What did you think of (blank)?

Got this from workshops. One of the Church workers put it together and it seems to be very useful to start thinking through a Christian approach to any art whether film or music or whatever else ...

(N.b If I am breaking any publication rules posting this please notify and I will delete this post!(Think it is ok though!))

QUESTIONS TO ASK OF ART?

Remember: when it comes to a worldview (see James Sire, The Universe Next Door, IVP) the following questions are important?

What is ultimate reality?
What is the nature and meaning of history?
What happens after a human’s death?
What is the human predicament? What is its solution?
The following questions help us to engage better with contemporary film, music, and literature. Some questions, to be sure, lend themselves better to one medium than others. Still, the notion of worldview issues is the aim of asking any question.

To which, I add my own further questions:

Does this worldview (explicit or implied) describe the universe we already know?
Does this worldview describe the ‘you’ and ‘me’ we already know?
Is it consistent with itself?
Is it liveable?

So, therefore:

From what you can see and tell, what do you think are the director’s, author’s, or performer’s, presuppositions?
What questions and issues does the ‘work’ raise?
What light, or answers, or insights does the work offer concerning these issues?
Does the work say anything about ‘truth’? What understandings of ‘truth’ emerge from this work?
What truths (in this case, from the Christian notion of true truth) are revealed in this work?
What view(s) does the work present as to who men and women are?
What criteria does it seem to reveal regarding being human? Does it tell you anything about what it means to be human?
What views are offered concerning human relationships?
Is there any view or philosophy of what is history?
Does the artist require us to make any intellectual or moral somersaults to accept the work’s worldview and conclusions?
Can you see any overall thrust to this work? Have you been rubbished or built up by this work?
Bear in mind:
The weight of supposedly lightweight films, books, music or cultural events increasingly crushes or weakens the knowledge of truth, history, morals, and virtues.

GJ McGrath