Constantine: Bad Theology Then and Now

I recently viewed the movie Constantine with Keanu Reeves (I got it free from Blockbuster because it was guaranteed to be there, and it wasn't there--this is a great way to get movies) and was not greatly surprised. The movie lived up to the reputation of its namesake--it misunderstood the Christian conception of the universe and had awful theology. The understanding of God and the universe presented in this movie was clearly based upon some sort of medieval Roman Catholic views (taken to a great Hollywood extreme).

In the movie, John Constantine, played by Reeves, hunts and kills demons with holy water and dragons breath--sending them back to hell. The demons possess people, kill people, and try to break through into the human realm of reality--which is against the balance.

While all of this makes for an entertaining movie, it is way off from the Biblical perspective (and yes, there is one unique Biblical perspective that we can understand). There are many misconceptions in the movie--such as the existence of separate realms of existence for God (or maybe I should say, "god") and angels, humans, and demons. In this conception, God (I'm going to start referring to this movie's conception of God as "god" from now on) and the devil (who looks like he just came out of the movie "Saturday Night Fever") have made a wager. In this wager, god and Satan are supposed to be powerless to act to coerce humans to join their sides, but they can try to persuade people (quite a different conception of reality from Jeremiah 31:31-34). And of course, people are fundamentally neutral agents who can choose to be good or evil (a far cry from Romans 1-7).

In the movie, the devil has a son (since god had a son--they don't detail how that happend, nor do they detail how the devil has a son either--the movie might assume some kind of either sexual or asexual reproduction--but it certainly is not understanding God the Son as being eternally begotten/generating from the Father), who is probably meant to be the antiChrist or something (if they said something about this, I totally missed it--which is possible because I was reading while I watched the movie). Also, angels such as Gabriel, are conceived as some kind of human/angel hybrid--and so angels of this sort can interact with humans in this realm of existence. However, unlike the Biblical universe, demons are not powers in this world who can interact in this world (cf. Ephesians 2:2, 6:11-12), but they dwell in hell--and apparently they are some sort of agents of hell, rather than part of those who receive hell's horrors and torrements). Hell in the movie seemed to lack God completely, rather than be the place where the rebellious receive God's hatred and wrath and are completely cut off from His love and kindness.

There is also the clear conception in this movie that those who commit suicide go straight to Hell (medieval Roman Catholic doctrine, no where to be found in the Bible). The god in this movie is small, weak, and unimpressive. He cannot save--in other words, Jesus' death does not effectually save people. Rather, salvation is based upon belief and self-sacrifice (in the Biblical understanding, salvation is based not upon subjective faith, but rather upon the object in which that faith is placed--faith brings salvation because it takes hold of Christ, the One who saves). Also, regeneration and repentance are clearly not necessary in this movie--this is clear because as John rises to heaven, he gives the devil (who belongs in a disco hall, not hell) 'the bird,' in a way that makes it seem like god does not see him do it.

So, if you are looking for a movie with bad theology, a misrepresentation of the Christian worldview, but with suspense and action (there was also no sexual content), then my full recommendation goes out for you to watch this movie. However, if you are not the discerning type, and you are not secure in your understanding of the Christian faith, do not watch this movie.