Enfleshed icons of God’s image

Sarah Breuer has an interesting comment about our mission in this world. She writes,

As enfleshed icons of God’s image, as Christ’s body present on earth, we are called to participate in God’s mission, God’s victory over every oppressive power.

Many in biblical studies take the notion of the image of God to mean a given set of qualities imparted upon man. These qualities might be attributes such as a moral aptitude not given to other animals of creation. In this thinking, mankind, by being created in the image of God, has a moral capacity to know and to engage in moral behavior that is not expected of other animals. While I agree that man has been imbued with a moral capacity, it may have been a characteristic present in the human species itself. We simply don’t know. What we do know is the that the notion of being created in the image of God would have carried more than just a moral quality. In the ancient Near East, bearing the image of a person in power, signified the right to represent that powerful person to all one encountered. A modern day version of this idea would be the large posters on Saddam Hussein plastered to buildings and roadside signs throughout Iraq prior to the Gulf War. Another version would be the large Soviet Union crests and pictures of Joseph Stalin throughout the former Soviet Union until the late 1980’s. What role did these images play in the residents of these two counties? The icons reminded them who was in charge and the character of that person. The posters and crests were icons that represented the actual power (person) that stood behind them. As creatures created in the image of God, regenerated, and now part of Christ’s body, we are called to represent God’s mission in this world. More than the posters that adorned buildings or crests that perched on buildings, we are live representatives of God’s character in this world. Further, the aforementioned icons represented the fearful repercussions that extended from the flawed character of those rulers. In contrast, Christ-followers are called as Sarah puts it, to participate in “God’s victory over every oppressive power.” As God’s image-bearers, we represent, the restoration available to all through Christ. However, it doesn’t stop there; for we are called to act as God acts: to represent his righteous and just character. This means we must be proactive in issues of peacemaking, relief of oppression, and bearing of justice in our world. Our mission is to proclaim the freedom offered by our King and to cry out for justice and relief for the helpless and downtrodden: To be enfleshed icons of God’s image.

(Sarah Dylan Breuer. The Justice Project (emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith) (p. 36). Kindle Edition.)

God’s Call to Do Justice

This quote made me stop and think today:

The practice of justice is at the center of God’s purpose for human life. It is so closely related to the worship of the living God as the only true God that no act of worship is acceptable to him unless it is accompanied by concrete acts of justice on the human level. Micah 6:8, which may be regarded as a synthesis of Old Testament ethics, points in this direction: “He has told you, 0 mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly before your God.” -C. Rene Padilla

In The Justice Project (emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith) (p. 23). Kindle Edition.

Moral Sentiments of our capitalist friend Adam Smith

In an earlier post, I referred to Adam Smith’s work, Theory of Moral Sentiments. It was suggested that Scottish philosopher would not be happy with the current state of his capitalist experiment in the new world. Smith wrote of the gluttony of the rich producing products domestically which creates an excess for the peasant to acquire thereby fulfilling the needs of a given community. According to Smith, the rich are,

“They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society, and afford means to the multiplication of the species” (IV.I.10).

However this “gluttony of the rich” to which Smith refers does not operate in a vacuum. Those in this community, rich or peasant, should model proper moral sentiment. Adam Smith saw the “invisible hand” of capitalism intrinsically connected to proper moral behavior. Moral behavior that has regard for others in his community. He writes,

Proper resentment for injustice attempted, or actually committed, is the only motive which, in the eyes of the impartial spectator, can justify our hurting or disturbing in any respect the happiness of our neighbour. To do so from any other motive is itself a violation of the laws of justice, which force ought to be employed either to restrain or to punish. The wisdom of every state or commonwealth endeavours, as well as it can, to employ the force of the society to restrain those who are subject to its authority, from hurting or disturbing the happiness of one another….A sacred and religious regard not to hurt or disturb in any respect the happiness of our neighbour, even in those cases where no law can properly protect him, constitutes the character of the perfectly innocent and just man; a character which, when carried to a certain delicacy of attention, is always highly respectable and even venerable for its own sake, and can scarce ever fail to be accompanied with many other virtues, with great feeling for other people, with great humanity and great benevolence. It is a character sufficiently understood, and requires no further explanation. (Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part V- Of the Character of Virtue, Section II.- Of the character of the individual, so far as it can affect the happiness of other people)

It is clear from Moral Sentiments that the current status of capitalism was not the capitalism envisioned by Adam Smith. It seems that capitalism of the twenty-first century, particularly in U.S., has a virus. Ironically, the virus of capitalism finds its origins in something Americans proudly embrace: “rugged individualism.” However, now “rugged individualism” has shed virtue and become “everyman for himself.”

Where are the morals in business? Adam Smith would not be happy!

Early economist assumed all had moral compass

“People suggest that Smith was all about self-interest and, therefore, a wholly unfettered, laissez-faire economy, consisting perhaps of “Rambo” capitalists….This version of Smith originates from his famous “Wealth of Nations,” which was published in 1776, 19 years after his first book, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments.””

I have been contemplating the notion that capitalism is fatally flawed without an ethical underpinning. Adam Smith presumed that this would always be present in his system outlined in Wealth of Nations. The absence of a moral sentiment [as outlined in The Theory of Moral Sentiments] creates an environment that we see emerging today. Perhaps the Enron scandal should have been “the shot heard round the world” in the world of political philosophy. In this scandal, a divorce between Adam Smith two essays took place. A new post Enron landscape emerged that valued pure capitalism without any ethical restraint. The latest reflection of this economic mutant thinking is the financial meltdown of 2006. The result is the same in both cases. Greed overtook an moral obligation to show restraint even in the face of extra profits. Without a moral compass, the gap between the oppressed and the powerful will continue to grow.

Imaging the fallen: What the pictures of the war dead should tell us

Trumbull's “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill” (1786)

Essay: We’ve seen photos before like ones of U.S. soldiers with Afghan corpses

“The impulse of soldiers to photograph their dead enemies is driven by a number of factors, says Nancy Sherman, author of “The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers” and a professor of philosophy at Georgetown specializing in the ethics of war.

“There’s relief that they’re alive and not dead. There’s also top-dog exuberance and pent-up revenge,” she says. Another factor, especially in places such as Afghanistan, is when these incidents take place among units that are operating in remote locations, she says.”

Many have expressed outrage toward the U.S. troops that photographed the dead insurgents in Afghanistan. Heim’s article is a good reminder that this act is not new to war. In fact it is a mainstay of war. I certainly do do not like seeing the dead corpses and I am sure the families would not (and should not) like to see their beloved photographed like a trophy from a hunting trip. However it might be profitable for us to see these images and more.

The U.S. has carefully managed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, shielding the American public from disturbing images that characterize the reality of war. For example, the first seven years of the war, Americans saw no soldier’s coffins carried off of airplanes. Finally in 2009, the ban was lifted, but still we know little about the grind our soldiers daily endure.

Images remind us of a price paid, on both sides of war. If anything, it illustrates that there is a cost to decisions that are made in palaces, oval offices, and caves. Those costs are many times calculated in human life. We have forgotten, that people that were our neighbors, postmen, hedgetrimmer, server, and auto mechanic are now fighting a war. Everyday they are fighting for the opportunity to return home to resume a “normal life” (as if life will ever be the same). These pictures remind us of the cost. These pictures remind us that in a democratic republic, we the people, to some measure are responsible for a soldier’s presence on foreign soil. These images remind us that this is part of the cost of our action or inaction.

Electronic Murder? First person shooter video games

Admitted Norway killer Breivik says he trained on video games

Anders Behring Breivik, who admits killing 77 people in Norway last summer, used a video game as training for his shooting spree, he testified Thursday at his trial for homicide and terrorism. He played the game “Modern Warfare 2” for practice, he said. Breivik, who boasts of being an ultranationalist who killed his victims to fight multiculturalism in Norway, also went through a period of playing the game “World of Warcraft” up to 16 hours a day, he testified.

This is not the first time that we have seen this happen. I remain amazed at the lack of concern particularly among those claiming to be Christ followers about what kind of video games their children play. Many will claim that Breivik’s case is an extreme isolated incident. Is that the point? Most Christians would be appalled if they walked in their child’s room and found them looking at a pornographic video on the internet. However, that same parent can walk in their child’s room and witness them killing another person (electronically) and declare, “Nice shot son!” Is electronic murder/killing different than electronic adultery/fornication? The general consensus seems to be that there is a difference. Parents don’t entertain the possibility of the destructive training that could be taking place.  Hauntingly, one parent reviewer wrote:

I find the ESRB ratings to be a bit overboard, but I guess they have to since there are some immature kids who would see a guy get shot in a video game and then go decide to shoot someone them self.

Yet another parent on the same review site asserts:

It’s all a matter of whether you trust your kid not to curse or kill people. (honestly, do you think your kids gonna wake up in the morning going, “mommy! I just played mw2 and it inspired me to kill people! bye!”)

What words would these forum posters have for the family of Breivik’s victims? What about to Breivik’s parents? Most in our society cannot see their way through this issue. Is it because they don’t want their children embarrassed at school when they can’t join conversations about these games, or is it parents that have to admit to other parents that they don’t allow these games? Either way, it is time to start parenting again. We can’t allow intimidating comments such as, “If your not an aggressive parent like the ones who won’t even let there kids watch Bambi, then this game is ok for your kids” to deter us from rearing virtuous citizens.  First person shooter games desensitize our children to violence.

Tudor Morality Plays and Modern Cinema: Forgiveness, Repentance, and the Four Last Things

Morality Figures

This is a series of posts on Tudor Morality Plays and Modern Cinema (Set, Costumes, and Dance of Death; Central Character, Ritual in morality plays and Repo Men; Forgiveness of Sins). It might benefit one to read the previous posts prior to this one.

Forgiveness sins are a vital component of the morality play. Potter suggests, “In demonstrating first the necessity for repentance, and then the fact of its efficacy, the morality playwright seeks the participation of his audience in a ritual verification of the whole concept of the forgiveness of sins.”[1] The forgiveness of sins must first begin with the introduction of mankind into the state of sin. In the plays man found immediate pleasure in sin and the act of sinning is virtually unavoidable. Therefore the state of innocence previous to sin understated or portrayed as theoretical.[2] During the fall from innocence, “the sexual seduction of Mankind into sin is dramatized, either in a literal seduction scene (as with Mankind and Lechery in Perseverance) or by inference, with lemans, wenches, and brothels indicated just offstage.”[3]

Repo Man also delivered the vice of greed sensually. The immediate pleasure of sin revealed itself in the acts of greed. For Remy, the pleasures were found in a dream of house in the suburbs, wife, and child. Remy initially and Jake throughout the film, find pleasure in identification with their profession. Both liked being respected and feared as repo men. A scene where they scan a large man (which enables them to identify transplanted part information) and bet if he is overdue best illustrates this. When the scan reveals the man has two days left, they let him know they will be calling on him in two days.[4] Throughout the film, both choose to enter through the front door of the Union building, at which time Frank admonished them because they are scaring the customers.[5] Literally, Repo Men has it share of sexuality throughout the film that supports the vice of greed. The first customer encountered by Remy in the film has brought home a prostitute for the night.[6] This suggests his greed for all of life overrules responsibility in paying his debts. Remy’s paperwork contract for his heart is delivered to him in the workplace by an exotic dancer.[7] Throughout film the job and the life that the job provides identified with sensual pleasures.

Once man has sinned in the play there comes a call to repentance. No two calls to repentance in morality plays are identical however in all of them repentance is the climatic theatrical event. In most of the medieval plays an attempt is made to dramatize this transformation in the specific terms of the sacrament of penance.[8] Potter concludes, “Thus the traditional morality play is not a battle between virtues and vices, but a didactic ritual drama about the forgiveness of sins. Its theatrical intentions are to imitate and evoke that forgiveness.”[9]

Remy explicitly claimed in narration that he was not seeking forgiveness for all the wrongs he had done. However when contemplating his role with Beth, he mused that he is saving himself along with her. In a sense when he reclaimed all the organs, from Beth and himself he was getting forgiveness for his actions. The question might remain, who is granting the forgiveness. On one hand, it could be Union as it scanned the parts back into inventory. However, on the other hand, it could be Jake. Since the pink door scene is a neural implant and not reality, it is Jake granting forgiveness to Remy by allowing the neural memory to exist.

Highlight on forgiveness does not suggest the vices and virtues are not significant in morality plays. In a real sense virtues and vices play a role in bring mankind to the point of repentance. This contest between Virtue and Vice is ultimately for the possession of man’s soul. Because it battled for man’s soul, it focused on what Holzknecht calls “the Four Last Things.” He suggests that, “Death, Judgment, the pains of Purgatory or Hell, and, alternately, the joys of Heaven, which were to be had if a man remembered the first three and refrained from sin or repented in time.”[10] In interacting with the virtues and vices the audience is presented with the choice of life in repentance or death in rejection of faith.

This focus on the four last things was a common topic outside morality plays which allowed for an easy transition into the plays. The cult of death was prominent in England and “traditional literary forms were the treatise on the ‘art of dying well,’ including detailed instructions and formulas for preparing for the inevitable hour; and ‘the four last things,’ a sounding of the meaning of death, judgment, heaven, and hell.”[11]

The entire story of Repo Men reacted to the art of dying well. Clients came to the Union company for organs and are willing to giving anything to avoid death. However, for those who financed their organs, it will still lead to death as they can never afford the financial terms. Neither Frank nor Jake have prepared for the “inevitable hour.” Frank, who is without any compassion whatsoever, dies in Remy’s neural dream without redemption. In reality, he continued to exist as a cold-hearted manager looking to keep sales up for Union company.  Jake found complete redemption and is ready for the inevitable hour, at least in Remy’s neural dream. However, even reality, it appeared he has made progress toward that goal. He paid the cost Remy’s transplant debt and provided for Remy’s future well being. These acts signified that, at some level, he gained awareness that greed must be restrained. At the end of the movie, Beth remained alive, with her fate in the hands of Jake. He must make of choice to recover her overdue organs or set her free. Jake’s decision is not revealed in the movie. To Beth, in the end it does not appear to matter, she has found redemption through her relationship with Remy. Throughout the film Remy took care of her in spite of her faults, caring for her over himself. Beth too gave of herself to Remy. Both had freed themselves from greed ready to give their lives for each other. Remy, in both reality and neurologically though the implant, found redemption and clearly prepared for the final hour. In doing so, he avoided (at least temporarily) death and gained heaven (neurologically).

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[1] Potter, The English Morality Play: Origins, History, and Influence of a Dramatic Tradition, 47-48.

[2] Ibid.,  48.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Sapochnik, “Repo Man,” 12:56.

[5] Ibid.,  9:45.

[6] Ibid.,  2:21.

[7] Ibid.,  38:40.

[8] Potter, The English Morality Play: Origins, History, and Influence of a Dramatic Tradition, 49.

[9] Ibid.,  57.

[10] Karl J. Holzknecht, The Backgrounds of Shakespeare’s Plays (New York: American Book Co., 1950), 322-323.

[11] Williams, The Drama of Medieval England, 147.

Resurrection: Tale of two Kingdoms

N.T. Wright in his massive work The Resurrection of the Son of God, summarizes the significance of Jesus’ resurrection and its relation to the kingdoms of this world.

The story of Jesus of Nazareth which we find in the New Testament offers itself, as Jesus himself had offered his public work and words, his boddy and blood, as the answer to this multiple problem: the arrival of God’s kingdom precisely in the world of space, time and matter, the world of injustice and tyranny, of empire and crucifixions. This world is where the kingdom must come, on earth as it is in heaven. What view of creation,, what view of justice, would be served by the offer merely of a new spirituality and a one-way ticket out of trouble, an escape from the real world?

No wonder the Herods, the Caesars and the Sadducees of this world, ancient and modern, were and are eager to rule out all possibility of actual resurrection. They are, after all, staking a counter-claim on the real world. It is the real world that the tyrants and bullies (including intellectual and cultural tyrants and bullies) try to rule by force, only to discover that in order to do so they have to quash all rumours of resurrection, rumours that would imply that their greatest weapons, death and deconstruction, are not after all omnipotent. But it is the real world, in Jewish thinking, that the real God made, and still grieves over. It is the real world that, in the earliest stories of Jesus’ resurrection, was decisively and for ever reclaimed by that event, an event which demanded to be understood, not as a bizarre miracle, but as the beginning of the new creation.

Tudor Morality Plays in Modern Cinema: Forgiveness of Sins

[see previous posts on Tudor Morality Plays: pt 1, pt 2, pt 3]

The morality plays have frequently been mistaken for naïve treatises on virtue. They are in fact the call to a specific religious act.[1] In the thirteenth century, the friars preached on penance and virtue and vices to the general populace.[2] Potter suggests that, “The mixture of doctrine and realism in the morality play has its origins in this preaching tradition, and the immediate sources of allegory in the morality play are almost invariably found in medieval sermon literature.”[3] Throughout this period, preachers devoted themselves to “to moving their listeners to take up the penitential process of contrition, confession, and satisfaction to gain forgiveness of their sins.”[4] This theme of penitence and forgiveness dominates morality plays.

After receiving his heart transplant, Remy displayed penitence and sought forgiveness in several scenes. First, his sorrow for his past actions is recognizable in his acknowledgment of the humanness transplant repossession victims. He realized they have a name and family. Even in the underground, he confronted a person that scavenged dead bodies for transplant organs. Discussing what remains of dead bodies, he in disgust asserts, “What do you do with your clients when you are done with them, chop them up for dog meat?[5] Second, Remy sought forgiveness through the rescue of Beth and ultimately himself. In bringing her on the road to redemption, he is bringing himself to redemption. He found his forgiveness (though in the cautionary tale he admits not fully) through the process of redeeming Beth from the Union in the final scene.

A significant connection existed between the morality plays and the concept of the seven deadly sins.[6] Most did not entertain all seven, earlier moral plays seemed to center on the examination of one vice in particular, Castle of Perseverance on Avarice, Mankind on sloth, and Pride of Life on pride.[7] The medieval period produced a corresponding set of cardinal virtues, but the traditional seven virtues did not accurately correlate since they were of a different origin.[8] Nuess suggests that, “To supply this lack, medieval homilists prepared a series of lists known as remedia or cures for the seven deadly sins. It is to this tradition that the ‘virtues’ of The Castle of Perseverance belong.”[9] Personified virtues, a central figure or figures that will epitomize the human condition, and the devil as tempter.[10] Therefore, “a fundamental rhetorical separation between the play world and the real world, as players take on the roles of qualities, e.g. Mercy; supematural beings (Good Angel); whole human categories (Fellowship); and human attributes (Lechery).”[11] Players were differentiated on stage through attractiveness and comedy. Wertz explains that, “Vice is far more attractive on the stage than virtue, which appears rather stuffy and dull. The comic, undignified devils of the mystery plays, become the ‘vices’ of the moral play, who degenerate from supernatural demons into riotous clowns.”[12]

Penitence was employed for those transgressors of the seven deadly sins. One instrument of penitence included recitals of the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer retained seven distinct petitions: (1) hallowed by thy name, (2) The kingdom come, (3) Thy will be done, (4) give us daily bread, (5) Forgive us as we forgive, (6) Lead us not into temptation, and (7) Deliver us from evil. Potter explains that,

‘Hallowed be thy name’ is a reminder to resist pride, ‘thy kingdom come’ warns against envy; and so forward through wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony and lechery. The relevance of the petitions to the sins is sometimes strained (eg., ‘give us … daily bread’ is a remedy for sloth), but these allegorical interpretations of the Lord’s Prayer appear frequently in collections of medieval sermons and other penitential literature.[13]

He continues, “The esoteric remedia of the Paternoster against the deadly sins thus became public knowledge, as part of the educational campaign which sought to implement the institution of the sacrament of penance.”[14] The public preaching of penitence, teaching of the need for forgiveness of the seven deadly sins, and the exhortation of the life of virtues created a natural relationship for implementation of these concepts into morality plays.

Repo Men reveal several vices but the one most prominent is the vice of greed. Prior to the heart transplant, Remy displayed this vice well. In an opening scene, he confronts a transplant for repossession. The person stated he can now pay. Remy responded, “That’s not my department.” He then proceeded to render the customer unconscious to extract the organ.[15] Jake also displayed greed in attempting to keep Remy in the repo department. He put him at risk through sabotaging the defibrillator so that Remy would need a new heart which would put him in need of the income of a repossession agent. Jake asserts, “You thought it was fate? A sort’a cosmic plan to get you right with the world, is that what you thought? …All you had to do is to keep working, you and me doing our thing… I tried to save your life” [by keeping Remy from a sales job].[16] Jake’s greed carried him to extract an overdue organ in a waiting taxi in front of Remy’s house during a barbeque. Jake explains to an apprehensive Remy, “It’s a double commission, I’ll give you half.”[17] The Union corporately is based on greed. The transplant recipients are faced with the decision of death by organ failure or insurmountable debt. A salesperson outlines the terms to potential clients, “Now if you can’t afford the full payment of $618, 429.00, we can offer monthly installments at an APR of 19.6% standard for a generic pancreatic unit.”[18] The general disregard for human life because of greed is the predominate theme of the movie, bodies are ravaged and left to die so that company assets can be recovered and resold to the next victim.

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[1] Potter, The English Morality Play: Origins, History, and Influence of a Dramatic Tradition, 16.

[2] H. Leith Spencer, English Preaching in the Late Middle Ages (Oxford [England]; Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, 1993), 145.

[3] Potter, The English Morality Play: Origins, History, and Influence of a Dramatic Tradition, 20.

[4] Larissa Taylor, Preachers and People in the Reformations and Early Modern Period (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2001), 359.

[5] Sapochnik, “Repo Man,” 1:18:29.

[6] Potter, The English Morality Play: Origins, History, and Influence of a Dramatic Tradition, 21.

[7] Paula Neuss, “The Pardoner’s Tale: An Early Moral Play?,” in Religion in the Poetry and Drama of the Late Middle Ages in England(Cambridge, England: D S Brewer, 1990), 119.

[8] Historically the seven deadly sins are classified as three spiritual sins (Pride, Envy, Wrath) and four corporal sins (Accidia (Sloth), Avaricia/Cupiditas (Greed), Gluttony, Lust. The original seven virtues are classified as three spiritual virtues (Fides (Faith), Spes (Hope), Cartias (Charity) and four cardinal virtues (Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, Justice). However, these do not directly correspond to one another so the remedial model formed at virtue to cure the vice. Therefore, Pride corresponds to Humility, Envy to Charity, Covetousness to Largess, Anger to Peace, Sloth to Patience, Gluttony to Abstinence, Lechery to Chastity.

[9] Potter, The English Morality Play: Origins, History, and Influence of a Dramatic Tradition, 21.

[10] Robert Potter, “The Ordo Virtutum: Ancestor of the English Moralities?,” in Ordo Virtutum of Hildegard of Bingen(Kalamazoo, Mich: Medieval Inst Pubns, 1992), 32.

[11] Pamela King, “Morality Plays,” in The Cambrige Companion to Medieval English Theater, ed. Richard Beadle(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 241.

[12] Dorothy Wertz, “Conflict Resolution in the Medieval Morality Plays,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 13, no. 4 (1969): 439.

[13] Potter, The English Morality Play: Origins, History, and Influence of a Dramatic Tradition, 22.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Sapochnik, “Repo Man,” 2:44-2:47.

[16] Ibid.,  1:23:54-1:24:44.

[17] Ibid.,  18:38.

[18] Ibid.,  7:54-8:08.

Tudor Morality Plays in Modern Cinema: Ritual in morality plays and Repo Men

This post continues the series on Tudor Morality Plays and their ongoing presence in modern cinema. The earlier posts, entitled Set, Costumes, and Dance of Death, and Central Character can be read in these links. The issue of ritual to morality plays are also present in modern cinema. Throughout the series I have chosen to employ the film Repo Men as representative of modern cinema. If you are unfamiliar with the film, perhaps this article would be more meaningful after reading the plot summary linked above.

Ritual in medieval drama visibly symbolized an invisible ‘spiritual’ action performed in reality.[1] The plays make visible the desired spiritual trait or activity. Through this ritual, “a collective articulation is being celebrated; from past experiences and individual responses, a collective attitude is formulated.”[2] The morality play served the audience by reviewing right attitudes set in a contemporary scenario. Potter explains that, “By rehearsing in an articulated and formal sequence the correct attitudes, ritual causes the truth to ‘come true.’”[3]  Ritual then functioned to integrate general truths out of the particulars of human experience. The plays make a connection “between this outer world of events and the inner world of feelings.”[4]

Repo Men followed the sequence of plot development found in morality plays. As stated above, Remy found redemption of sorts through the rescue of Beth from her life of drugs. These truths are further recounted in Remy’s typed cautionary tale. He states,

“So what is it that I am writing? It is not some crappy memoir or even an attempt for apologizing for everything I have done. This is a cautionary tale– A hope that you might learn from my mistakes. ‘Cause in the end, a ‘job is not a job,’ it’s who you are and if you want to change who you are, first, you have to change what you do.”[5]

It is in the details of Remy’s human experience that he is able to draw out particular truths for the audience. The moral of Remy’s tale reflects biblical concepts that one’s acts reflect what their heart desires most.

Origins of the structure of morality plays remain uncertain.[6] However vague the origins it is certain that, “the morality play, an archetypal example of the theater of demonstration, is both didactic (in the sense of teaching Christian doctrine) and ritualistic (in the sense of ‘proving’ it). These interwoven strands of didacticism and ritual together provide the origins of the morality play.”[7] Repo mendemonstrate teaching in Remy’s narrations throughout the movie, calling viewers to take heed of his story and change their ways.

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[1] Gordon Kipling, Enter the King: Theatre, Liturgy, and Ritual in the Medieval Civic Triumph (Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, 1998), 19.

[2] Potter, The English Morality Play: Origins, History, and Influence of a Dramatic Tradition, 10.

[3] Ibid.,  11.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Sapochnik, “Repo Man,” 1:02:38-1:03:17.

[6] See Potter (1975) 12-13. He suggests, “There are indications that at least the structure of the morality play (as distinct from its intellectual substance, which is medieval and Christian) can be traced to similar origins in fertility ritual. The link which connects morality play and ritual is a folk ritual drama known as the mummers’ play. Exactly what the mummers’ play was like in the Middle Ages we cannot be certain, since it is an orally transmitted form (like the ballad) which went officially unnoticed until folklorists began to record it in the eighteenth century.”…“However three facts are abundantly clear: the mummers’ play is an ancient outgrowth of fertility ritual; it existed in some form in medieval times; and it influenced the developing medieval drama.”…“Its central act, a battle of champions to the death, with a miraculous revival, reproduces the ritual battle of winter and summer, the rhythm of death and regeneration, the ritual burial of winter and the resurrection of life” (12). However the similarities between the mummer’s play and morality play should not be overstressed. “Medieval scholars are justifiably cautious about ‘pagan’ myth and ritual, and its supposed dominance in Christian works of literature” (13).

[7] Potter, The English Morality Play: Origins, History, and Influence of a Dramatic Tradition, 16.