MOMA exhibition article -- Your spiritual guide . . . Bill Murray?

A comment on the general faith and pop culture subject.

New York's Museum of Modern Art is in the middle of a series called "The Hidden God: Film and Faith" which is showing films featuring "the theme of a hidden spirituality, or, alternatively, of spirituality�s absence." The schedule is on the MOMA site. One of the films is Groundhog Day, and this article, "Your spiritual guide . . . Bill Murray?" asks, "It turns out, curators say, that religious scholars from many different traditions have used the movie for years to teach fundamental spiritual themes. Who knew?" The article interviews one of the writers, as well as reporting on Lutheran, Buddhist, Jewish, Wiccan, Falun Gong, and Catholic interpretations of the film, and it turns out, guess what.... they all knew!

Really nice to see an article in secular media that can grasp the concept that the reason theologians point it out, when pop culture does theology, is not that religious institutions are so desperate to lure the youth in that we'll cravenly stick in phony references to anything we think they'll like. It's that - who knew? - pop culture is doing theology and theologians are interested in theology.