Cinemagogue: Director's Cut

by James Harleman, Jeff Anderson (illustrator)

Do you like movies? Are you a cinephile? Do your friends consult YOU instead of IMDB? Were you raised on television? Spend hours talking cinema? This book is DEFINITELY for you. OR... if you're a casual consumer who thinks Hollywood exists simply for diversion, this book may change your life.

*This timely update of the 2012 1st edition delivers over 40 pages of new content with updated movie references, illustrations, film reviews and recommendations, further shaping the Story-formed Argument for God's Existence while also delving deeper on hot topics like how we view sex in film and more! Also includes an "after credits scene" - a teaser for the super sequel coming in 2024!

Humans crave narrative and usually don't stop to question why. Are we perhaps created to consume story, to create story, because we're image bearers of a Master Storyteller? In this book, movies meet God at the multiplex as the author challenges readers to redefine entertainment, understand the story they're in, and experience a new integrated level of spirituality and entertainment. This book will help Understand the shared story in which we all play a part.Connect human creativity with the impulse of our Creator.Explore the relationship between images and imaging God.What can we learn about ourselves - and our relationship to God - from Iron Man, Doctor Who and Han Solo? What are people like Jon Stewart and even Michael Bay helping us understand about story, good and bad? Peppered with movie quotes and metaphors, journey through the incredible changes film and storytelling have had on 21st century culture. Instead of an overly-academic offering on film and faith, Cinemagogue weaves a narrative from the author's own pop culture saturated life to the Greatest Story Ever Told, from Superman to Citizen Kane, Bertrand Russell to John Frame, Kurt Vonnegut to the apostle Paul, from our favorite narrative to our shared meganarrative.

Classic notions of story structure, “monomyth” and universally shared themes in both popular and classic tales are examined in light of ancient scripture. From there, readers can see the genesis of creativity and worldview distortions from which conversation can bring us back to the future. After a dirty dozen examples of popular film in chapter five (with questions for discussion) the book tackles common objections with genre and horror movies, foul language, violence, sexuality, magic and more… and how many traditional objections are overshadowed by incredible opportunities for those brave enough to overcome fear and wade into the culture stream, secure in their faith. Readers have

“…really convicted me in both the movie and gaming arena to analyze what I am watching/playing and why. I had almost zero discernment before stumbling onto your series…”

“…I grew up on television in the 80s and relate to the context you grew up in…. I thank God for you and your ability to glorify him in everything, no matter what.”

The book ends with a call and commission to those who consider themselves spiritual and religious to get their heads out of the sand, to start realizing and utilizing the power of narrative.

A requested resource by movie-goers, movie-makers, pastors and teachers, Cinemagogue is an extension of a website and podcast (Popcorn Theology), providing a "how-to" for those who want to experience the transforming power inherent in all story.

“Listening to your podcasts… opened my eyes to examine what I watch even closer.

Genres: Christianity

273 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 19, 2023

About the author

James Harleman has hosted events and taught for over a decade in Seattle at one of the fastest growing churches in America where he started their "Film and Theology" program. He manages the website cinemagogue.com and just published his first book.

As an ordained minister, James travels and lectures on cinema and spirituality, as well as speaking on a wide variety of cultural and theological topics. He's contributed articles and reviews to The Resurgence and Hollywood Jesus websites, written for Collide Magazine and also made the Kessel Run in less than eleven parsecs.

James enjoys watching movies with his geek wife Kathryn who shares his passion for cosplay, sci-fi, horror movies, and comic books. They're presently working to publish several short stories and a series of novels. He is also part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor. Take him away.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

In planning for a new grad course on film and theology, I’ve just read Cinemagogue, wondering if it might be helpful for my students. I’ve decided not to use it as a textbook for the course, for a few reasons. Mainly, I don’t want my students to emulate this writing style, which, along with needing further editing, conveys a frantic, often overgeneralizing or oversimplifying tone. Also, James Harleman is isolated from other sources. He doesn’t cite anyone else (even other Christian film critics), and he seems removed from current trends in film criticism. (One of the things I admire about a similar book like Deep Focus is its way of modeling being a community of engaged film viewers, and pointing readers to other sources for more comprehensive study and perspective.) And finally, Harleman focuses entirely on the Joseph Campbell monomyth structure, and I myself have become weary of it. A number of recent articles on story structure have begun questioning our reliance upon that particular concept, and I tend to agree with them. A narrow focus on that one story structure determines the kind of movies you’re most likely to look at, and the movies Harleman references were, for me, too predictable (Matrix, Gladiator, Star Wars, superheroes). When I present movies to students, I want to find a balance between meeting them where they are already (the films and genres they know and love), and then inviting them into other films that they haven’t encountered before (especially older—pre-1950—films and non-English-language films).

Those are my criticisms, but the book also raises several very good points. Here are some of the things I could see incorporating into my teaching (though developing it in my own way, rather than relying on Harleman’s writing):

--pp. 37–46: Why it’s wrong when people say, “I just want to be entertained when I watch a movie.” I look forward to conveying this to my students so they can guide others toward deeper engagement with films. “It’s not the form of media that is inherently sinful. Pop culture and its forms are not evil by definition, but to allow movies and video games and other things to serve as ‘diversion’ seems at odds with what we profess about joy and hope and satisfaction in this world through Jesus Christ” (44). (I wouldn’t say that form is completely neutral, but otherwise I resonate with this idea about applying our full selves to our media engagement.)

--pp. 51–52: Inviting God into your media engagement. Though this point seems obvious to someone who has engaged theologically with films for some time, I know some of my students need to ponder this one. “When we make the leap to engage culture in this way, we stop asking ourselves during a story and start asking Him: What do you think of these people, these worldviews? God, what should this bring to mind?” (51). I like the idea of film viewing as a kind of spiritual discipline.

--pp. 79–80: What do moving movies move you to do? This is my criticism of a lot of Christian film reviewers, that they talk about how meaningful or moving a film is, but then they go on to the next movie. Shouldn’t a significant film story push us outward to our community and the world? “We like to say stories like these are ‘moving.’ Most of us have probably used that phrase at some point in relation to story, that we were moved in some way by the narrative notes of the tale. ‘It was so moving . . . that story moved me.’ Here’s the kicker: if it was so moving, where have you actually moved to?” (79). I want to guide students toward answers to this question. Theological engagement with film ought to provide more than a good sermon illustration or a couple hours of thoughtful viewing. What do we do when a movie breaks our heart about something in the real world?

--pp. 86: “Storytelling isn’t proclamation, it’s provocation.” Yes! It’ll be good for students to understand that film is not a way of “preaching,” but rather, a way of provoking, raising questions, not necessarily tying everything up neatly at the end.

--pp. 117: Storytelling needs community. I like this point in the book, showing that we need each other’s perspectives on a film in order to understand it more fully. Our own opinion alone isn’t enough—it should be a conversation. “Engaging a story [is] all the more interesting when it takes place in community” (117). I hope my course will become a model for engaging well with others through film, such that students want to keep making that kind of setting happen, wherever they go after the course finishes.

[Scott Hayden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Provocative
Equipping

I bought this book for myself with Christmas money after hearing about it on the author's Popcorn Theology podcast.

Some fallacious thinking along the way in some details, but it does not effect the overall argument.

The longer I read, the longer my list grew of people I wanted to buy this for. I can't afford that. So I'll just make my recommendation here.

You are on my list.