William D. Romanowski, Eyes Wide Open: Looking For God In Pop Culture (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press) 2009.
Remarking about the kind of faith informed engagement with popular art and culture, Romanowski states that, “Our aim should be to preserve the best features, improve the weakest parts, and eliminate the worst traits of popular art” (23). This is really what the entire book sets out to show us how to do—practically, emotionally, spiritually, but most of all with great discernment.
This really is a very good book! At each turn with the author’s setting up of his point-illustration-principle-vision layout, many times I found myself guessing correctly which movie he was going to be citing next. I found this statement on paradigm shifts needing to happen very interesting: “The change is signified by a remaking of cultural perceptions and the introduction of new questions and standards for acceptable solutions” (p35). With the fast pace of technological advancements and media’s barrage of information and formatting, I believe the church is the throws of trying to find some new standards and solutions today. And with “four out of five teenagers” having read a Harry Potter book or seen one of the movies from this series “with the majority having no discussion with church leaders or parents about the supernatural elements” (p39). This really needs to change. We as Christians need to be and stay informed and be outspoken with a faith-based appraisal of what our culture is consuming—our “market-driven, therapeutic, narcissistic and entertainment-oriented” culture (p40). And the author believes Christians need to be more forthright in their belief in God’s sovereign rule and demonstrate what real faith looks like in life by creating and using art and music.
I am still thinking about the line, “Most people feel immune to the messages of the popular arts because they view them as mere ‘entertainment’” and he calls this the ‘third person effect’. I am not sure what this 3rd person effect is but the immune part I can relate to. I have been tricked and fooled into thinking at times that “sin” cannot happen to me—and of course my realization has always been too late. What makes me think I am immune? Am I enculturated like a frog in the kettle experiment would suggest? This is an aspect needing redemption!
This book tells us there is a values war going on. We can be too accommodating and accepting of the world’s ideas, ideals, values and attitudes about life that our faithfulness to God is compromised. Our world is telling competing stories day in and out mixed with lies and truths in movies and song with our which conflict with our Christian worldview. And idea comes to us with a promise and we take the bait and before long we establish habits in chasing after the promise which never comes because it’s a lie; and the worse part of this can be that we forget why we are doing the rituals we have in place. The promise has been forgotten with its lies. We are left with empty patterns that suck the life away from us until we invest into another bankrupt promise. Such can be the danger of our willing suspension of disbelief and confiscated imaginations.
The author is on to something when he said, “People want to be entertained at the same time as we want to be affirmed”. Many times I catalogue a sermon as “good” when it has reviewed so well what I already believe. It is wonderful to know and be assured that I believe as true really is. When it comes to the cultural arena I need to remember that the “greater the pleasure, the less one notices and examines the cultural message” (p103). And that is a horrific thought. And although we have a legitimate need for entertainment, “people conform to the image of the god they serve” and this ends up shaping “their ideals, values, attitudes, and beliefs and also JUSTIFIES THEIR ACTIONS” (p152). This really hit me in convicting fashion. Has my justification for things I have wanted to do been attached to God or to one of my gods?
Movies do more than tell us—they show us. In fact the author states this is the arts at their best. And many of the best movies show us what life is like and ask us to take a look at it from their perspective. And as a Christian I must be on my guard not to TRIVIALIZE human experience but instead try to ENLARGE it (p161). God’s image is upon us all and our deepest longing is for Him therefore I can see this expressed in almost all art forms and the stories movies seek to portray. I want to do a better job not at just pinpointing the philosophy behind movies, but what to celebrate in the story that resonates with my story of redemption and God’s story for us all.
Remarking about the kind of faith informed engagement with popular art and culture, Romanowski states that, “Our aim should be to preserve the best features, improve the weakest parts, and eliminate the worst traits of popular art” (23). This is really what the entire book sets out to show us how to do—practically, emotionally, spiritually, but most of all with great discernment.
This really is a very good book! At each turn with the author’s setting up of his point-illustration-principle-vision layout, many times I found myself guessing correctly which movie he was going to be citing next. I found this statement on paradigm shifts needing to happen very interesting: “The change is signified by a remaking of cultural perceptions and the introduction of new questions and standards for acceptable solutions” (p35). With the fast pace of technological advancements and media’s barrage of information and formatting, I believe the church is the throws of trying to find some new standards and solutions today. And with “four out of five teenagers” having read a Harry Potter book or seen one of the movies from this series “with the majority having no discussion with church leaders or parents about the supernatural elements” (p39). This really needs to change. We as Christians need to be and stay informed and be outspoken with a faith-based appraisal of what our culture is consuming—our “market-driven, therapeutic, narcissistic and entertainment-oriented” culture (p40). And the author believes Christians need to be more forthright in their belief in God’s sovereign rule and demonstrate what real faith looks like in life by creating and using art and music.
I am still thinking about the line, “Most people feel immune to the messages of the popular arts because they view them as mere ‘entertainment’” and he calls this the ‘third person effect’. I am not sure what this 3rd person effect is but the immune part I can relate to. I have been tricked and fooled into thinking at times that “sin” cannot happen to me—and of course my realization has always been too late. What makes me think I am immune? Am I enculturated like a frog in the kettle experiment would suggest? This is an aspect needing redemption!
This book tells us there is a values war going on. We can be too accommodating and accepting of the world’s ideas, ideals, values and attitudes about life that our faithfulness to God is compromised. Our world is telling competing stories day in and out mixed with lies and truths in movies and song with our which conflict with our Christian worldview. And idea comes to us with a promise and we take the bait and before long we establish habits in chasing after the promise which never comes because it’s a lie; and the worse part of this can be that we forget why we are doing the rituals we have in place. The promise has been forgotten with its lies. We are left with empty patterns that suck the life away from us until we invest into another bankrupt promise. Such can be the danger of our willing suspension of disbelief and confiscated imaginations.
The author is on to something when he said, “People want to be entertained at the same time as we want to be affirmed”. Many times I catalogue a sermon as “good” when it has reviewed so well what I already believe. It is wonderful to know and be assured that I believe as true really is. When it comes to the cultural arena I need to remember that the “greater the pleasure, the less one notices and examines the cultural message” (p103). And that is a horrific thought. And although we have a legitimate need for entertainment, “people conform to the image of the god they serve” and this ends up shaping “their ideals, values, attitudes, and beliefs and also JUSTIFIES THEIR ACTIONS” (p152). This really hit me in convicting fashion. Has my justification for things I have wanted to do been attached to God or to one of my gods?
Movies do more than tell us—they show us. In fact the author states this is the arts at their best. And many of the best movies show us what life is like and ask us to take a look at it from their perspective. And as a Christian I must be on my guard not to TRIVIALIZE human experience but instead try to ENLARGE it (p161). God’s image is upon us all and our deepest longing is for Him therefore I can see this expressed in almost all art forms and the stories movies seek to portray. I want to do a better job not at just pinpointing the philosophy behind movies, but what to celebrate in the story that resonates with my story of redemption and God’s story for us all.