The Gospel according to Hollywood [Paperback]

Greg Garrett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 19, 2007

This book will thrill movie buffs and casual fans alike. In an engaging style, author Greg Garrett looks at the theological elements in dozens of classic and new classic Hollywood films, including a discussion about what the new openness to spirituality in the movies might mean for the future of American cinema and American religion.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. It is easy to see the religious imagery in movies like The Passion of the Christ and The Mission, but much more difficult to uncover it in mainstream Hollywood films. Garrett, professor of English at Baylor University and popular author, analyzes dozens of films and extracts their religious and spiritual themes. Rather than focus solely on contemporary films, Garrett digs into the past five decades and investigates important works that are often overlooked in similar books. He masterfully weaves threads of Christian history, doctrine and tradition into the chapters, utilizing these films as platforms from which to teach the reader. The chapter on peace and justice is especially powerful, as the author not only instructs but also advocates for working toward a more just society. Being a Christian means to put one's faith in action, and Garrett is able to elucidate how these movies can have the power to encourage some to live a more authentic Christian life. While he realizes that not all Christians will buy into his primary thesis—that movies can reveal something about spirituality and God's action in the world—he also understands that many theologians have argued that nothing in creation is outside the scope of God. This is a bold and courageous belief, and kudos to Garrett for advancing it. (July)
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About the Author

Greg Garrett is Professor of English at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He serves the Episcopal Church as Writer-in-Residence at the Seminary of the Southwest and as lay preacher at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas. He is the author of numerous books, including the critically-acclaimed novel Free Bird.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press (June 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0664230520
• ISBN-13: 978-0664230524
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #869,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Greg Garrett is the author of over a dozen critically-acclaimed books of fiction, memoir, translation, and criticism. His debut novel Free Bird was chosen by Publishers' Weekly and the Denver Rocky Mountain News as one of the top fiction debuts of 2002, and many have been moved by his autobiographical writing on depression and faith, Crossing Myself and No Idea, but he is probably best known for his books on religion, politics, and culture. These works include One Fine Potion: The Literary Magic of Harry Potter, We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel according to U2, Stories from the Edge: A Theology of Grief, Holy Superheroes!, The Gospel According to Hollywood, and The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in the Matrix (with Chris Seay). His newest book is The Other Jesus, a personal work of theology examining how to be a thoughtful and faithful follower of Jesus in the 21st Century. You may have heard (or read) him talking about religion, politics, and culture in the media. His work has been covered by The New Yorker, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, BBC Radio, National Public Radio, CBS Radio, msnbc.com, The Bob Edwards Show, The National Review, Commonweal, and many other broadcast, print, and web venues.

Greg writes a weekly column on religion and politics, Faithful Citizenship, for Patheos (http://patheos.com), blogs on religion and culture for The Thoughtful Christian (http://blog.thethoughtfulchristian.com) and blogs for the Christian Century (http://theotherjesus.com). In addition to his ongoing work in fiction, he is currently doing thinking, research, and writing for book projects on post-9/11 literature and culture, American religion and politics, and Christian wisdom traditions. Greg is an award-winning Professor of English at Baylor University, Writer in Residence at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest and at Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, Wales, and a licensed lay preacher based at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas.

He lives in Austin with his two sons, Jake and Chandler. His heroes include Martin Luther King, Barbara Jordan, Henry David Thoreau, Robert F. Kennedy, Desmond Tutu, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. His favorite authors include Lee Smith, Walker Percy, Graham Greene, Nick Hornby, Barbara Brown Taylor (are you really still reading this?), Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Merton, Rowan Williams, and Anne Lamott. His favorite color is blue (No, yellow!), he plays Taylor GS-7, Fender Stratocaster, and Epiphone Casino guitars, and he likes both green and red chile on his blue corn enchiladas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sitting around the sofa, February 25, 2008

By 

Dr. James Gardner (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gospel according to Hollywood (Paperback)

I picked up this book thinking it was an historical account of the portrayal of the gospels in Hollywood. There are many such books around that cover the history of blacks, homosexuals, drugs, and other topics in films, and the title suggested this was another of those type of books. It isn't. So what is it? In the author's own words - "I want to offer you a learned yet accessible look at films that can inspire as well as entertain, to show how you might use these films to discuss theological issues, and, wherever possible, to tie the stories of these films back to our core narratives about salvation and the life of faith (xxii - xxiii)."

Leaving aside my disappointment in not finding the historical account I was looking for, we need to evaluate the book on the basis of the author's goals, not my expectations. This is a well written book and the author is obviously a film buff, but I wouldn't go so far as to call this text a "learned" approach to film. There is very little depth to Mr. Garrett's film analysis, nor is there much backstory nor sociopolitical concurrents. In addition, Garrett usually ignores the box office information which I would have thought added value to any discussion of the film's impact. Mostly it is Garrett's reactions to films, rehashing the plots and reminding us of the actors whom played the various parts.

As far as being a teaching tool, I didn't see that either. Perhaps I am being too concrete and looking for teaching lesson material here. Of course Garrett's examples can be adopted by others and used for teaching, or any other purpose. But the book itself is hardly a teaching tool, even if the contents itself can be used for teaching.

Another problem I have with this book is that it is not particularly concerned with the gospels. Rather than using the gospels as the focus, Garrett adopts the culturally normative view of Jesus, which any scholar knows, is vastly different from the gospel point of view. I think the title "The Gospel according to..." is meant more as a play on words rather than an actual description of what we are getting.

So, the book doesn't live up to my expectations and neither does it seem to live up to the purpose as set forth by the author. Nonetheless, this is an entertaining book and well written, and if you like films and are very religious from a Christian perspective, this might be the type of book you're looking for.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Many Insights on Wide Range of Movies, October 31, 2007

By 

Alan Kent Scholes "the_prof" (Near Denver) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gospel according to Hollywood (Paperback)

Garrett writes from a "neo-evangelical" perspective, in the vein of Ron Sider or Sojourners Magazine. So his theology leans toward the conservative; his social and political views are slanted in a more liberal direction.

Garrett finds Christian themes in films ranging from old classics (The Philadelphia Story, To Kill a Mockingbird, Cool Hand Luke) to more recent movies (Pulp Fiction, Magnolia, American Beauty).

The first four chapters deal with more theological themes in films such as faith, the Trinity, sin, and redemption. The final two chapters explore more social and political themes such as war and peace, justice, poverty and race.

While I occasionally disagreed with Garrett's theololgy (and/or his politics), I found his insights into the spiritual themes in films unerringly accurate and insightful. The author avoids two common traps in Christian interpretation of film. He does not try to read explictly Christian ideas into movies where the filmmakers clearly did not intend them. Nor does he wholisticlally condemn films that contain offensive elements such as nudity or violence.

Instead he looks for the filmmakers intended themes and compares and contrasts them with Christian belief and practice. Although I have frequently taught college and greaduate classes on the spiritual themes in Hollywood movies, I learned a great deal from Garret's analysis.

Readers who are interested in this topic may also want to read "Hollywood Worldviews" by Brian Godawa.