Faith and Film: Gordon Matties, CMU professor

As stated on his website:

Movies move us. They pack a powerful emotional punch. And because they leave very little to the imagination, they often overpower us. Many of us enjoy movies for that very reason, but we don't always know how to reflect thoughtfully on our emotional encounter with a movie.

Movies always reflect a worldview. Either implicitly, or explicitly, they communicate ways of understanding the world, and how men and women see each other and act in that world.

Although we have grown up in a visually saturated culture, we don't have skills for critical engagement with visual media. We often don't know how to reflect thoughtfully on our emotional encounter with a movie.

As passive viewers, we run the risk of being manipulated by what we watch. If we were to supplement our passive viewing with active dialogue with the movie, we would find ourselves seeing more in the movie. Rather than being visual sponges, we would become participants in the discernment of meaning and significance.

These web pages offer you resources to become a more thoughtful and engaged movie watcher. In particular, they also provide you with ways to explore the relationship between religion and popular culture in film—how movies reflect and shape worldview; how film embodies the commitments, virtues and values of society; and how a religious vision is expressed through the medium of film.

Reserve for:

Please provide your contact information. We will check this item's availability and get back to you soon with the price and expected time of delivery.

Our apologies, we are not able to process special orders shipped to your country.