Description: Though "religious" films usually don't get much respect in Hollywood, religion still regularly finds its way into the movies. In Beautiful Light Roy Anker seeks out the often unnoticed connections between film and religion and shows how even films that aren't overtly religious or Christian in their content can be filled with deep religious insights and spiritual meaning.
Closely examining nine critically acclaimed films, including Magnolia, The Apostle, American Gigolo, and M. Night Shyamalan's Wide Awake, Anker analyzes the ways in which these movies explore what it means to be human--and what it means, as human beings, to wrestle with a sometimes unwieldy divine presence. Addressing questions of doubt and belief, despair and elation, hatred and love, Anker's work sheds "beautiful light" on some of Hollywood's most profound and memorable films.Brief description: Roy M. Anker teaches literature and film at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. His other books include Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies and the two-volume Self-Help and Popular Religion in American Culture.
Review Quotes: William D. Romanowski
-- author of Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture
"Beautiful Light is a must-read for everyone interested in movies as a way to explore the mysteries of faith. Page after page is filled with engaging, informed, and insightful analyses of a range of cinematic achievements that invite viewers to contemplate the various and nuanced ways that religion finds expression in contemporary cinema."
-- author of Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue
"Roy Anker is one of our most perceptive theology-and-film writers. Where Elijah heard God in the evocative sound of sheer silence following a storm, Anker discovers analogous thin places in the depictions of human experience in film. Thoughtful, thorough, and eloquent, Anker shows readers how nine movies illuminate the mystery of being. Here is theological film criticism at its best."