The Gospel According to Chris Nolan

One of the biggest movies of 2008 so far is The Dark Knight, directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan, is not just one of the most highly grossing movies of all-time it is chock full of opportunities for discussing biblical theology. Other folks have commented on the theological ideas behind movie. One blogger whose insight I have enjoyed reading goes by the name "Dr. Ransom". You can read his articles called Heroes, Sin, the Knight's Dark Doctrine and More on darkness, light and 'The Dark Knight'. I'd like to add my own two cents, responding to these articles, the movie itself, and why this is an important subject.

Several Christians and people who don't believe in anything may wonder why or how a film about a man who dresses up as a bat and goes out and hits people, based on a comic book that started in 1939, could have anything meaningful in it about God, theology, and humanity? The truth is that there is so much there. To begin to understand you have to consider why Batman has been continually published for close 60 years and why the movie was made successfully in the first place. This actually breaks into three questions. First, the Batman character and all of the characters that populate his world are extremely popular because they like all of the greatest fictional characters of human history perfectly symbolize different and conflicting aspects of human. Through them we can truly explore what it means to be human. Second, of course the movie was made to explore Batman and his world in as many different genres as possible (to make as much money as possible....oh well what you gonna do?) and the other movies (5 before this one since 1989) made a lot of money. Third, the reason why this film is so successful is because the writers, director, producers, and actors really get the characters and were able to leverage all that makes the comics great. In addition, the story really seems tailor made for our times and culture today.

As Dr. Ransom points out in his articles that many movie critics missed the key Christian concepts of sacrifice and substitutional atonement that filled the movie. He deconstructed their arguments so well that I won't waste the time making the same points he did. He and a few others are very quick to equate Batman's and Gordon's decision to put the blame for Harvey Dent's murders (sins) on Batman himself to protect Dent's reputation and legacy with Jesus sacrificing himself for us so that he bore the punishment for our sins - death; with the Joker cast as Satan. I agree that the comparison has merit but it does fall down. I'm not suggesting that Dr Ransom is equating Batman to Jesus only that there is a symbolic parallel to help understand what the Gospel is and is not. I would say that analogy falls down if pressed on just a little harder. Having spent the last year studying human free choice (Arminianism) and God's sovereignty (Calvinism), I saw the film depiction as being more Arminian. I'll go into this a little further later on.

Batman is Batman because of the choices he makes. He is willing to do whatever he thinks is necessary to achieve his goals to protect innocent people and bring justice to those exploit others. He is driven to keep others from experiencing the horror and pain that was inflicted on him watching his parents being murdered right before his eyes as a child. The Joker's goal in the film seemed to break Batman. Knowing that Batman does not kill, the Joker was determined to push Batman to the point that he would kill the Joker. Batman is heroic because he refused to fall into this trap even when the Joker killed the woman he loved. It was obvious to the Joker that she was special to Batman when he jumped out of a window to save her when the Joker through her out a window. Harvey Dent was also in love with her, but the Joker was able to scar him not only emotionally like Batman, but also physically. Then the Joker was able to twist Dent's mind to get him to kill all those whom he blamed for the death of his lady - even his allies Batman and Commissioner Gordon. He blamed Batman and Gordon because they did not save her and blamed the 5 cops who were bribed to help the Joker kidnap him and the girl leading to his disfigurement and her death. The Joker was so cunning that he was able to get Dent to blame everyone but the Joker. Sounds like the devil.

When Batman was interrogating the Joker in the film, the Joker made it clear he didn't care about money or power. All he wanted was to show that everyone is just as cracked and depraved himself and if given the right circumstances anyone would given in to their baser instincts. He reminded me of the way Satan is shown in the book of Job. Satan challenged God saying that if you let me break him, Job will hate you and turn on you. Like Batman, Job didn't fall for the temptation. Harvey Dent did. I got to say that under the same strain that Harvey Dent was under that most people would fail and some might argue that he was under more psychological trauma than Batman due to the scarring of his face and the falling to a place where he could no longer make decisions without flipping a coin, but I would argue that Batman's scars are just as deep. They go back to childhood. He just chooses to daily deal with them differently...he refuses to kill those he considers responsible.

As I stated I agree that Batman choosing to take the blame for the murder of the five police officers by Harvey Dent is a good analogy for what Jesus did for us. In effect Batman chose to be labeled the villain and allow Dent to be a martyr for Gotham City at the hands of the Joker. Batman offers himself as a scapegoat The reason why the analogy does not fully hold is because everyone knew, even at the time Jesus was crucified, that Jesus was innocent of any wrong doing. They knew that he should not have been executed. The reason why Batman was the obvious choice to take the blame is that the public does not know who he is or what he would be capable of doing. I don't know what the next movie will be like, but when he gets tired of being hounded by the authorities he can take his mask off and be Bruce Wayne - a millionaire playboy. How high a sacrifice will it really be...it'll make it harder to be Batman in many ways but also it could make criminals more frightened of him - a plus. On the other hand, Jesus horribly died.

To accept this analogy of the Gospel with The Dark Knight means symbolizing Jesus with Batman, Dent with us, and Satan with the Joker. This is definitely an Arminian view. The heart of Arminian theology is the thought that all people have it within themselves to choose to follow Jesus or not to follow Jesus. That we are not so depraved that we need a new heart and a new mind than the one we come into the world with. The view is that like Dent, we are all basically good and until the choice is presented to us and we reject Christ our eternal destiny is uncertain. Like Batman, Jesus took our place as taking the blame for our sins. Dent is the sinner. Here things break down more because Dent dies because of the choices he makes. Jesus died because we choose to disobey God. He took not just the blame, but the punishment in our place. Batman only took the blame and not the full weight of Dent's sins.

Apologist James White would say that you cannot be a historically consistent Arminian because they used to reject substitutionary atonement because how could Jesus' death set aside the punishment for sins of those who will not ever be saved from hell. Put another way: when Jesus died did he pay for the sin of everyone who has ever lived and ever will live or just for those who believe in Jesus Christ - the elect? Calvinists like White say Jesus died for only the elect. Arminians say that Jesus' atoning sacrifice has universal scope but applied only to those who choose to accept Jesus Christ. My opinion will be stated in a different article. For the purpose of this article I am going to allow those Arminians to have their cake and eat it too.

Instead, I want to turn attention to a Calvinistic view of the movie. To make it truly Calvinistic would mean changing the movies plot to fit Jesus even more. Joker is actually more like us than like Harvey Dent. We would need to see that the Joker symbolizes us before we are saved - depraved, evil, selfish, and with no hope of reconciliation with society and God. Jesus performed a miracle that Batman could not do when he saved us - turning us from Jokers into Commissioner Gordons. Like Gordon after Batman emerges in Gotham City, he has more freedom to do good. That is what belief in Jesus brings freedom from the consequences of sin and death. Batman's death in the movie was a death of reputation. Jesus actually died and proved his claims of deity by rising from the dead bodily not metaphorically. Because he conquered death, through him we will be raised to life. Batman sacrificed his reputation to make sure the Gotham City does not loose hope because Dent fell from grace. May be in Nolan's trilogy, Batman will be able to "resurrect" his reputation, I don't know what that story will be about, but at least we know that Jesus was raised from the dead for our justification and through him we have eternal life.