Review: You'll find 'The Christians' provocative or sacrilegious. That's why you gotta see it.
It all starts with a sermon.
Delivered by Pastor Paul (Nathan Houseman) to his church congregation, he speaks of a concept wrestling in his mind and heart: what if there is no such thing as hell? And if hell isn't real, then what about Satan?
This isn't a film premiere at the Cannes Film Festival –– he isn't met with 15 minutes of standing ovation. Instead, his associate pastor, Joshua (Andrew Ramcharan Guilarte), is aghast at the accusation. If there is no hell, no Satan, then what are we striving for? What are these people doing in this church if not to better explore good deeds that keep their fear of hell at bay?
It's up to the audience member to determine who is correct.
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Is Pastor Paul right to say that the Bible makes no concrete mention of a destination of hell and that we should more focus on how we engage with our common neighbor rather than attempting to do what needs to be done in order to avoid a fiery afterlife? Or is Associate Pastor Joshua correct, and we need these guidelines –– these binary delineations –– to give us structure, to give us purpose and to alleviate that doubt and anxiety, and to try and save as many people as we can?
This reviewer tends to lean towards the former.
Where "The Christians" truly captures your attention is in this binary struggle between two philosophical concepts. There is no good reasoning or bad reasoning, but two points of view clashing with one another because of passion and fear. But listening to the inception of Pastor Paul's sermon, the key lies in his frequent line that the gulf of communication between us and the rest of the world is insurmountable.
What he means is that we are unable to leave our self-imposed bubble long enough to actively engage in a conversation like the ones he's having on the stage. Instead, we retreat –– finding solace in similar views so that the anxiety is sated, at least for another day.
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It would be easy to point towards the cultural divide of the United States as a good parallel –– the philosophy of this play and the constant media barrage to find "common ground" among ourselves. Even recently, President Biden urged Americans to fight for the soul of the country, but not before demonizing a large swath of them.
Conversation like these are not always an easy skill, and it's one that requires a great deal of humility –– a trait that some are either too fearful to give up, or see a weakness in forfeiting that. But the concept of common ground is also a myth. Sure, we're all humans; derived from the same scientific origins and functioning in much of the same ways as one another on many root, basic levels. But at the same time, because we are human, we also have advanced cognitive functions that test and rile us in ways other organisms don't have to deal with.
Let's strip our present mind out of the equation for one second and look at what the pastor is proposing. Is that so irrevocably bad that there isn't a hell?
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At one point in the play, a crying congregant (played by Ashley Wheeler) asks Pastor Paul if there's no hell then where does Hitler go? He fumbles the answer, but it highlights the overlooked aspect of his original speech.
If there's no hell, then there isn't a goal post on either side of the field. Is the goal of life to earn enough points where you'll eventual enter either side, securing your final spot?
Or is it to just genuinely be a good person, striving daily to serve others around you and provide for your family and your community, which seems like a natural path to heaven?
In his sermon, Pastor Paul tells a story from a missionary of a young boy running into a burning building to save his sister, the flames eventually engulfing and killing him while his sister survived. According to the missionary telling the story, the boy didn't accept Jesus as his savior and was destined to hell, even after his act. Pastor Paul struggles with this –– how can a boy, who sacrificed himself in a much greater way than anyone else in this room has ever done, get destined to hell?
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And it's a fair point: in that story, the boy went above and beyond his call, and sacrificed himself and his life to save the life and future of his sister. If we're looking at first-ballot heaven entries, he would seem natural to be one –– rest of the resume be damned.
I'm sure many seeing the posters or advertising, or maybe even reading this review, will object to all of this and all of what "The Christians" are trying to do. That fear of release into the unknown void is harrowing, and many don't elect to let go and fall into that. But that isn't what this is.
It's a reminder that faith is meant to be challenged and discussed. At its core, it is philosophy, which is a study that wasn't built to be finalized but made to be a constant stream of discussion and construction from the ideas before it.
In that respect, "The Christians" takes the core, modern beliefs of Christianity and brings them into a Socratic dialogue. The stage works as a forum –– each actor with handheld microphone in hand, each getting their moment in the light. If you, dear reader, truly view yourself as someone of faith, it seems almost a duty to attend this and let these concepts dance in your mind. In the end, you may not buy any of them but that's fine –– the point is to think.
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"The Christians" is no sacrilege to Christianity as it would be to any other religion. It's a reminder that to grow, both individually and collectively, we must challenges our tenets and make sure we're following what's good, not just what we've told ourselves is supposed to be good.
But maybe that is the most offensive thing in the world.
Tickets are still available at savannahrep.org. The show runs Sept. 16-18 followed by Sept. 22-25 with all performances held at Asbury Memorial Theatre, 1008 E. Henry St.
Zach Dennis is the editor of the arts and culture section, and weekly Do Savannah alt-weekly publication at the Savannah Morning News. He can be reached at zdennis@savannahnow.com or 912-239-7706.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Review: Savannah Rep presents The Christians at Asbury Memorial Church
