Director Martin Scorsese: Christianity is Where I Find Meaning in Life

Mark Ellis : Feb 1, 2017
God Reports

"I felt the idea of Christianity had to be reinvented in cinema to make it accessible to the young generation..."

[God Reports] Academy Award winning director Martin Scorsese spoke at Fuller Seminary recently after a private screening of his new film "Silence," the formidable saga of Jesuit missionaries in 17th-century Japan based on the novel by Shusaku Endo. (Photo: Scorsese at Fuller/via God Reports)

At the screening, Scorsese reflected on his years-long struggle to make the film and its impact on his Christian faith.

"Where do I go to find the meaning of existence and the meaning of life? For me, it's Christianity," Scorsese told Brehm Center Director Mako Fujimura (who served as a consultant to the film) and Kutter Callaway, an asst. professor of theology and culture at Fuller.

Without the love and compassion inherent in Christianity, there is little hope for humanity, he said. "This is the real saving grace of our world, of our species, really," he declared.

Scorsese has been thinking about the book and the film project since 1989. "Reading over the last 20 years I've found authors apologizing for a Christian attitude, another one saying, ‘This seems disturbingly Christian.'"

"Is that getting into the politics of it, or does it mean that compassion and love for each other is wrong? What is going to happen if we don't have that? The species is over," he said.

Many years ago, as a student at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, Scorsese's admiration for a young priest caused him to seriously consider entering the priesthood, but that gave way to a passion for cinema.

"If you haven't given your life to the calling, if one is not clergy, how does one express and live a true Christian life? How does one live out Christianity in daily life? How does one do it?" he asked. (Photo: Scorsese at Fuller/via God Reports)

Scorsese says faith should flow into every aspect of life. "We don't make religion something that's foreign, separate from life, that's the key," he noted.

"I felt the idea of Christianity had to be reinvented in cinema to make it accessible to the young generation." He said he struggled, however, to know how to handle the voice of Jesus in the film "Silence"...

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