Book Review : Eyes Wide Open - Looking for God in Popular Culture

As of today, Son of God is showing in theaters nationwide, Noah as portrayed by Russell Crowe is on the verge of being released, and we have a Christian Bale “action-hero” Moses coming via the latest Hollywood version of the Exodus story.  In television, ABC has Resurrection premiering in a week and Believe is coming to NBC station near you.  One way or another God is getting His 15 minutes of fame on American screens both big and small.  In discussing film and its application to the body of Christ, the argument which first must be had is to determine if film is either primarily secular or sacred and if primarily secular then in what capacity, if any, can we glean truth from them.  It would be naïve to simply articulate Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” as entirely sacred.  However, it is possible to determine certain films as completely devoid of any Christian value or teaching such as pornographic material.  By and large, I do believe that film is presented to us via a secular understanding of the world, but that is after all the same world that we all live in. 

In Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture, William Romanowski, puts forth a definition of secular which I believe will assist this discussion, “Secular refers to the absence of faith conviction and perspective in performing these activities. As secularization occurs, a Christian faith orientation loses significance for our thinking, practices, and institutions.”  Romanowski continues throughout the book outlining expressing a cautious and yet hopeful outlook on the whole concept of cultural and contextualized expression of our Christian faith.  I find though that his concluding statement is the most powerful of all, “The popular arts matter. Movies, concerts, music videos, and television programs are ways that people talk about themselves and others, consider the ups and downs of everyday life, and explore important matters that concern us all. Christians can serve their neighbors with popular art and criticism that helps us all understand and feel deeply the brokenness of our world and recognize the destructiveness of sin and the joy of forgiveness and redemption.”  The key emphasis for me is on the notion that, “….are ways that people talk about themselves and others.”  What we as Christians need to realize is that for the most part popular art and culture isn’t about us unless of course it is the secular articulation of the way they view Christians.  At the same time though, we shouldn’t automatically take that to mean that film is of no value to us.  We are after all in theory at least, attempting to reach people in this culture.  It maybe beneficial for us to understand just what the culture says and expresses about itself through the popular arts.  Just a thought.