The watches in the world don’t go backwards

Antonio Carlos Ribeiro

Human beings can not recognize the essence of God totally different when you

consider so divine and feel the power of God himself in itself, but only when they

are nothing more than human beings, who admit their weaknesses and their misery.

When you stop being unhappy and proud gods and become real human

beings, let God be God, as Luther rightly said

Jürgen Moltmann

Introduction

The Swedish sailing ship Götheborg arrived in Recife (PE) in January 2007, with a cultural program on board, which includes Såsom en Spegel (Through a Glass Darkly - 1961, 87 minutes, 35 mm), Ingmar Bergman, bringing the Pernambuco’s audience to plunge once more into the dilemmas of existence and be presented with images of a cult film and new questions about the meaning of life. Starring Gunnar Björnstrand, Harriet Andersson, Lars Passgård and Max von Sydow, the film tells the story of the woman, affected by bouts of madness, conflicts with the family during summer vacation on a remote island. The drama is further enhanced with the soundtrack of Johann Sebastian Bach, and Erik Nordgren. Known for writing the Trilogy of Silence, the renowned Swedish filmmaker, Through a Glass Darkly won an Oscar for best foreign film in 1962.

The film comes from the cinematographer, the technique of designing sequences of frames quickly and successively, creating the impression of movement (in Greek, means kino movement, and graphs, write or record).Created by the Lumiere Brothers in the late nineteenth century, this technique made it possible to produce works of art aesthetic, narrative or not, giving the film a position to become a powerful means of expression of human feelings, from the moving image and sound . The film Den Goda viljan (The best of intentions), shot in 1992 and directed by Bille August, was the most by the press as the existential reunion with his father, why I chose for this dialogue.

Hans Küng is a well-known theologian. Be the classics Die Kirche (The Church) and Unfehlbar? (Infallible?), among dozens of books and hundreds of articles and lectures, is for independence, consistency and transparency of its proposals, is the half-century of resistance in the priesthood, in theological teaching and production, is punished by denying them missio canonica. It was convened by Pope John XXIII in 1960, official adviser to the Second Vatican Council. With the marks of a theological culture and an enviable persistence "Swiss", which identify with theologians like Hans Urs von Balthasar and the reformed Karl Barth, he celebrated his jubilee of ordination, doing a conference in Germany, published under the title Woran man sich halten kann (Why still be a Christian today?), I took this as a basis for conversation.


Ingmar Bergman film and the transcendental

The name of Ingmar Bergman film is perennially associated with the cinema transcendental. Its production, as shown in film credits, composed one of the richest and existential moments in cinema history. Having appropriated the language to perform a significant number of films, sometimes with up to three titles a year, this director has addressed issues arising in the human condition - such as desire, death and religion -, expanding the possibilities of language, exploring the resources available (drama and technology) to its limit and, above all, transcending the very cinematic experience.


He became interested in theater during the time of studies at Stockholm University, later turning to film. In writing the play Death of Kasper began his career in 1941, and then wrote the first argument to the film Torment (Hets) in 1944. The first film, Crisis (Kris), was filmed in 1945. Thus began a string of films that dealt generally with existential issues such as death, loneliness, loss and great faith. His literary influences come from the drama of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg.

It is said that long before debuting on the big screen, had discovered the cinema as a form of expression. At Christmas 1927, aged nine, yielded to the temptation to see the brother presented with a projector and a proposed change in the future proved to be definitive for his life. Army gave a lead in exchange for the cinematographer. It was his first relationship with cinema.

Son of a Lutheran pastor, received an education marked by the contradictions of the time and place. Europe, which seems sometimes sister, his model and built their wealth with the byproducts, especially stocks, which have only recently learned to give away. Authoritarian repression, based on concepts related to sin, confession, punishment, forgiveness and grace. This, in very small scale. Indulgence, as it appears in his films, some of them with various accents autobiographical, especially experiences and feelings such as shame or humiliation, as explored in his films.

A disciple of Victor Sjostrom, one of the patriarchs of the Swedish film, honored in Wild Strawberries, he also inherited the understanding of nature as a dramatic element of support, like Monika and Desire, a film that aroused the interest of Woody Allen for him. Remembered by his obsessions more frequent as time goes on, death and the impossibility of communication, are present in several works, especially in Winter Light, The Seventh Seal, The Silence, Persona, and others. But critics note that the in-depth knowledge of his work reveals multiple talents. The Devil's Eye, Smiles of a Summer Night and All these women are films of lightness and good humor surprising, especially because they are the same author of works such as Shame, Face to Face and Life of Puppets.

With theatrical experience, having worked as director of the Municipal Theater and the Theater of Götheborg Malmoe, the director worked on a film with a cast that has hardly changed: Harriet Andersson, Erland Josephson, Max Von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Liv Ullman and Gunnar Björnstrand. They are the ones who lend their image to the work done on the basis of faces, screams, whispers and silences. Besides the many weddings, an experienced legal and economic chaos when accused of cheating the income taxes in the mid-70s, being condemned to live in seclusion in the island of Faro, which he left only to stage his plays or perform the special tv.

Approaches comparable to the existentialist philosophy, Ingmar Bergman's cinema has evolved from an anguished search for meaning in life for an original approach of the problems of human relationships. The religious environment who spent his childhood influenced his moral and intellectual formation. He was seduced by the film already in adolescence. But he began devoting himself to the theater, like many other filmmakers.

In 1949, while performing Fängelse (Prison), is faced with two issues. One, of philosophical, questions asked about the existence of God or good and evil, another satiric, focused on the problems of lack of communication between people. In another phase, in 1956, critics said he desperately sought a revelation that would help him understand life in all its extension, and the mystery of death. The most representative film of Bergman, the time was Sjunde inseglet Det (The Seventh Seal), an allegory set in medieval times when he obtained worldwide fame.

In the same year achieved great success at Cannes with Sommarnattens leende (Smiles of a Summer Night). This phase are also Ansiktet (Face), Jungfrukällan (The Virgin Spring) and Sasom en spegel (Through a Glass Darkly). In Viskingar och rop (Cries and Whispers) and Herbstsonate (Autumn Sonata) to prevent your vision brought to reality in distress and offered a hopeful alternative to the female protagonists, often in his films and always of fundamental importance. The achievements accumulated over his career culminated in 1983 with getting the Oscar for best foreign film, for Fanny och Alexander (Fanny and Alexander).

Bergman's cinema has not brought big news and not the so-called special effects that will mark the end of the twentieth century, but its excellent cast and direction of philosophical depth of the themes that dealt with the transformed one of the outstanding figures of world cinema. His anguished analysis of the human situation has lost none of the intensity over the years. The gradual elimination of the dispersive elements of adornment allowed his films were a great abstract drama about the relationship of man with his fellows and, perhaps, with God.

Bergman deals with man's attempt to define one's own personality, removing many shades to see that face appears behind. The images of the creator as an actor or as a magical return here and there in his work. Sometimes he incorporates aspects of thinker and actor, a preacher and a charlatan. He can blow all the papers to create an artist of great strength and individuality. The misty look of his films, especially before you use the effects of color, the images of the physical environment, and in the existential sense, to describe human feelings, assured him the realization of a distinctive style of expression.

Has shown a concern with the arrival of a totalitarian regime in The Serpent's Egg, an expression coined and is still used today to talk about pre-Nazi. In Saraband, returning to his main themes: suffering, loss of life, death is what really moves this director. The main character is Anna, the daughter of the late Johan's mother, Karin, Henrik's wife. All the characters revolve around this absent presence. He retired in 1983 after winning the Oscar.


The best intentions

The film The Best Intentions (Den Goda viljan), directed by Bille August and released in 1992, tells the life story of the parents of Ingmar Bergman. Henrik Bergman is a poor student of theology in 1909, who falls for Anna Åkerbloom, the daughter of a wealthy family of Uppsala. After marriage, Henrik became parish priest in northern Sweden. After a few years, Anna could not stand living in a rural county with people who are rude and uneducated. She returns to Uppsala and her husband is in the north.

This very pious man, strict and with little sense of humor, seems to have no problem also with premarital sex with his girlfriend and that he had with the woman he fell in love, mother of Ingmar. At the same time, Henrik is a staunch supporter of the working poor, even at times give the temple for a workers association meeting. The conflict is accentuated when an industrial member of the community, denounced the bishop and gets even angrier when the pastor does not suffer punishment for having a legitimate reason.

Bergman gets to narrate the pastoral care that his father-pastor gives the queen of Sweden in a crisis of depression and the invitation to work as a chaplain at a hospital in Uppsala. At this point, the filmmaker seems to overcome their pain and begin to understand his father, realizing the inconsistencies in it and the great difficulty expressing emotions. This set of facts surrounding the pastoral activity in a society rich with evidence of the decadence of Europe, especially to find out how to deal with social movements and labor at the time of the revolution of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Likewise, the new morality that can be more easily accepted today, was not at that time.


Bergman Filmography

Torment (Hets) – 1944
Crisis (Kris) - 1946
It Rains on Our Love (Det Regner paa Vaar Kärleck) -1946
Woman Without a Face (Kvinna utan ansikte) - 1947
A Ship to India (Skepp till Indialand) - 1947
Music in Darkness (Musik i mörker) - 1948
Port of Call (Hamnstad) - 1948
Eva -1948
Prison (Fängelse) - 1949
Thirst (Törst) - 1949
To Joy (Till glädje) - 1950
This can’t Happen here (Saat händer Inte här) - 1950
Summer Interlude (Sommarlek) – 1951
Divorced (Fränskild) - 1951
Secrets of Women (Kvinnors väntan) - 1952
Summer with Monica (Sommaren med Monika) - 1952
Sawdust and Tinsel (Gycklarnas Afton) - 1953
A Lesson in Love (En lektion i kärlek) - 1954
Dreams (Kvinnodröm) - 1955
Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens Leende) – 1955
Last Pair Out (Sista pare tut) - 1956
The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet) - 1957
Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället) - 1957
Brink of Life (Nära Livet) - 1958
The Magician (Ansiktet) - 1958
The Virgin Spring - (Jungfrukällan) - 1960
The Devil's Eye (Djävulens Oga) - 1960
Through a Glass Darkly (I Säsom en Spegel) - 1961
Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna) - 1963
The Silence (Tystnaden) - 1963
All these women (For att inte tala om alla dessa kvinnor) - 1964
Persona - 1966
Stimulantia - 1967
Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen) - 1968
Shame (Skammen) - 1968
Faro (Documentary) (Farödokument) - 1969
The Rite (Ritten) - 1969
The Passion of Anna (En Pasion) - 1970
The Touch (Beroringen) - 1971
Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop) - 1972
Scenes from a Marriage (Scener ur ett äktenskap) - 1973
The Magic Flute (Trollflöjten) - 1975
Face to Face (Ansiktet mot Ansiktet) - 1976
The Serpent's Egg (Das Schlangenei) - 1977
Autumn Sonata (Höstsonat) - 1978
From the life of the Marionettes (Aus dem Leben der marionetten) - 1980
Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) - 1982
Karin’s Face (Karins ansikte) – 1983
After the Rehearsal (Efter repetitionen) - 1984
The Blessed ones (De tvä saliga) - 1986
Diary of a Film (Dokument: Fanny och Alexander) - 1986
The Best Intentions (Den Goda viljan) - 1992 (Dir. Bille August)
Sunday’s children (Söndagsbarn) – 1992
Madame de Sade (Markisinnan de Sade) - 1992
Backanterna - 1993
Sista skriket - 1995
In the presence of a Clown – (Larmar och gör sig till) – 1997
Bildmakarna - 2000
Faithless – (Trolösa) – 2000
Anna – 2002
Saraband - 2003
Scenes from a Marriage 2 (ur ett äktenskap Scene 2) - 2003


Hans Küng: Christ is what makes this possible for me and so I believe him

Küng is a major Roman Catholic theologian who became known for his criticism of the dogma of papal infallibility and the Vatican's positions with regard to celibacy, the ordination of women and ecumenism. He was born on March 19, 1928 in Sursee, Canton Lucerne, Switzerland. She entered religious life, he studied at the Gregorian University in Rome and Paris and was ordained priest in 1954. In 1957 he was awarded his doctorate in theology with a thesis on Justification, which addresses the issue of justification by faith.

He became professor of theology at the University of Tübingen (1960-1996) in Germany, where he also headed the Institute for Ecumenical Research, from 1963. Played a key role at Vatican II. A dossier against him, started in 1957, was interrupted by appointment as peritus (theological consultant) by Pope John XXIII, a condition from which helped in drafting the conclusions of the Council renewing key areas of Catholic teaching and practice. Soon after the conclusion of the Council by Pope Paul VI, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and returned the dossier filed a lawsuit to revoke the chair of Küng and try to prevent publication of his books.

Since the early 1960's, Kung was one of the harshest critics of Papal Infallibility. He published 18 January 1970, the centennial of the declaration of papal infallibility, the book Infallible?, In which the character thoroughly studied and rejected the infallibility of the Pope and the Curia. "I think the important thing for a theologian is to express the concerns and hopes of the people present in the light of the Gospel. Thus it will also be taken seriously in Rome," said Hans Küng, in an interview with Deutsche Welle in the mid 70's when the conflict seemed to have calmed down.

In 1979 in major newspapers published the article One year of John Paul II, demonstrating that it only nominally accepted the Vatican, but in the substance centralization strengthened curial, imposed a cult of personality, has endorsed the exclusion of women from the priesthood and remain celibate for priests. As a result of that article and his critique of infallibility, the Pope stripped his license to teach Catholic theology. Küng wanted, at least, that the process was fair. Demanded the right to see documents and legal aid. "A process that does not respect these basic rights is against the Gospel," he said. The theologian has not been able to defend himself in Rome and shortly before Christmas 1979, the Vatican stripped him leave to speak on behalf of the Church.

Only it was not removed from the theological faculty of Tübingen, because German law, dedicating themselves to the teaching of Ecumenical Theology. You can continue your studies on ecumenism, particularly with regard to Lutheranism. Already in his doctoral thesis, had considered the possibility that a theological agreement between Catholicism and Lutheranism, which was signed in 1999. He retired as professor in 1996 and then was elected president of the Global Ethic Foundation (Weltethos), at Tübingen.



Far from being reduced to silence, he continued his task enlightening undertaking two major projects: addressing the current religious situation and a global ethic. Conducted studies on Christian traditions, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist and published works on ethics worldwide. "Globalization requires a global ethic that goes beyond the lines of conflict between nations, peoples and religions. If globalization is just a tool for maximizing profit, get ready for a serious social crisis," warned the World Economic Forum (1997, Davos, Switzerland).


Reasons why being a Christian

This small work of scalding Küng current issues in the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth and proposes that the Christian who is guided by his faith and thinks he independently found reason to remain in it. His ideas start from the common complaint about the (dis)advantages of being a Christian, only surpassed when it regains the sense of freedom, nonviolence, love and peace. And that concludes our time does not suffer from lack of organization, but guidance.

A civilized society and a state assume an order of law, which can’t exist without a conscience or moral ethics, which in turn require values, attitudes and basic standards. We can’t dispense with religion, because there is no unconditional duty to act without a certain authority with which it may require unconditional obedience to absolute. These values have always been Christians from the criteria. Therefore, assuming the burden of theological truth, opportune importune, it is difficult to contradict those who expect a different attitude of Christianity, whose church structures were accredited with legalism, opportunism, arrogance and intolerance.

If the unknown god (theos agnostos) of the Acts of the Apostles is faceless, the Judeo-Christian faith is concrete, it was revealed in history, does not devour those who approach, nor is ambivalent, confused, hypocritical, or double-sided, changeable and unpredictable. It's a God on behalf of humanity, beyond which there is no first and last reality for Jews, Christians and Muslims, friend and partner of the human being who can speak to. It is all-encompassing and all-pervading sense of things, which does not restrict absolute freedom, but enables, empowers and preserves the relative freedom of the world, so it is in its beginning and its end.

Whoever believes in Him, understanding by the reason. In his presence one can pray, offer sacrifices, bend your knees respectful, sing and dance, as taught by Heidegger. The guidance that we need comes from Jesus of Nazareth, the historical figure with a human face, who acted in His name, the father of the prodigal son, instead of the pious and righteous who is said from the beginning, who is also mother and gives the instead of just demand, but that does not humiliate reergue, does not condemn but forgives, but does not punish free, which makes it worth the grace, who rejoices in the conversion of the one unjust, more than 99 just, you want the limits to be abolished between good and bad, friends and enemies, far and near, and that did not die in anything but God, and that is living through God and with God.

The God is the same from the beginning of the end. The important thing is to follow. In everything he did and suffered, the cause of God incarnate. He calls to follow the match, guided by Him, is defining what being a Christian. In his cross found the answer to the question: why are honest, sensitive and, if possible, kind, even if we face loss, we target the cunning and brutality of others? In this spirit manifests itself to us a meaning and ultimate goal of life and history, the realization of human beings and humanity. On the cross, our existence crucified acquires the sense that suffering can’t undo. This is no shortcut to escape the negative, but the ability to endure without complaint or self-pity, walking through the negative to the future, which we took our life and suffering. Radical humanism involves not only the true, good and beautiful, but the false, the bad and the ugly, all too human and inhuman.

Response to the orientation crisis, Christ is the alternative between the revolutionary rebellion and moral cowardice, between hypercritical radicalism and no-crieteria accommodation. Following this advice makes people more humane and philanthropic organizations, and churches can again be open, welcoming, hospitable and truly reliable, bringing hope.

There will be no advance in the ecumenical spirit if not straight and true. He exorcised "out, unclean spirit, who separate and divide, to drag and delays! Stay away from the churches and their command centers, colleges and institutes of goups and committees. Stay away from people's hearts, our hearts. And leaves the space free! Gives way to the Holy Spirit, who, strong and soft at the same time, reconciles, unites and brings together, and that is the power of God! "We must leave the Middle Ages, despite the magic formulas and garbage Baroque, and is guided by Christ, keeping our eyes on the Kingdom of God and neighbor.


Basic Bibliography of Hans Küng

The Catholic Church - History Essential
Theology Way – Foundations for Interfaith Dialogue
Religions of the world - in search of common ground
The Christianity. Essence and history
Great Christian thinkers. A small introduction to theology
Theology for postmodernity
Structures of the Church
Infallible? An Inquiry / Unfehlbar?
Why Priests?
On Being A Christian
Does God Exist? An Answer For Today
Eternal Life?
Why I Am Still a Christian / Woran man sich halten kann / Razões porque ser cristão
Why still be a Christian today?
Paradigm Change in Theology
Reforming the Church Today. Keeping Hope Alive
The Church / Die Kirche / A Igreja
Global Ethic Project: an ecumenical moral in view of human survival
The Global Ethic for Global Politics and Economics
Women in Christianity
Tracing the Way. Spiritual Dimensions of the World Religions
The Catholic Church. A Short History
The beginning of all things. Science and religion / Der Anfang aller Dinge. Naturwissenschaft und Religion


Conclusion: the meaning of the search for meaning

Dialogue between two understandings are always complicated. These are the first polarities in which stands the dialogue of this work: the authors (a Swedish filmmaker, of Lutheran formation and a Catholic theologian), the forms of expression (art, film, and theology and the church’s labyrinths); and love and suffering (as existential basis for the message). The existential crisis of the losses, especially the mother, and several broken marriages, Bergman, is polarized with theological work, the thought that went beyond the magisterial marking, the right to express themselves, even with the prices to be paid, and expressed in maintaining the fidelity of the priesthood for more than half a century, that does not even have imagined that life.

For Bergman, one soon realizes that The best intentions, heavily dependent on other movies, it is a reunion with his father. To some who watched this film autobiographical made great sense. Excerpts from other films returned immediately to film buffs and lovers of his work, especially Fanny and Alexander. Although he has not directed The best intentions, when he wrote the script he was able to show significant part of the lives of mother and father's personality. Unlike the cruel and over-zealous preacher of Fanny and Alexander, in this work, the father-pastor is a human being divided and full of dichotomies. Apparently, he surrenders to love, after spending all his life and work in conflict with his father-pastor. Finally he could, by suffering, to prepare for the reunion with this figure who never stopped loving, but who never understood.

For Küng, the relationship involves affection and vocation. He looks at his church, and says that from the 60 it was opened out and closed in, struggled with poverty, but banned the pill, defended human rights but intimidated and punished theologians, opened to the world but discriminated against women, made the ecumenical visits but stressed Mary’s worship and closed the question of infallibility. In the balance of hopes and disappointments, successes and defeats, men and women left the religious life, the frequency dropped to worship, baptisms and weddings, and vocational crisis was dramatic.

Protagonist of clashes in the past half century, he gives the reasons of his strength, because it does not betray the dreams of youth, because our vision does not cease to be true in adversity, because it does not change the basic attitude and because character, convictions and honesty are fundamental moral duties. He was able to resist understand that success does not translate into numbers, which has not been proven beyond the strength and always got what he needed to resist because impotence is manifested in the power, strength in weakness, greatness in the smallness and in humility, self-confidence. The watches in the world don’t go backwards and the gospel is stronger than man's inability. He also said that needed physical and mental health, humor, lightness and people who did not forsake him in time of need. The results are not important, but always to preserve the trust unwavering and unconditional.

The two men made history, won hearts and minds, challenged the establishment and raised it. Your secret can be summarized in the verbs love and work, to remind one of Freud's concept of health. One followed the impulse of personal and existential pain, the other, prayed, discerned and titanically struggled to make himself heard, and in his voice, the cry of many. They received much, gave much of themselves, devoted to the cause of mankind and left a monumental legacy.