Film

Some of the most innovative story tellers of our day write, direct and produce films. As a visual medium, cinema offers unique insights into the human condition and often into humanity's relation to their limits and finitude.  Christianity's central character demands that theologians of a Christian variety meditate deeply upon what it means to be human, and films are therefore a helpful supplement to this task. In many ways they help us face ourselves in ways we sometimes avoid by asking questions we are uncomfortable asking. As such, my interest in film could be understood in terms of an interest in theological anthropology. 

Secondly however, the visual nature of film opens up an inquiry into theological aesthetics more generally. Insofar as Christian traditions maintain the unique claim that Jesus is a divine-human incarnation, then theologians must grapple with the nature of religious representation. What happens when film makers depict Jesus on the screen? How does this visual medium affect how we understand God? The iconoclastic controversies of the Eastern Orthodox and Protestant traditions and the theological aesthetics of the Roman Catholic tradition are providing vital points of reflection amidst visual culture today. 

Although I blog quite a bit on the films I've been watching I also approach a few films in a more academic way.

Essays

"Perfume: The Perverse Allegory of a Savior." Metaphilm (January, 2007)

“Punch-Drunk Masculinity.” Journal of Men’s Studies vol. 14, no. 2 (Spring, 2006).

“Deconstructing Fear: A Reading of M. Night Shyamalan.” Metaphilm (April, 2005).

“Punch Drunk Love: Popeye the Novelty Toilet Accessory Man.” Metaphilm (March, 2004).

Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) desperately sprinting through the rat maze of gender simulacra, deconstructing what it means to be a man in today's increasingly post-patriarchal societies.