A famous conversation once took place between the two great 20^th Century fantasy novelists, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, which stretched on into the wee small hours.  Lewis and Tolkien were both lecturing at Oxford, both had seen the horrors of the First World War fighting in the trenches, and both belonged to a group called The Coalbiters (a name that comes from being huddled round the fireside sharing stories from Norse mythology).  During this conversation, Lewis – who returned from the trenches a committed atheist, confessed to Tolkien (a Catholic) that he had accepted that the reality of God but couldn’t understand “the myth of the Christ” in Christianity.  Given that both men had an academic interest in mythology, Lewis was familiar with numerous tales from other cultures that resembled a “resurrection” theme, sometimes reflecting the cycle of the Sun that “dies” and “rises” again.  At this point, Tolkien explained that the difference with the Christ of Christianity is “this is a myth that actually happened” and went on cite various historical proofs such as the Roman scholar Tacitus and the Jewish scholar Josephus that testify to the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth.

This year, Heretic, starring Hugh Grant as the psychopathic Mr Reed, delivers a compelling scare-fest that grapples with a similar premise.  In fact, one for the most interesting things about the film is that the script is so theologically loaded.  Much of it follows the cut and thrust of arguments for and against (most against, as the title suggests!) the beliefs of organised religions. In particular, the film’s antagonist is hell-bent on debunking the faith of two young female evangelists from the Church of Latter Day Saints, holding them captive in his house whilst he conducts a sadistic series of experiments to test their faith.

For some, this film might appear to rock the boat a bit in posing questions about the authenticity of religion, especially Christianity, but it is a really well-made film in which Hugh Grant (famous for his babbling clumsy nice guy roles in rom-coms) turns out a sterling performance made all the more enjoyable because he looks like he’s having a ball getting to play the baddie for once!  It really falls into the genre of escape movie and makes for a particularly intense thrill-ride but, in the end, it seems to assert the validity of faith, the benefits of it, and the possibility of life after death.

In the end, the arguments posed by Mr Reed are seriously undermined by the fact that he is, well…psychotic!  Yes – Christianity does follow loosely the pattern of some stories of other deities from ancient religions that pre-date the birth of Jesus but that’s something that the Church has never run from.  Quite the opposite.  In fact, we can see that over time, Christianity spread across the world, bringing the Good News of the Gospel to people of diverse cultures who would have recognised in the story of Jesus, things that their hearts already knew and longed for in the stories and characters of their own mythologies.  The idea that somehow the God who created us all didn’t already know this is quite ludicrous, otherwise He wouldn’t be God.  The amazing thing is that He knew it so well that he fulfilled that longing in history by the birth, death and resurrection of his only Son, as Tolkien pointed out to Lewis many years ago.

Review by

Stephen Callaghan