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• The Matrix and theology
• Resonance: CEO salaries
• Places & Culture
• Scrapbook: Canada's U.S. flags
• Weekly Digest

When Star Wars unexpectedly launched a cult following in 1977, the religious overtones of the word "cult" were significant. Volumes of fan fiction and piles of merchandise reflected the chord the movie struck with a faithful following. It wasn't just the zooming spaceships and flashing light sabers that seized viewers, it was a quasi-theological portrayal of a cosmic force of good over evil and the pilgrimage of a young knight with a holy calling (see Roy Anker on the trilogy's theology).

Twenty-two years later, The Matrix found a similar following with even more overt theological allusions and a none-too-subtle messianic theme. This time around, the age of video games, the Internet, and DVD's (a technology-drenched existence the movie was trying to call into question) extended the reach of the movie's intriguing ideas about reality, truth, and evil (The Matrix was the first movie to sell 1 million DVD's). The Matrix Reloaded, the first of two sequels, took in over $90 million over the weekend, the most lucrative opening weekend of an R-rated movie to date. Despite mixed reviews, the movie (with the trilogy's first look at Zion, the holy city) has inspired a new round of exploration of its theology and philosophy.

• Adam Gopnik's New Yorker review of The Matrix Reloaded tries to trace the philosophical heritage of the trilogy. Although he makes some mistakes in his treatment of Philip Dick, and ignores the role of William Gibson's Neuromancer in inspiring the term "matrix," the piece is a introduction to the history of the illusory reality theme in science fiction. He even brings in a medieval Christian sect called the Cathars.

The Cathars were sure that the material world was a phantasm created by Satan, and that Jesus of Nazareth—their Neo—had shown mankind a way beyond that matrix by standing outside it and seeing through it. The Cathars were fighting a losing battle, but the interesting thing was that they were fighting at all. It is not unusual to take up a sword and die for a belief. It is unusual to take up a sword to die for the belief that swords do not exist.

http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/?030519crat_atlarge

• The ideas of The Matrix can be traced back to Gnosticism, says National Public Radio (read a summary or listen to the segment here)
• Matrix movies are re-introducing religion to American cinema, says the Christian Science Monitor (includes theological glossary for the movies).
• Where does the Matrix's God-talk come from? First of two columns on the movies by syndicated columnist Terry Mattingly.
• Matrix movies resonate with a culture confused about our virtual age , says the Chicago Tribune.*
• "What is the Matrix" from the movie's official Web site.
• Matrix Reloaded reviews from Wired and the Village Voice; others summarized at Rotten Tomatoes.
• More Matrix mania on the Web collected by the London Guardian weblog.
• My B&C story on the Matrix and alternative consciousness for Christians.
• From last week's weblog: Matrix makers' ideas caught the interest of Princeton's Cornel West.
• Coming next week: Roundtable on faith, science, and free will.

Follow-up to last week's weblog on CEO salaries:

• I meant to round out my disdain for the state of runaway executive pay with this item from Seattle Weekly. A Boston-based group of upper-income workers calling themselves Responsible Wealth is speaking out for stewardship from an unlikely rung of the economic ladder, and counts Bill Gates Sr. among their supporters:

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