Bishop Barron on Woody Allen's Bleak Vision

Woody Allen may profess a nihilistic worldview, but it doesn't seem he believes his own philosophy.

[christophermartin]

I was once like this. An atheist who read camus and sartre. Until Iread the sstranger, and the tale of Sisyphus, but I couldn't accept this bleak nihlism. Eventually God pulled me out just like peter from the drowning waters. I think it's just a symptom of our age. We live in a cynical nihilistic age full of violence and turmoil.. I believe in a few hundred years the world will seem full of wonder and beauty again. When we starte to explore our universe and actually reach out and touch a reflection of the divine! God help us in the meantime.

[jessewallaceable]

Such a great philosophical commentary Father Barron. Amazing. Thank you.

[trishknaut]

Jesus called me out of the grave out of my despair, healing my broken heart, believing a lie that he did not love me, like the woman at the well I was worshipping a God I did not know, I was like the doubting Thomas, and now I know that " perfect love casts out fear" 1st John 4:18, before that I medicated with the beautiful things of this world to cope with that longing for intimacy with my Matthew 28:6 "He is risen!"

[tinman]

I think Fr B. makes a good case that there's no pure nihilists.

[aleph]

There's a famous quote from Isaac Newton, which I can't remember now, but it goes something like this. Newton, who was deeply religious, is speaking about his life when he was an old man. My life has appeared to me as if I was a young boy turning over one fascinating seashell after another on the beach, when the vast ocean of truth surrounds me. You hit a home run, Father Barron, with this video. Thank you!!

[robgosnell]

In both the films sited by Fr Barron ("Crimes and Misdemeanors" & "Match Point"), while characters literally get away with murder, Allen still requires us to observe them through a moral lens - a moral lens without which neither narrative would amount to more than an open-ended series of dull and empty encounters. This is so utterly at variance with his avowed nihilism that I'm compelled to wonder if he's not begging to be proven wrong.

[Sisktube]

i really enjoy your takes and tastes bishop barron. thanks!

[bygonevexation]

FINALLY a video on nihilism... nihilism is that horse that no one can tame accept those who are nihilists themselves... do you see the paradox? Fr Barron please do a review of Django Unchained

[rapcase]

Character includes caring, truth, honesty, respect, responsibility, citizenship, courage and other behaviors. We don't seem to think about these and focus on diversions.

[PaulBennettPrescott]

Well done! One of your best! I'm sure Woody's nihilism stems from the fact that he did not pay for his own crimes. The inner voice within us demands justice, even for ourselves. We want to pay for our sins, and if we start to feel we are getting away with something scot-free, we feel abandoned by God. Children need parental guidance.

[maggiexiaominwu]

Isn't this love, as a force so compelling to ask us look outwardly to continue the discovery of beauty, virtue, moral and truth...

[retsea]

Interesting thing about what he said is that "distractions" are what keep people away from God. It is one of the roles that sin fulfills, by keeping people from thinking about reality. Even nihilists such a Allen fall short of Logos. There is some intimate sin at work, there.

[oldschoolsaint]

Father Barron,

I just saw Allen's latest movie, Magic in the Moonlight. I too was struck by the materialist message it portrayed from beginning to end...well almost. I don't want to give away the end of the movie but it did leave me wondering if Allen had not in fact pulled a bait and switch on the audience by in fact opening the door to the luminous and an act of irrational and inexplicable love. It made me scratch my head as I exited the theatre. I'd be very interested in your take on the movie.

[ruly]

Woody Allen has had a really sad life. He’s been obsessed with death since he was a child and the idea that he will die with his image destroyed by accusations of him being a child molester. It’s really sad. It’s sad if those allegations are true but down right heartbreaking if they are not. I hope the truth comes out in the end. Whatever the truth may be

[Blakedenenny]

The problem with nihilism is that almost nobody is, in reality, a nihilist. People who claim to deny the existence of moral truths only do so when it doesn't affect THEM. Those who claim that there is no point to life usually do not behave as if they actually believed this because they continue to love, to stand behind certain morals, and to look for and value truth. Nihilism always creates cognitive dissonance in people because it is in our nature to behave as if there were a meaning to everything, and we behave this way because THERE IS a meaning to everything. 

[lukehall]

Love your using Joyce, an artist who towers over Woody Allen (and who interestingly is not in Midnight in Paris), to reveal the sophomoric nature of existstential nihilism.

[JimBillyRayBob]

I saw an incredibly unusually beautiful woman one day years ago. I was struck and it stopped me in my tracks. Then something strange for me at the time happened. Words just appeared in my mind and I said to myself: "That is not God. God made her." It was a powerful experience.

[AeonsOfFrost]

Ben from C&M argues the position of traditional morality: "Without the law, it's all darkness." It's true that good doesn't win out, but that line always stuck with me.

[jessewallaceable]

I wish Father Barron could speak about Bart Ehrman and his work on the bible.

[rfly]

Irrational Man is another Woody Allen movie that is philosophical and bleak, based on the William Bartlett book, which discusses the existentialist philosophers.