I watched Kevin Smith's excellent special edition DVD of Dogma again last night for the umpteenth time, along with all the outtakes and deleted scenes for the first time. I still find the movie to be brilliant, and I appreciate some of the subtleties more and more each time I watch it — a mark, for me, of a truly excellent film. However, something hit me in the shower today which I couldn't precisely resolve, and so I figured I'd voice it here and see if there was any feedback on the matter (especially from the Catholics, because it's entirely possible that this seems perfectly natural to anybody who's sat through 18+ years of Sunday mass).
Of course, significant spoiler warnings apply if you haven't seen the film. (Which you should.)
Oh, one other note: re-reading the extended portion of this post now that I've written it, I would imagine that it could seem pretty heretical to a rigid Christian. So if you get bent out of shape by that sort of stuff, you should probably just move along now. Nothing to see here. Thank you for calling.
For the rest of you….
When Bethany is finally told what being the Last Scion really means, she flips out and runs screaming into the water, cursing Those Above for this being "too big."
But, I mean, is it really?
She wasn't told she was divine, nor divinity. When Metatron draws the parallels with how he had to do this "same thing" 2,000 years ago, he's talking about having to break the news of godhood to a teenage boy. But she's just told, "hey, your ultimate grandmother's Mary, whose first child you've been worshipping for a very long time."
Okay, a strain? Sure. I'll give you that. But she's just being shown a piece of her lineage. Mary was a human. Joseph was a human, untouched by any of this divine crud (as far as I know). It doesn't follow for me that this is the pinnacle of the flipping-out-grade knowledge.
Of course, that also means I don't understand how she can be imbued with the "family powers", either, as we see later, especially in the encounter with the Stygian Triplets. Ostensibly, it's not Mary's womb that's the granter of such divine gifts; from the little I know, it's the miracle of the Immaculate Conception that was the act of the imbuing of the divine fetus, in both substance and essence, unto her. (Granted, I've not had much direct conversation on the matter; generally, with the exception of my friends, you can't say the words "Mary" and "fetus" in the same sentence without causing a Catholic to twitch.)
So the Metatron has to counsel her, ease her into integrating this knowledge into herself.
Well, I'll take it on faith, I suppose.
(Of course, I've always been intrigued by the concept of "Dogma II: Revenge of the Scion", the story of Bethany's daughter. But then, I'm like that.)
Comments (4)
The Immaculate Conception was Mary's conception, not Jesus's. It refers not to the Virgin Birth but to the fact that Mary was born without Original Sin. (Ordinary people have to have the stain of original sin removed through baptism.)
Posted by Jacob Haller | January 16, 2005 11:59 AM
Posted on January 16, 2005 11:59
Alright, see, this is why I post musings like this here. Fundamental misconceptions about the Christian mythology seem to be a speciality of mine.
(No offense, Rufus.)
Thanks for the clarification!
Posted by Scott Swanson![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blog.truegeek.org/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 16, 2005 2:42 PM
Posted on January 16, 2005 14:42
There's also the possibility that she realizes the implications for her and motherhood, if she's currently the "last." This might add to the overwhelming factor.
And I've seen people freak out that badly over what ought to be fairly trivial things, too, so I don't think she's completely out of line.
Posted by skywind | January 16, 2005 3:07 PM
Posted on January 16, 2005 15:07
I think Bethany's problem is that her religion suddenly got personal. She'd been going to Mass and not feeling anything. But on some level, she probably prefered it that way because it meant that she really didn't have to shape her life around 'being Catholic'.
All of the sudden she's the last Scion, God is MIA, and she has to save the world. And that's what was too big...not just her lineage (not to mention the fact she just found out that all the stuff that before was supposed to be 'faith' was in fact true).
Sorry, this a crude mashup of what I'd like to say. Dogma is my favorite movie, and a few books could be written about it, let alone an entry comment.
Posted by Mary | January 17, 2005 9:54 AM
Posted on January 17, 2005 09:54