europe put together; 646 in the year 1922 alone.” Id. at 113.

“Even more remarkable was Germany’s success in the visual arts. . . . As one of the teachers, Lothar Schreyer, put it, ‘We felt that we were literally building a new world.’ . . . The Neue Sachlichkeit, or New Realism, which displaced the dying Expressionism in 1923, attracted more interest than the Paris movements.” Id. at 114.

This “new realism” was employed rapidly to create a new reality in Germany. Entertainment alone was clearly not the object, as Johnson continues to explain:

“The Left Intelligentsia often sought deliberately to incite ‘right-thinking’ Germany to fury. They had been smothered so long beneath the conventional wisdom of army, church, court and academia; now it was the turn of the outsiders who had, in curious and quite unprecedented way, become the insiders of the Weimar society. In the Weltbürne, the smartest and most telling of the new journals, sexual freedom and pacifism were exalted, the army, the state, the university, the Church and, above all, the comfortable, industrious middle-classes, were savaged and ridiculed.”

Id. at 115.

The alarming thing is that this same pattern can be observed in the U.S. today. We see it happening in films such as Milk and the top box office film of a July weekend Brüno. We see it in even more popular films such as The DaVinci Code series, the Harry Potter series, and the Twilight Saga—three series that began as novels and have segued into movies. In their excellent review of the Twilight Saga, the Botkins aptly called Twilight “emotional porn. When men glut their physical lust with pictures of airbrushed girls pumped full of silicone, they become dissatisfied with real women’s bodies. When women plug their emotional caverns with chick flicks and chick lit, they become dissatisfied with the real men they know because they can’t measure up.” (See How Twilight is Re-Vamping Romance from VisonaryDaughters.com.) This is not to mention the occultism implicit in this fiction. Such self-indulgent stories apathize the populace and make them ripe for takeover, which is what happened in Germany.

One key difference, however, between Germany and the U.S. seems to be: In Germany no Christian counter-attack occurred. Evil was left to parade unimpeded. Here, however, we are seeing among other positive developments, an emerging independent Christian film industry. We need also to see a truly epistemologically self-conscious Christian literature industry. This history reminds me of the importance and urgency for biblically-thinking Christians to be productive in the arts. Most of all, it’s a reminder to cry out for the blessing and mercy of God.

After observing the influence that novels have had in history for discipleship, I began writing the novel Glory, Duty, & the Gold Dome, which Vision Forum kindly offered to publish. Just as novels have been effective in history to disciple men in evil, novels have the capacity to disciple men in godliness. Two of the first printed fictional books, in fact, that received broad circulation and became classics are Pilgrim’s Progress and Robinson Crusoe—both of which have strong Christian messages. Just as these books touched on themes that would challenge readers to think through life from the principles of God’s Word, I purposed with the support of friends and family to write a novel that would edify and as well as entertain. Despite all my frailties, we’ve begun to receive notes from readers around the country, and it seems many believe that we are succeeding by God’s grace. Here’s one letter I received a few days ago:

Dear Nathaniel,

Our family just finished reading aloud Glory, Duty and the Gold Dome.  The story kept us on the edge of our seats as one plot twist followed another. By the end, several of us had happy tears in our eyes.  As a physician, my father appreciated your strong biblical (and scientific) stance on the bioethical issues raised in your book.  However, what we loved most was how you, and Thomas and Rep. Richards, truly seek to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (II Corinthians 10:5) and present a much-needed picture of biblical manhood and of a father and son working together for Christ’s kingdom.  In many ways Glory, Duty and the Gold Dome is an answer to our prayers.  Thank you so much for all the effort you put into this book and your willingness to take a stand on these controversial issues. We’re already looking forward to the next book and will be keeping you in our prayers as you press on.

May the Lord richly bless you.
For Christ’s Crown,
~Kristen, for the Hammer family

To God be the glory. Jesus Christ Himself used stories in parables to illustrate truths to people, and we would do well learn from His example. I pray that the Lord will raise up an army of new Christian novelists determined to use their art to draw men back to God’s reality, not to lure them into humanistic fantasies. The task carries immense responsibility and the obstacles are daunting, but our God is too big for us to have small dreams. May He lead us and bless us.

Persevero!

Picture credit.