Film and Faith is the topic, and this blog contains my thoughts and critiques of movies going back over the last 25 years.
I started publishing these as a booklet for Youth Leaders, Group Leaders and Clergy
when I was a Diocesan Youth Advisor in the Anglican Church back in the 1980’s. Some entries are just an aide-memoire and a line or two about applicability. There are also longer (sometimes much longer) articles, and these are often theological in their approach. I am a priest and although cinema provides an important cultural source I know that most of the time people go to see a movie but do not make the connections between its themes, concerns or images and their own faith. How many times has someone said to me ‘I have seen that film before, but I had never thought about it like this’?
Anna Kerenina, Zero Dark Thirty, Another Earth, Tree of Life, Hero, Slumdog Millionaire, the first Narnia film, Beowulf, The Dark Knight, Doubt, The Lives of Others, American Beauty, Hannah, Toy Story 3, Inception, The Road, A Serious Man, Doubt, Pleasantville, Taken and Wall-E. You will also find some 'round up of the year' articles.
You may agree or disagree with my theological stances and comments; they have no more authority than any of your own. But writing them has helped me deepen my own enjoyment of going to the movies, to understand which deep bells in my heart and soul they have chimed with - or been in profound disharmony with - and I have learnt so much from them.
Some of these article may be published under my name elsewhere, and I retain copyright, but I am happy for anyone to copy and use this material for church use, as long as the original authorship and source - and your edits - are clearly acknowledged.
I hoped you enjoy these ‘Entertaining Angels’!
