The other day I shared my thoughts on a review of the new film adaption of the stage musical “Wicked”. I thought that the review missed the mark in terms of its cultural analysis. I thought it would be worth following up by sharing how I would engage with the story from a Gospel perspective. I’m basing my commentary on the stage show as I’ve not yet seen the film.
The approach I’m taking is one of “subversive fulfilment” which hopefully readers will be familiar with. I discuss this apologetic approach in more detail and provide another example in my e-book “Hope for the City.” This is essentially presuppositional apologetics of the kind associated with people such as Dan Strange, John Frame and Tim Keller in recent times but owing its roots to Van Til, Hendrik Kraemer and JH Bavinck.
The principle is that we all have longings, hopes and desires but how we seek to fulfil them is based on our underlying worldview, our presuppositions about the big questions “Is there more than this?” “If so, what is it?” “Why are we here?” “Do we have purpose and hope?” Or in other words, the big systematic theology questions about “Who is God?” “What is Creation?” “What does it mean to be human?” and “What is New Creation?” Those questions provide connection points with the Gospel because we believe that those questions are answered in Christ. In other words, he is the only one who can fulfil our hopes and dreams. However, subversion is necessary first because we answer those questions and seek fulfilment in our idols and false beliefs.
So, it is helpful to begin by looking at the presuppositions, hopes and dreams that are expressed in Wicked. First in terms of the questions about who we are, our identity and where we have come from. We notice a few things about Wicked. As was picked up in the TGC review but negatively, Wicked subverts the premise of the original Wicked of OZ that offered a black and white, cartoon-esq image of a world of wicked witches and monsters representing evil against good witches and creatures and human visitors who sought to act as saviour figures in their different ways. Wicked challenges this. We are presented with flawed people seeking hope and fulfilment in the Wizard. There are those simply seeking contentment in hedonistic enjoyment whilst others seek purpose in fighting for justice.
Wicked does have a philosophy about where the problem or problems are that hinder meaning and purpose. Again, the review is correct in picking up on the focus on power, corruption, inequality and injustice. However, we also see the vain pursuit of popularity.
The wizard was a benign and feeble mortal human being hiding behind a fearsome image, behind the curtain in order to attempt to govern Oz. The answer to the question “Is there more than this” is? “No there isn’t”. There is only disappointment behind the curtain. This of course was true in the original and the premise holds in the prequel/reimagining.
Disappointment in the Wizard leads to Elphaba pursuing autonomous freedom and seeking to use her own powers for good with unintended consequences. In the end there is recognition that we cannot achieve alone, that we are not unlimited, we need each other, although even then the final song plays on the words “for good”. We cannot promise that change will be for good in the sense of “for the better” but it will be “for good” in the sense that it is real and lasting.
We will want to affirm the recognition that good and evil is more complex than cartoon heroes and villains. We do not live in a world where most of us are neutral and there are perfectly good heroes at the one end of the spectrum and evil villains at the other end. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We recognise therefore at one and the same time that humans are both Totally Depraved so that sin affects every aspect of our lives and still mae in the image of God with all of the value and dignity that goes with this.
We also should affirm that wickedness works itself out through some of us seeking power to control and manipulate others whilst some of us seek it in pleasure. We can name these things as idols. We might indeed identify three idols, power/status, comfort and identity. If some of the protagonists seek power whilst others look to their own comfort and hedonistic lifestyle, “dancing through life, Glinda and Elphaba seek it through their identity, how do they perceive themselves, how do others perceive them. For Glinda, it’s the desire for popularity, for Elphaba it’s in the hope that the Wizard will accept her and her talents.
We can affirm what both The Wizard of Oz and Wicked show us, there is only disappointment behind the curtain. Our gods, made in our own image are weak and powerless. They have nothing to offer.
This means that we would also affirm something of the hopes and dreams expressed in the story which reflect many of the hopes and dreams of people today. It is a good thing to want to use power to bring change for the benefit of others. The desire to be recognised, loved, with others is understandable too and good. The film rightly recognises that these things canot be fulfilled in autonomy.
However, and this is the crucial point, the weakness to the ending reflects the way in which human attempts to fulfil those hopes always end in disappointment because we look in the wrong places. There are three attempted saviours of Oz, The Wizard, Elphaba and Glinda, all fail. We might ask too if Dorothy really has much more to offer, the implication is that she isn’t really the accidental hero killing off the bad witches.
These weak, human god-saviours will fail because ultimately Oz is alone. In the same way, our Godless World is alone so that our god-saviours disappoint. That’s’ why we need the Gospel. That’s why we need God himself to step in. Jesus is the true and better Oz, Elphaba, Glinda, Dorothy because he is God with us. It’s fascinating that Wicked comes out at Christmas time, just in time to help us point to that true and better hope.
Faithroots 