Product Description

Movies play a big role in our culture. This book guides the Christian moviegoer in entering into theological conversation with film.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #203113 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12-01
• Released on: 2000-12-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

From the Back Cover
"Robert Johnston has written the most comprehensive survey currently available on theology and film. . . . A must-read book for anyone interested in the rapidly expanding field of exploring the theological dimensions of contemporary film." -Robert Jewett, professor emeritus, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

"Reel Spirituality will not only help us develop a Christian wisdom about film; in turn, it will make us ask searching questions about the Christian faith and the way we express it. Throughout, the book is accessible and engaging. I commend it most warmly." -Jeremy Begbie, director, Theology through the Arts, University of Cambridge

"Reel Spirituality is a perceptive and provocative survey of why and how Christians . . . should take film seriously as a cultural force and as a vehicle for understanding how God keeps showing up in life-and in the movies." -Roy M. Anker, professor of English, Calvin College

"As a filmmaker, I am sometimes too close to my own movies and the process to step back and see the perspective of a movie's impact in our culture. That is what Rob does so insightfully. He is accurately describing the intersection of culture and Christianity-a vital issue not all Christians have embraced yet." -Ralph Winter, producer of Star Trek IV-VI and X-Men

"A lively and provocative dialogue that bridges the worlds of Christian truth and visual images. . . . Johnston guides his readers in seeing and understanding film from spiritual perspectives." -Terry Lindvall, professor of film, Regent University

"At various points in my life movies have been an evil to avoid, an entertainment to enjoy, a source of instruction to learn from. Rob Johnston's fine book now helps me understand why now movies allow me to see God at work in our world . . . and makes me long to see ever more clearly and deeply." -Leighton Ford, president, Leighton Ford Ministries

About the Author
Robert K. Johnston (Ph. D., Duke University) is professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author or coeditor of several books and a regular film reviewer for The Covenant Companion.

Customer Reviews

Reel Good Book on Film for Christians
I enjoyed this book. I was glad it wasn't too academic or too technical since I am not an expert on film making or movie criticism. There was good historical information and many examples from a variety of films to help illustrate the author's point of view. I agree Christians need to become more critical consumers of film. Since 95% of people see at least one film per year, it shows that there is tremendous potential for spiritual dialog with friends and family by talking about film. I plan to think through some of the concepts in the "Theological Approaches to Film Criticism" and "Becoming a Film Critic" chapters as I continue to grow in my understanding of film making.

Reel Spirituality
Rob has a wonderful grasp of the topic of putting Theology and Film into dialogue with each other. I encourage you to read this book if you have any faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. God is in the world and we are missing out of Him if our eyes are not fully open. Please open your eyes to a God that is bigger than everything the eye can see.

Evangelical theologian recognizes a wideness in God's grace
This volume by Fuller Seminary professor Robert K. Johnston is a readable introduction to film criticism from a thoroughly Christian perspective. Johnston is evangelical in outlook, and yet does not sacrifice his love for cinema to a fearful, fundamentalistic disdain for human culture. Rather, from the outset, he affirms the Christian truth that God's grace is to be found everywhere (what theologians have called 'common grace') and that cinema can be an occasion for a 'revelatory event'. Just as all life is 'sacramental' (that is, every aspect of the world has the potential to show us God), so the movies can help us to transcend to a deeper understanding of God and humanity.

Johnston rightly affirms that a film must first be approached on its own terms (as opposed to viewing it through the lens of a preconceived agenda). Once the audience has participated in the world of the film, then is the appropriate moment to begin the dialogue with theology. For this reason, Johnston's approach is to walk us through the basics of film criticism before applying that to the Christian study of film. On a few occasions, I worried that the author was taking us too far away from the book's stated intention (ie. a book about theology and film in dialogue), but Johnston always seems to be able to bring the material back round to assessing its relevance to the task of theological application.

His examples are far-ranging: theologically, his sources draw from every stream of Christian tradition; his choice of films to be analyzed is eclectic. He frequently homes in on a specific film (eg. Shane, Smoke Signals, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) or set of films (eg. the films of Peter Weir) in order to illuminate and illustrate the points he makes. Overall, Johnston exhibits a healthy attitude towards film, and is a breath of fresh air in an evangelicalism that too often regards films with suspicion and a superficiality that is likely to oversimplify issues of content and theme (such as sexuality and violence).

This book helped me to clarify my own method in approaching film. I have long been a lover of the cinema, and have sometimes found it hard to escape the incongruity of some aspects of this with voices from my fundamentalist past. Johnston is a man after my own heart, and seems able to encapsulate my feelings about film and how the movie experience is essential to the formation of my theology. In one chapter, Johnston addresses this role of cinema in theological method, and provides useful comparisons with various models of theological method (such as the Wesleyan quadrilateral).

I can also credit this book with changing some of my views. For example, I have long had a suspicion of mainstream cinema, almost amounting to a disdain at times. Johnston showed me the fallacy of associating commercialism with artlessness, however. After all, he reasons, didn't Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel on commission? In a sense, my aversion to mainstream cinema (or, perhaps more accurately, the mainstream of the mainstream) was a kind of misconceived snobbery. Johnston's appreciation of film from every corner of the film industry helped me to see my own short-sightedness in this regard.

This is a book I would recommend not just for film-lovers, but for theologians whose knowledge of film may not be particularly wide, but are willing to let the pursuit of the knowledge of God lead them into dialogue with other possible sources of inspiration, namely, the cinema. Johnston presents an accessible overview of film criticism and, in doing so, demonstrates how films can be, in a broad, but real way, means of grace for a Christian wanting to let the knowledge of Christ invade his experience of his culture.