Clash of the Titans

Movie themes tend to follow certain trends or fads in order to please their audiences. For awhile we saw an influx of superheroes, then witches, then vampires, and now Clash of the Titans appears to be resurrecting the Greek pantheon and its deities. If the movies in our theaters reflect our culture, then the 2010 remake of The Clash of the Titans shows our nation has a seriously warped perspective of God. The movie trumpets the age old humanistic maxim, “No god will save us. We must save ourselves.” While I do not recommend the movie, I believe it is an interesting portrait of the worldview of our culture.
For those unfamiliar with ancient mythology, Clash of the Titans tells the story of Perseus, the son of a mortal queen and Zeus, the arch deity of Olympus. This makes Perseus a demigod, not quite a god but certainly not a man. When Perseus’ family is killed by Hades, god of the underworld, Perseus is propelled into a quest to free mankind from the oppression of the gods. The main conflict of the film is that man has turned away from worshipping the gods and as a result the gods, especially Zeus, punish mankind in order to reclaim man’s worship and love. The god’s strength is fed by the prayers of men. In order to remind mankind of “the order of things”, as Zeus says, he unleashes a terrible beast onto earth. Zeus hopes that this punishment will finally turn man back to him.
Why is it so significant that this story is back in theaters in 2010? Just look around. Economic crisis, foreign political disturbances, volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis have become common occurrences over the past decade. Are all these events the will of a despotic god purposefully tormenting man in order to increase his own power? The ancient Greeks would have answered yes. What will our answer be? Will we join culture and shake our fist at God when tragedy touches our lives? Or will we show the world that our God is nothing like the capricious deities on Olympus?
Instead we must choose to have the fortitude of Job. Even while facing the unexplainable loss of everything he once prized listen to Job’s response to his wife in Job 2:9-10;
His wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!" He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
While we may never be able to answer the question of suffering, we can answer the question about the nature of God. He is a loving merciful father, nothing like Zeus. While Zeus in Clash of the Titans says, “I wanted mankind to love me again but I didn’t want to lose a son over it,” our Father God says the exact opposite. He loved man so much that he offered his only Son in order to redeem us.