The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer has become a phenomenon on par with Harry Potter. Across the United States, movie theaters have been flooded with screaming, crying, applauding, and giggling girls (and often their boyfriends or parents), all enthralled in a love story that has been compared to Romeo and Juliet. While there are many themes in this film that affect young people and concern their parents, such as teenage depression, body image, risk-taking behavior, and abusive relationships (for more information on these see the Thoughtful Christian youth and parenting studies for this movie), this movie can also be placed in conversation with the Christian tradition and brings up some provocative questions for adults.
New Moon presents us with an idea of what it might be like if we were to dive in to a relationship head first, not knowing what the future might hold, all for the sake of the love of someone who could change us forever. There is something about this kind of love that pulls at our hearts. To be loved enough that someone would wait one hundred years to be with you. To be loved in spite of yourself and the sinfulness that you harbor. To be loved enough to want to be transformed so that you are like the one you love and can spend eternity with him or her.
The goal of this session is to place the movie in conversation with the Christian tradition as it relates to true love, eternal life, and risk-taking behavior. We'll also focus on the darker side of obsessive love, focusing on depression and community, the difficulty of distinguishing good from evil, and the concepts of losing one's soul and gaining redemption.