In an essay titled “Stuck in Time:
Kairos, Chronos, and the Flesh in Groundhog Day,” Robert Jewitt
writes about two separate meanings of time and how they relate to the desire of
the flesh. Through using Greek words
found in the New Testament by religious scholars, he defines the first term chronos as “linear time” which our word
“chronology” derives from. The second
term, kairos, he defines as the
“appointed time” or “time for decision.”
Jewitt then goes on to describe how kairos
relates to God’s time and chronos relates
to our time, such as our normal everyday routines which we have created for
ourselves. Our human instinct, the
flesh, is stuck in chronos until we
learn to live by kairos.
A film which exhibits this idea
is Groundhog Day, the one which Jewitt writes about specifically in his
essay. The main character, Phil Connors,
gets stuck in this loop of time which causes him to experience the same day,
Groundhog Day, over and over again. Phil
is not the most humble or kind man, and in the beginning he is continuing his
selfish ways in chronos during the
loop of time benefiting himself. For
example, there is a scene where he starts asking a woman questions about
herself so that when the day restarts he has a better chance of getting her
into bed with him. His flesh is still in
control of him during scenes like these.
Gradually he learns to care about others and he stops focusing on his
selfish desires, such as scenes which show him giving to a beggar and helping
older ladies with a flat tire. It is at
this time, kairos, that the loop
finally stops, because he has let go of the flesh and chronos.
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