Metaphor, Paradox, and Truth

"Despair is a development of pride so great that it chooses one's certitude
rather than admit God is more creative than we are."
Paul Schrader's First Reformed (2017)

Points for Reflection

The Bible: Romans 5:1-8

1. As described by Paul, God's saving grace--though accessible to all--necessitates what precondition (v.1-2)?
2. Consider the path from suffering to hope outlined by Paul (v.3-4). Does this formula make sense? Does it seem logical or counter-intuitive? Do you prefer an alternative series of stages?
3. Does Paul suggest that suffering always leads to hope, or should we assume that certain variables not mentioned here need to be considered as well?
4. Paul feels it necessary to state directly that "hope does not put [believers] to shame" (v.5). Why would it? Do some individuals consider hope to be shameful?
5. Does Paul configure Christ's willing death on the cross as a logical or illogical act (v.6-8)?

The Bible: Mark 10:13-16

1. What might it mean to "receive the kingdom of God like a little child"?

The Bible: Matthew 13:3-23

1. How many different sowing/planting conditions are identified by Jesus in this parable, and what percentage of these conditions lead to a lamentable end (v.3-8)?
2. Why might Jesus differentiate among three different degrees of unsuccessful growth (v.8)?
3. Why does Jesus sometimes speak in parables (v.10-17) instead of more directly expressing his ideas (as he does, for instance, in the Sermon on the Mount--see Matthew 5-7)?
4. Why might Jesus undertake to explain this cryptic parable so carefully?

The Bible: I Corinthians 7:1-5

1. What does this passage suggest about the divinely ratified purpose of sex?
2. Does this passage privilege one gender over the other?
3. Under what limited circumstances does Paul suggest it is okay to abstain from physical intimacy?

C. S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain (1940), chp. 4

1. At the opening of the chapter entitled “Human Wickedness,” Lewis restates the thesis of chapter three, that whereas kindness only wishes others to feel good, love wants what is ultimately best for others, even if it involves pain and suffering (48, 32). He proceeds to argue that modern society has fixated on one of the traditional virtues above all others, kindness, and on a single vice, cruelty.  Do you agree with this distillation of contemporary morality, with Lewis’ claim that we are much less interested in such virtues as mercy, temperance, chastity, and humility (49, 58)?
2. Do you accept Lewis’s assertion that shame can be beneficial in helping us to confront such failings as cowardice, unchastity, falsehood, and envy (50, 61), or do you consider shame to usually be an unhealthy anxiety about very natural behavior (49-50)?
3. Why is a guilty conviction of our own sinfulness so foundational to Christianity (50-52)? Does this passage privilege one gender over the other?
4. What various defense mechanisms do humans apparently deploy to avoid facing up to the deep-rootedness of their sin?
5. What do you make of Lewis’ theory that salvation may consist of perfected humans rejoicing in those shameful sins that made God’s compassion more palpable, instead of the utter erasure of those sins (55)?
6. Do you agree both that all virtues are interconnected, and that every vice ultimately leads to cruelty (59)?
7. Why does Lewis value the insight involved with shame more than its concomitant emotion (61-62)?

Paul Schrader's First Reformed (2017)

1. What does Schrader’s use of the archaic 1.37:1 aspect ratio allow him to achieve when setting up shots of key characters?  Of settings?
2. Though the camera capturing the opening shot rests on a dolly as it moves ever closer to the church while performing a slow zoom, its orientation does not change.  Why might Schrader maintain this notably low-angle position?
3. What ambient, diegetic sounds predominate in the opening shot?
4. Why does Toller keep a diary, and what types of things does he record?
5. Toller muses about the reasons folk are called into the ministry.  Which seems applicable to himself?
6. Which pages do you think Toller removes from his journal?
7. What sort of menial jobs does Toller do around the campus at First Reformed?
8. What ministries and services is Abundant Life able to offer given their considerable funding stream?
9. Why was Michael ostensibly released from Fort Providence so early, and what actually motivates his request for a premature release?
10. Why does Mary decline the suggestion to take Michael to the team of counselors at Abundant Life?
11. When Toller visits Michael & Mary, he expresses a preference for tea over coffee (10:00).  What is his go-to drink these days?
12. Why might Toller initially attempt to sidestep the opportunity to counsel Michael?
13. The 1.37:1 aspect ratio retained for the tete-a-tete in the Mensana household stretch the edges of the figures sitting on the edges of the frame—as in many wide-angle shots.  Does this intentional straying from visual fidelity on the director’s part seem appropriate given the conversation’s content?
14. Why does Michael ask Toller his age (46 yrs) and mention his own (31 yrs)?
15. Where is Mary during Michael’s and Toller’s extended conversation?
16. At what does Toller point when he talks about “the blackness” that has always confronted humanity?
17. Do you agree “the only rational response is despair” when faced with dystopic conditions?
18. Why does Toller share details from his life story with Michael?
19. What did Toller and his wife name their son, and why is this significant?
20. Does Toller’s response to the reality of despair ring true for you?
21. What contradiction does Toller unwittingly provide Michael at their meeting’s end?
22. What does the state of the Toller’s bathroom signal about the state of the church he serves?
23. Does Toller enjoy providing tours of the church?
24. Why is the tourist’s lewd joke both inappropriate and appropriate?
25. Why place the tour of First Reformed immediately before introducing Abundant Life?
26. What role does Rev. Jeffers serve, relative to Toller’s own position?
27. At what points does Rev. Toller smile, and why?
28. Look up Acts 2:44-47. Which elements of this Bible passage—visible in the lunch scene at Abundant life—seem applicable to each of the two church congregations we’ve encountered?
29. In his autobiographical Confessions (397-400 A.D.), St. Augustine declares that God’s law requires humanity to limit sexual union “to acts intended to procreate children,” a reading that hinges in part on what some consider a misinterpretation of I Cor. 7:1 (Confessions 25). Does Rev. Toller express a decided opinion about sexual activity?
30. Where is Toller toiling just prior to receiving a call from Mary to come over immediately?
31. Toller considers various reasons pastors are called to the ministry.  Does one of these explanations appear to fit him well?
32. Why might Toller’s car cross the screen and disappear, allowing him to exit the car off screen and start up a conversation with Mary (visible in frame) before we can see him?
33. What concerns Toller most when Mary introduces him to their garage?
34. Why does Schrader have Toller narrate some of the thoughts he records in his diary throughout the day, instead of reserving these thoughts for the moments Toller actually writes them down?
35. How honest is Toller when recording his thoughts in the journal?
36. Why does Michael ask to meet Toller at the Red Diamond Trail?
37. Why might Schrader keep veiled from the audience the scene in which Mary receives very hard news?
38. Of the two main characters struck by grief halfway through the film, who expresses their feelings in the more productive manner?
39. What is Toller’s perspective on Michael’s activism?
40. To what warning signs is Toller alluding in his cryptic diary entry about the night he sleeps on a church pew?
41. What various forms and shapes does prayer take in this film, and do any seem preferable to others?
42. Does Toller effectively aid the youth group he assists?
43. What insight does Toller provide during the round table session with younger folk?
44. Does Reverend Jeffers consider global warming to be a problem?
45. What array of contemporary problems does Jeffers identify in the world inhabited by young people?
46. What form of extreme behavior does Reverend Jeffers claim is everywhere, even at Abundant Life?  How prescient is this observation?
47. What role is Toller intending to play at the consecration of his church?
48. How does Toller react to the lyrics of Neil Young’s “Who’s Gonna Stand Up?” (2014), sung at the Hanstown Kill?
49. Once again, a scene begins with Toller pushed to the side by the frame—this time barely visible as Edward Balq enters Millie’s Pancake House.  Why begin a scene dominated by dialogue with such asymmetry?
50. As Toller looks through the program for the consecration service, he considers the experiences of the many men who have served as pastor at the church, and wonders what, specifically?
51. When Toller expresses fear of falling while biking, what does the camera do?
52. How should we characterize the religious bent of Michael compared with that of Mary?
53. What articles does Toller discover while organizing boxes at Mary’s house?
54. What does Toller learn about Ed Balq’s companies while looking through Michael’s laptop?
55. What does Toller think—words likely recorded later in his journal—while replacing the message on the church’s sign board?
56. What health problems surface when Toller sees the doctor?
57. Does Toller live according to the principles he preaches, hallway through the film, from Matthew 6:25?
58. What posture does Reverend Jeffers adopt towards anxiety in that video message he records, which opens with his citing Psalm 37:8?
59. Consider the mise en scene of the hallway conversation between Esther and Toller at Abundant Life, following his two visits to the doctor. Why might Schrader choose this particular location and framing for this fraught conversation?
60. What combination of factors drives Toller to consider taking such drastic action as he contemplates following visits to the hospital in Albany?  Can you identify a likely moment when he makes his decision?
61. Why does Toller consider, and possibly copy, Revelation 11:18 (during the scene in which we see him cleaning trash from the graveyard)?
62. How long do Toller and his nighttime visitor remain out of the frame while talking?
63. Does the “Magical Mystery Tour” benefit both involved parties equally?
64. How do the images present during the “Magical Mystery Tour” morph over time?
65. Would you characterize the five young kids to whom Toller speaks at his church as a homogenous, or diverse, group?  Is the group’s composition appropriate given the subject matter Toller and Miss Suriya share with the kids?
66. What consolation does Toller offer Mary as she prepares to move?
67. What part of Ephesians 6:10-18 does Toller rehearse to himself while trying on a new outfit towards the end?  Is where he stops, in reciting the passage, significant?
68. What do we learn about Balq Industries during a tour of their facility?
69. Schrader strings together a series of relatively short scenes a minute or so in length.  Do these series of tiny scenes accelerate the film’s tempo, or maintain its steady pacing in a different way?
70. What does Reverend Jeffers mean by the observation that Toller is “always in the garden”?  Assuming this observation to be true, does Toller step outside the garden later on?
71. Reverend Jeffers notes that Jesus suffered for us so we wouldn’t have to suffer ourselves.  Is this congruent with Biblical teaching?
72. Whose perspective do you find more convincing when Toller and Jeffers go head-to-head?
73. What sort of friendship does Toller offer Mary?
74. Why does Toller shift gears the day of the reconsecration, and is there any way to explain the alternative course of action he takes?
75. Though Schrader does not use a traditional musical score in his film, at pivotal moments a deep, non-diegetic, digitally generated sound wells up. When does this happen, and what effect does it have?
76. Does the journal holding Toller’s recent thoughts meet the fate he anticipated?
77. What do you make of the unexpected ending?  Does it resolve matters in a thematically consistent way?

Wheat Ear (1947)
Salvador Dalí

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu