Sunday 6 December 2009

Faith and film (1): The Gardener of God

ZENIT have reported the presentation in Rome of the film The Gardener of God, a film about the Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel. An extended trailer for the film can be found on the website of the production company responsible for the film. As a scientist, Gregor Mendel is generally seen as the founder of the science of genetics.

The trailer makes interesting viewing for the messages it communicates about the priesthood, about the relationship between science and Christian faith, for a dialogue between celibacy and sexual impropriety. Though those taking part in the making of the film have spoken of their study of the character of Gregor Mendel, I can't help but feel from the trailer that there is a certain amount of "reading back" of a narrative into the life that may be at the expense of strict, historical accuracy. The explicit articulation in the words of Pope Pius IX of a positive relationship between faith and science is presented in terms that come from our own times; I wonder whether, in Gregor Mendel's own time, that relationship would have been expressed more generally, and perhaps in terms of the relationship between faith and reason.

I look forward to seeing some more reviews of this film.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

zero says
Will we be going?

Joe said...

No reason why we shouldn't. The trailer makes it look rather like American period drama - Dynasty plus religion and science.

I'm not sure it will make it to England.

Anonymous said...

Then again you wouldn't know what Dynasty was about, would you?1
zero