CONCLAVE Movie Misses the Point
By Dr. Ted Baehr, with Dr. Tom Snyder
The movie CONCLAVE has been nominated for many awards, including the British version of the Academy Awards called BAFTA. Ralph Fines gives a great performance, and the movie is consistently compelling to watch to the end. That said, as our review said, it paints a very negative view of Roman Catholic ecclesiology and Christian Theism. The question is why? That question can be asked of many of these movies about Roman Catholicism and Christian Theism is why do they fail theologically?
CONCLAVE is very anthropocentric, that ism it looks at theology from man’s point of view. Throughout the movie, even the conservative statements are more concerned about human politics than about theology and God’s point of view. In other words, the main speech at the end is about compassion. From man’s point of view, compassion is often misguided, giving rise to lawless antinomianism or follow your heart and indulging people in their self-centered psychosis. They want you to believe that they are a dog, out of love you believe it.
However, God’s point of view establishes order in life that makes for the best possible church and society. The Bible clearly sets up this order, and the Bible’s order often says, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give into your reckless passions, because every time you violate those rules, you ultimately hurt yourself and others badly.
CONCLAVE does not consider the theologically biblical reasons for the perspectives that the church has taken throughout the centuries, such as marriage is between a man and a woman, or why Jesus is the only way God. The principles of Christianity changed the world for the better. As many intellectuals have found, Christianity calls us to higher standards, standards that delivered Western Civilization from the cruelty of paganism, Islam and Buddhism, in fact of any other religion.
Since CONCLAVE ignores God’s perspective, it comes out with misguided woke statements that represent the wishful thinking of groups like progressives who can’t see beyond their own desires.
For example, Ralph (“Rafe”) Fiennes’ (“Finez”) character, Cardinal Lawrence, makes a self-contradictory, irrational, unbiblical statement about faith. In one scene, he starts railing against the very idea of “certainty.” He says certainty removes all sense of “doubt” and, as such, destroys the Christian idea of faith. His statement about certainty, doubt and faith is inherently self-contradictory and, hence, illogical and self-refuting, because at the same time that he attacks the idea of certainty, he comes across as totally certain about his belief about faith and doubt. His comments are like saying, “I can’t utter a word of English.” The Cardinal’s definition of faith is also unbiblical. The Bible defines faith in Hebrews 11:1 as having confidence and assurance in the hope for eternal life that the Gospel of Jesus Christ alone gives us. Thus, there’s no doubt here when it comes to trusting Jesus Christ for our eternal salvation.
Finally, the movie’s ending mocks the conservative cardinal’s attack on the moral and intellectual relativism that’s infected the Catholic Church. The ending depicts the conservative cardinal’s attack as the ravings of a crazed bigot. In doing so, it sides with the moral and intellectual relativism that Cardinal Lawrence expresses throughout CONCLAVE and in the scene described above.
- Content: +3Share:
- Content: +1