In a recent video on the Pints with Aquinas channel, Gregory Pine, O.P. voiced his concern that mass entertainment, particularly music and movies, is often an obstacle to achieving the heavenly end of contemplation for which we are made. What is noteworthy is that unlike the typical Catholic commentary on pop culture, Fr. Pine does not focus so much on the moral content of music and movies as how their very form affects us bodily, psychologically and spiritually.

In this discussion inspired by Fr. Pine’s points, host Thomas Mirus and filmmaker Nathan Douglas specify some elements of music and film which are obstacles to the contemplative life, but also suggest how, rather than simply eschewing music and movies, we can engage with better art in a deeper way which serves the contemplative end of man.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

6:31 Fr. Pine video recap

11:08 Risks of treating media as “junk food” rather than demanding better media

14:44 Cultivating openness to more artistic films

17:31 Discursive reasoning is not the highest mode of contemplation

20:26 Music is the most simply contemplative art form

22:58 The relation of film to reality

25:13 Advertising and glossiness in modern cinema

29:38 Problem with putting Catholic content into Hollywood forms

31:28 A film’s editing rhythm can hinder contemplation

38:24 Learning intuitively to tell hackwork from good craft

42:15 Rhythmic excitement doesn’t equal mediocrity

46:23 Conclusion of film discussion

48:02 Applying Augustine’s theory of evil as privation to art

49:34 The necessity of both lower and higher forms of music

55:46 In what sense should Catholics “engage with pop culture”?

59:33 Pop music dominated by computers, focused on lyrics, lack of melody

1:07:53 The personal element in art

1:12:08 Music, the senses, and contemplation beyond words

1:18:22 Music’s stimulation of the body

1:22:45 Using music to indulge emotions

1:27:09 Can music be “immoral”?

1:32:06 Mistaking slow for good in film

1:34:11 Educating the faithful for artistic depth

1:43:50 Can sense images serve the spiritual life?

1:49:18 What music communicates about reality

1:56:20 There’s no formula for beauty

2:01:08 Simple receptivity to God’s beauty

2:03:54 Recommended resources

Resources:

Fr. Gregory Pine, “I stopped listening to music.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVh4rHubNOc

Elizabeth-Paule Labat, The Song That I Am: On the Mystery of Music https://litpress.org/Products/MW040P/The-Song-That-I-Am

Etienne Gilson, The Arts of the Beautiful https://www.amazon.com/Arts-Beautiful-Scholarly-Etienne-Gilson/dp/1564782506

Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/category/criteria

CCP #126: How Charlie Parker’s Music Changed My Life https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/126-how-charlie-parker-changed-my-life

CCP #28: An Introduction to Maritain’s Poetic Philosophy w/ Samuel Hazo https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-28-introduction-to-maritains-poetic-philosophy-samuel-hazo

Nathan Douglas, The Vocation of Cinema https://vocationofcinema.substack.com

Fr. Pine's lecture on literature referenced by Nathan https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/literature-as-philosophy-fr-gregory-pine-op

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