Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture (Paperback)

by William D. Romanowski (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Calvin College professor Romanowski writes for the millions of "Christians who drink beer" those who, in tension with evangelical mores, partake of the fruits of popular culture, from Titanic to Bruce Springsteen to ER. His scope is ambitious, including a theologically informed chapter on the nature of culture itself, to treatment of sex, violence and materialism, to a thoughtful exposition of the story structure of the typical Hollywood film. Though he wants to reach a broad audience, readers new to the subject may be put off by Romanowski's sometimes ponderous and often didactic prose, and they will not be helped to explore the subject further by his reliance on numerous unnamed "scholars" and "theorists" who are quoted without accompanying footnotes or bibliography. As the phrase "Christians who drink beer" illustrates, the book is also marred by its tendency to use the word "Christian" to refer to a particular subset of North American Christianity. The focus on big-grossing films and acts sometimes limits Romanowski's obviously fertile mind: a concluding appendix on the movie Titanic has something of the flavor of a college term paper. Still, this book will be an encouragement to evangelicals looking for an alternative to moralistic criticism of popular culture.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Romanowski (communications, Calvin Coll.; Pop Culture Wars) here helps the reader evaluate popular culture from a Christian perspective. He points out that all elements of pop culture reflect the beliefs and assumptions of current society and argues that it is important to consider the products of contemporary culture objectively and rationally, neither mindlessly rejecting nor na?vely accepting them. The book includes a thought-provoking examination of the Hollywood mythology that still permeates our culture and the cumulative effect of unrealistic approaches to complex problems of life. Nonetheless, pop culture can often provide a useful starting point for dialog. Romanowski feels that good popular art, effectively examined, is often more useful for Christian discussion than much self-consciously religious material. In support of his argument, he provides a good list of questions to apply to such analysis. A good book of its type; for public libraries. C. Robert Nixon, M.L.S., Lafayette, IN
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Brazos Press (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587430096
• ISBN-13: 978-1587430091
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #396,053 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid treatise on Christianity and culture, June 26, 2001

By	Tom Hinkle (Tulsa, OK USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Christians are not that much different than non-Christians when it comes to consumption of popular culture. All but the most legalistic watch many of the same movies, listen to the same music, and watch the same TV shows as everyone else. Romanowski realizes this, and with this book (along with others he has written) he analyzes the culture from a Christian perspective and gives the Christian, who is in the world but (hopefully) not of it, valuable tools for being a cultural critic. I would have rated this book higher, but for me it doesn't break a lot of new ground, and the appendices concerning an analysis of the movie "Titanic" could have been better utilized on a movie with more depth and meaning (even though I do admit that, like everyone else, I cried at the end of the movie). On the other hand, you've got to love a book with a chapter entitled "Christians Who Drink Beer" (even though, personally, I don't). Others who haven't read widely in this field like I have would surely give it a higher rating, because it is a very competent, easy to read book on an important subject.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Read on God and Pop Culture, December 21, 2007

By	Andrew Gates "Tall Pants" (Grand Rapids, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture (Paperback)

William Romanowski is Professor of Communication Arts & Sciences at Calvin College. He teaches courses on film, communication and cultural studies, and is a well respected authority on the interaction of Christianity and popular culture. He has written numerous articles and a handful of books on popular culture, with an emphasis on film. The thesis of Eyes Wide Open is that "Christians should help preserve the best features, improve the weakest parts, and eliminate the worst traits of popular art" (21).

Romanowski goes about defending his claim in a very engaging way. He speaks of modern day Christians who propose to shun all `evil' things such as movies, rock music and dancing, yet they are just as immersed in popular culture as the next person, only in the form of a ghettoized Christian subculture. The reality is that very few truly avoid popular culture, only prefer those elements of it which are, or appear to be sterile and safe. It is within this context that Romanowski argues for discernment. He believes strongly that this oversimplification has created Christians who have no idea how to discern good from bad, truth from error. The easiest way for evangelicals to make judgments is to simply count swear words, violent acts and sexual innuendos. Romanowski notes the Biblical mandate to cultivate: to create and tend to culture. Cultural forms, like anything else in creation, are corrupted by sin and in need of transformation, and we do a disservice to everyone when we make rigid divisions between sacred and secular. It is a sign of secularization that we would even think to label activities in God's world as secular.

The popular arts aid us in cultural communication (reflecting cultural ideals), social criticism (challenging or dealing with culturally contentious issues), social unity (when we've all seen the same movie) and collective memory (the way we view history is shaped by pop culture). This is what pop culture should be doing, but Romanowski notes that the primary venue for popular film in western culture is the melodrama, a dramatic genre with oversimplified depictions of good and evil, with prepackaged endings that end in "domestic bliss or harmonious community" (111). These melodramatic categories absolutely dominate the "Christian, family-friendly" genre and Romanowski wants to challenge this. The Biblical narrative conveys no such clear cut pattern, and he argues that this emphasis on sentimentalism indicates assimilation to, rather than a break from mainstream popular culture.

Christians who want to engage popular culture need to keep these things in mind. We are called to discern beyond whether something is "family-friendly" or not. The presence of violence and swearing and even sex is not always anti-Christian, but can very well be a catalyst for a story of redemption. And what we see as a story of redemption is often brazen individualism where someone pulls themselves up by the bootstraps and defeats the odds. This tells more about the autonomous human than redemption that can only come from God.

So beyond a "Jesus' per minute" scale and an "f-bomb count," Christians are called and even mandated to discern truth from error in popular culture. We are not to become mere consumers, but people who take seriously the message presented in a piece of popular art. He offers a helpful "matrix" for analyzing popular culture which lists questions to ask, but I feel that so many Christians are so far out of this discussion that more direction is needed. Romanowski presents a full analysis of Titanic through this matrix, also helpful, but I wish he gave further direction on how we can practice this act of discernment as Christians. We are conditioned to think that the acceptable Christian films are G, PG, and occasionally PG-13 (The Passion of the Christ excluded, of course), and we need time to learn to see God's beauty in culture again. In light of these facts, I would recommend this book to individuals and even church small groups. I hope it will help us all keep our eyes open a little wider.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Learning to Live in the World., September 10, 2006

By	tvtv3 "tvtv3" (Sorento, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The basic premise of EYES WIDE OPEN is that in the realm of culture, Christians have been too complacent for far too long. Romanowski begins the book with an introduction illustrating why Christians should become involved in culture, specifically pop culture. In the following chapters the author gives a detailed description of what culture is, the "difference" between high culture and low culture (as well as an explanation of why there really isn't a difference), what often is associated with being "faith" friendly in popular art nowadays, what makes up a Christian worldview, the typical Hollywood cultural landscape, the importance of Christian criticism, etc. Towards the end of the book the author makes some very general suggestions about how Christians can become involved in pop culture and the last section of the book (appendix two) is a review of the movie TITANIC from a Christian perspective.

The book raises many salient points that Christians should be aware off. Culture is a part of our lives and as believers in Christ, we are called to be involved in the world. For someone who has never seriously considered these issues, EYES WIDE OPEN might serve as a wake-up call. Also, even though the book is directed towards the lay person, the book is written in such a way it could confuse someone who has never had a beyond-high-school-education. I was able to follow the book's over-arching structure and pattern but there were several times I found myself thinking, "If I hadn't heard any of this before, this would be really confusing." The other criticism I have of the book is that the book is marketed as an "easy-to-read guide for interpreting and evaluating popular culture as a Christian." The author appears to be at least an amateur critic of film and movies. In fact, the book was filled with references to films. However, there is a lack of references to television, music, the Internet, mainstream novels, etc: there is a section where the author talks about Bruce Springsteen and another section where he discusses the television show E.R. However, that's about it. It would have been nice to have another few appendixes at the end of the book where the author reviews a television show, an album, and perhaps a popular website or work of fiction. Also, since the author chose to review TITANIC instead of a more worthwhile film (just because it's the #1 grossing movie of all time is besides the point--just about every movie from 1933-1959 had a higher attendance than any film released since then) or instead of reviewing another movie, too, it dropped a notch in my estimation.

Overall, this is a decent book for a Christian lay person who is interested in becoming engaged in popular culture but has no idea how to go about that. It should provide a good foundation. For a more indepth approach check out ROARING LAMBS by Bob Briner or ADDICTED TO MEDIOCRITY by Franky Schaeffer.