Vernon W. Cisney, "We Are Not What Was Intended: The Failed Nihilism of David Fincher's Seven"

About This Event

The Faith, Film, Philosophy 2025 series organized by the Gonzaga Faith & Reason Institute on the theme "Psyches, Personae, and Characters: Human Selves in Film" concludes with a talk on nihilism, selves, and love in film by Gettysburg College professor Vernon W. Cisney.

David Fincher's 1995 film, Seven, ends on a notoriously bleak note. Driven by a religious fanaticism, John Doe has completed his 'masterpiece' of illustrating the destructive nature of the seven deadly sins by luring Detective Mills into assisting with his plan. 'He wins,' as Detective Somerset says. I argue, to the contrary, that Doe does not, in fact, 'win,' that his nihilistic program ultimately fails because it is predicated upon a contradiction, that Doe's project requires a selfless servant as its executor, and Doe, as we learn, fails in this respect. Doe's interpretation of his calling is driven by a flawed understanding of the Christian ethic of kenoticism, the injunction of self-emptying at the core of the Christian message. I use the work of Søren Kierkegaard to articulate a more accurate understanding of the kenotic ethic, one in which the self is not annihilated (as Doe understands it), but is actualized authentically in the mode of divine love.

Vernon W. Cisney is chair and Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and is a contributing faculty member in philosophy and cinema and media studies and Jewish studies at Gettysburg College. Cisney’s research and teaching emphasizes the intersections of philosophy, religion, literature, cinema, the sciences, and political philosophy, with particular focus on contemporary continental philosophy (with a focus on Deleuze, Foucault, and Derrida), Philosophy of Film, and Philosophy of Literature. Thematically, he is concerned with questions pertaining to the nature of and relations between difference and identity, the nature of selfhood and literature's power to transform the world, and the intersections of ontology, agency, aesthetics, and social and political practice. Cisney has written and coedited several books on Deleuze and Derrida, coedited The Way of Nature and the Way of Grace: Philosophical Footholds on Terrence Malick's Tree of Life (Northwestern, 2016), and published papers and book chapters on filmmakers such as David Fincher and Paul Schrader. Cisney has participated in Faith, Film, and Philosophy on several occasions and has also organized a similar event at Gettysburg College.

This event is part of the Faith, Film, Philosophy 2025 series. Events will take place each night of the week of October 6-10 on the Gonzaga campus.