There's not much church in this docudrama of the life of Stephen Hawking, and one assumes that's would be fine with
him. When Stephen (played by Eddie Redmayne for an Oscar win) met
Jane, who is to be his first wife, he told her, "I'm a cosmologist.
That's religion for intelligent people." (You know, as opposed to idiots
like Augustine, Aquinas, and Newton who held to orthodox Christianity.)
Jane replied, "I'm C.of E.
[Church of England]"
"I suppose someone has to be,"
Stephen responded.
He told Jane that he can't allow his
calculations to be muddled by belief in a supernatural creator, although
physicists like William Henry Bragg seemed to be able to do maths well enough
to get a Nobel Prize in spite of preaching in the Anglican Church on the
weekends. Ernan McMullin managed to find room in his life for the
"religion" of cosmology as a Roman Catholic priest. Charles Hard Townes was another Nobel Prize winner for physics who found room on his
shelf for the Templeton Prize for religious achievement.
Anyway, back to the meager
appearances of the church in this film. When Stephen asked Jane on a croquet date on Sunday morning, she replied, "I'm busy Sunday morning."
"Oh, yes, Him," Stephen replied. We then see Stephen waiting for her to leave church on Sunday.
If you have any acquaintance with
the life of Hawking (and why would you watch this film without it?) you know he
has battled Lou Gehrig's Disease for the majority of his adult life. In spite of
his ailment, Stephen and Jane had three children. In the film, we see photos
of the family after their third child's christening at an Anglican Church.
Apparently, all three of his children were christened. One would assume this was by
Jane's choice.
Not surprisingly, the film portrayed Jane facing many
challenges in life due to her husband's illness, academic pursuits, and initial
meager income. She went to her mother for advice on finding more in life. When her
mother told her she should join the church choir, Jane responded, "That's
the most English thing I have ever heard."
But she joined the choir. We see
her enter a lovely Anglican church with beautiful stained glass but wooden chairs in
place of pews. The choir director, Jonathan Jones, accepted Jane as a music
student and soon became a family friend, discussing science and religion
with Stephen, who assured him that physics will bring about the death of God
(which reminded me of something Mark Twain said about great exaggeration).
Eventually, Stephen took a lover
and forsok Jane, so Jane returned to her church and, eventually, the arms of
Jonathan. I can't help but wonder if the church's clergy was at all concerned
about the behavior of its musical staff.
The little we see of the church in
the film doesn't seem to merit the disparaging remarks Hawking made, so we're
giving it Two Steeples.
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