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Introduction:
According to the Barna study cited on page 12, there is no statistical difference
between Christians and other groups when it comes to media viewing. Try to make an honest
assessment of how much time you spend each week watching television or movies, listening
to music, or reading books. What factors might account for different viewing/listening
habits among those in your group?
Which of the three Christian approaches-condemnation, appropriation, and consumption-are
you most familiar with? Evaluate these ways of engaging popular art and culture.
Why is the distinction between popular art and entertainment important for developing a
Christian approach (p. 17)?
The author contends, "That producers seek to maximize their profits by reaching as
large an audience as possible creates many of the problems that we have with the popular
arts today" (p.17). Discuss this in terms of the description of popular art on pages
16-19.
A fundamental assumption in this book is that the earth and everything in it belongs to
God, who created all things visible and invisible (look again at the last paragraph on
page 19). How might this belief direct Christian engagement with popular art and culture?
The author suggests that we "establish a collective `Christian' vision that might
serve as a context for our engagement with the popular arts" (p. 20). How might
developing such a common vision help the Christian community become a "stream of
living water" in this area of life?
Chapter One:
Why do you think Christians are generally more attracted to mainstream films, music,
radio, and TV than they are to "Christian" alternatives?
An observer of British culture contends that many Christians "look at culture more
positively and testify to feeling more stimulation-even spiritual stimulation-from
`secular' sources than they do from sources within the evangelical sub-culture" (p.
30). Is this consistent with your own experience? Explain.
Identify ways in which the popular arts reflect and impact your life.
Chapter Two:
What is culture, and why is it important for Christians to think of themselves as
cultural agents, or stewards in God's creation?
What is the cultural mandate (p. 37)?
How should this biblical understanding of culture and stewardship affect the way we
think about the popular arts and culture?
"Things" are servants (pp. 38-40). How might this idea affect the way we think
about symbolizing and engaging culture?
Name some ways you can actively and intentionally fulfill the culture mandate as an
individual and as a community.
The author suggests that "the popular arts reflect a society that they help to
create" (p. 41). What do you think? Does the entertainment media reflect and/or shape
society?
Chapter Three:
What kinds of things (upbringing, church, events, books, experiences, others) have
shaped the development of your worldview?
Discuss ways that a worldview might influence the ways that people understanding events
like the shootings at Columbine High School?
Consider ways that Christians separate life into sacred and secular realms (pp. 49- 50)?
What is sacred? Secular? Why?
How do you understand Jesus' prayer for believers "to be in the world but not of
it"?
Discuss this book's view of the new heavens and the new earth. How might this
understanding affect our activities in the here and now?
Chapter Four:
Discuss the relationship between the Great Commission and the Cultural Mandate.
Identify cultural texts that you have encountered that serve as maps of reality. Explain
how they might function as "equipment for living" (p. 59)?
Using the four roles for popular art considered in this chapter-communicating cultural
ideals and values, offering social and cultural criticism, providing social unity, and
contributing to the collective memory-create a list of popular artworks that serve in each
of these categories. Looking at this list, what does it reveal about our culture (e.g.,
cherished ideals and values, key beliefs and attitudes, basic assumptions about life,
purpose, social and gender roles, and so forth)?
"By offering a vision, a popular artwork sets up the possibility for our accepting
or criticizing that vision, and an insightful and honest Christian response will often
mean affirming certain aspects while rejecting others," the author argues. "Our
critical guard sometimes goes down because we expect popular art to entertain us" (p.
64). How can Christians learn to balance being entertained with maintaining a critical
posture?
Chapter Five:
Can you think of a movie, television program, or musical recording that transported you
"elsewhere" (p. 67)? Discuss how and why you think this happened?
Why did the church denounce theater and film? What implications does this approach have
for popular art and culture?
Describe some of the similarities between movie theaters, concert halls, and church
sanctuaries. Can you draw comparisons between the experiences people have at church and a
popular art venue that help us understand the "similar-and competing-nature of their
appeal" (pp. 68-69)?
What are some of the problems with "a strictly evangelistic understanding of
art" (p. 70)?
The author suggests, "When someone says, `That song ministers to me,' I think they
are trying to explain an artistic experience as a spiritual one" (p. 70). Discuss
this and consider ways that Christians might learn to think differently about engaging
popular art based on the understanding of culture presented in earlier chapters.
Why is confusing art and religion particularly problematic for Christians (p. 75)? (Look
at pages 71, 74-76, and also page 13 in the Introduction.) On what basis would a
Christian critic write, "movies are not art" (p. 72)?
Why are distinctions between high and popular art problematic and unhelpful for
developing a Christian approach to popular art and culture? Discuss ways the
division between high and low culture and the "spiritualizing" of art have
affected Christian attitudes and also the roles and character of popular art.
Chapter Six:
Are all "family" films worth watching? If not, what separates worthwhile
family films from those that are not? Does removing objectionable content make a film
better? Conversely, does including objectionable content make a film better? Can
Christians make or watch R-rated films?
To one degree or another, Christian popular art will be determined by marketing and
demographic reports. To what extent should we allow these to be the driving force for
Christian productions? What role should a biblically directed vision play in shaping the
nature and character of "Christian" art? Which of these is most important?
If "Christian" popular art is designed to appeal to the broadest
market-primarily the tastes and values of white, middle-class American women-in order to
sell, how effective is it as a cultural representation of the ideals and values of the
church at large?
The author writes, "Christian artists should not just be singing that Jesus is a
light unto our paths; they also need to create popular artworks that show how God's Word
is a light and direction for our journey in life" (p. 81). Consider how Christian
productions and criticism might serve the church and our neighbors in this way?
Discuss the concluding statement of this chapter: "Showing the perspectival nature
of popular art can turn the tables on the mainstream culture by demonstrating that all art
and music reveals life perspectives that are ultimately driven by moral and religious
convictions and can be critically evaluated along these lines" (p. 89).
Chapter Seven:
The author writes, "A Christian landscape will somehow account for God at work in
the world, suggesting the mysterious entanglement of God's providential care and human
machinations" (pp. 94-5). Discuss representations of the supernatural in popular art.
How can popular artworks persuasively account for God's presence in the world?
As Christians, can we take spiritual implications out of "spiritual"
depictions-like the Force in Star Wars, for example-as being a kind of reference to
Christianity? Are we justified in doing so?
What is irony and an "unreliable narrator" (pp. 97-98)?
What makes movies like Silence of the Lambs or Basic Instinct so appealing-even to
Christians? The author argues, "An honest artistic representation of God's world in
popular art will include images and metaphors of chaos, injustice, pain, suffering and
alienation, for they are all part of living in a fallen world" (p. 101). But many
Christians tend to avoid and even criticize such depictions in popular art. If we live in
a fallen world, how are we to make the conflict between good and evil real? Discuss how
Christian insights might contribute to an understanding of good and evil? What might
distinguish "Christian" portrayals of good and evil in popular art?
As one writer explains, "while it is true that human beings cannot reverse their
situation, or in any way create their own redemption, the very helplessness of their
position evokes a search for the grace which alone can solve their predicament" (p.
103). Consider popular artworks that affirm this and others in which people bring about
their own salvation. For which category do the illustrations come easier? Discuss ways that forgiveness and
redemption are portrayed in popular art?
Chapter Eight:
Identify the key features of the melodramatic world (pp. 109-10). Why do think this
"world behind" mainstream movies and television shows is so popular? How should
Christians respond to melodrama? Explain why the melodramatic vision runs against the
grain of the main tenets of the Christian faith.
What are the basic characteristics of the classical Hollywood film (pp. 112-14)? How
might these features work against portrayals of a "Christian cultural
landscape"?
What do you make of the "Wizard of Oz Syndrome" (p. 114)? Do you think this
motif is as prevalent in Hollywood movies as the author suggests? To what extent do you
think people believe they should be healthy, wealthy, and successful because they deserve
it for being "good"?
The author maintains that "the cultural landscape of the Hollywood film clearly
exaggerates individualism, favoring individual over corporate or institutional solutions
to problems and conflicts" (p. 116). How might such portrayals distort our
understanding of similar events in the real world?
Think about recent films you've seen. How do they appeal to your existing stereotypes?
How are different races portrayed? Gender? Physical appearance? Can "good" men
and women be physically unattractive?
Chapter Nine
What cultural assumptions about sex, gender, and materialism are woven into the story of
Pretty Woman? What is the nature of redemption for Edward and Vivian in this film?
What place does violence hold in American mythology and the Hollywood landscape? How
should we think about this as Christians?
Using the current movie rating system, how would you rate biblical stories like those
mentioned on page 124? Consider others from both the Old and New Testaments (e.g., Judges
19-20 or Mt. 27). How is violence in the Bible different from that which we see in
Hollywood films?
Describe gender stereotypes prevalent in films, TV programs, and music videos and
evaluate them from a Christian perspective. Discuss this statement on page 126: "The
Hollywood cultural landscape represents a polarized view of men and women that is riddled
with contradictions." How does the Bible challenge these gender roles and
stereotypes?
Discuss the ambivalence in American attitudes about sex. Discuss this statement on page
129: "Perhaps in reaction against our culture's preoccupation with sex, Christians
draw on the Victorian sentimental idea of romantic love: the belief in a love that is pure
but passionless, beautiful and eternal but close to sexless." "While Christians
do well to recoil from our culture's obsession with sex," the author contends,
"we should not abandon it as a topic for artistic treatment or criticism" (p.
130). Is there a proper place for the erotic in popular art? If so, how should it appear
in a Christian cultural landscape (pp. 130-32)?
How does the general treatment of materialism in the Hollywood landscape compare with a
Christian understanding of wealth and poverty? As Christians, what should we make of the
assumptions about materialism that are so prevalent in Hollywood films?
Chapter Ten:
What are the limitations of confessional and moralistic approaches to criticism
described in this chapter (pp. 139-42)? "A Christian critique of popular art will
criticize the gratuitous inclusion of profanity, sex or violence," the author
asserts, while also asking, "But are there not appropriate uses of these elements in
popular art?" (p. 141). Respond to this question. Name and discuss elements that are
crucial to a Christian criticism of the popular arts.
The author asserts, "If Christians are to think about `whatever is true,' we will
have to confront the realities of our fallenness, all the while seeing these as
distortions in God's world" (p. 143). Give some consideration to the treatment of
Philippians 4:8 and discuss the possibilities of popular artists creating depictions of
God's good but fallen world along these lines.
The author shows that "it is through artistic elements that popular artworks
transform the external world in ways that engage our reason, memory, emotions, and
imagination" (p. 148). Consider ways that you can become more "media
literate."
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