| This thesis explores the spiritual vision of Dutch award winning films, many of which have no direct reference to God or interest in God. The thesis contends that in the spirituality of everyday life that these storytellers present, there is an alternate, but profound spirituality to that which is found in the Dutch church. It is spirituality in contingency. There is within the happenstance of our experiences for those who have "eyes to see" the possibility of divine participation, even providence.;Chapter I opens with a discussion of two major interpretive paradigms for contemporary Dutch society, namely those of (transformed) spirituality and secularism. These paradigms were tested in a process of in-depth interviews, leading to the conclusion that neither is an adequate foundational category today. Rather "spiritual humanism" is at the center of contemporary life.;To gauge the content and practice of spiritual humanism, chapters II, III and IV contain the detailed investigations of six award-winning films, each of which conveys a particular spiritual vision.;Drawing on the film analysis discussed in the previous chapters, chapter V shows the emerging shape of spiritual humanism. Its contours are drawn by such notions as authenticity, presence, belonging, resistance, risk and freedom. The transcendental potential of these qualities put the two-dimensional, earth-bound quality of contemporary life and practice in three-dimensional relief. These secular stories are shown to be carriers of spirituality in disguise.;Such a spiritual humanism has deep repercussions for theology. For its theological reflection in the final chapter, this thesis draws on the work of Gerardus van der Leeuw and Wolfhart Pannenberg, among others, each of whom have reflected deeply on the challenges their cultures and times confronted them with. Following his Dutch Reformed tradition, Van der Leeuw draws attention to art's spiritual and revelatory potential, while at the heart of Pannenberg's pneumatology is the Spirit's role in the ongoing process of creation. Finally, the dissertation calls for the church in the Netherlands to step outside the comfort of its dogma and traditions and find in the relational spirituality of this humanism a vital part of Divine self-disclosure. |
