Speakers

James Wall
James Wall is Senior Contributing Editor of the Christian Century, where was editor from 1972 to 1999, and continues to contribute articles on religion, culture and film. He is the author of Church and Cinema (Eerdmans, 1971), editor of Three European Directors (Eerdmans, 1972), and has lectured widely on film and theology at universities and film festivals. Wall has served as a representative of the National Council of Churches to the film industry and on the appeals board of the Ratings Board of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). He is president of North American Interfilm, an organization that conducts workshops and seminars for church groups, and assigns members to serve on ecumenical juries at secular film festivals in Berlin, Montreal and Cannes. Mr. Wall was named the 2001 "Alumnus of the Year" by the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Seminar: From Lincoln to Liberty Valance: The Poetic Vision of John Ford

William Romanowski
As Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Calvin College, William D. Romanowski teaches courses in film, communication and culture studies. He is the author of Pop Culture Wars: Religion and the Role of Entertainment in American Life (InterVarsity, 1996)and a contributing author of Dancing in the Dark: Youth, Popular Culture and the Electronic Media (Eerdmans, 1991). He has also written numerous other book chapters, journal essays, and popular articles. A new book, Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture (Brazos Press) will be available Spring 2001. Romanowski has also worked as a musical and dramatic performer and lectures regularly on subjects dealing with American culture and the entertainment industry. The program at a rock festival in England referred to him as "an all-round brainy geezer and lovely with it." He took that as a compliment.

Seminar: Pilgrims on Planet Hollywood: Developing a Christian Approach to Popular Art and Culture

Rod Bennett
First, there was Wonder magazine, a loving tribute to monster movies, science fiction, Ray Bradbury, Frank Capra, and C.S. Lewis, with sidetrips to roadside attractions like Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not Museums, a history of Miniature golf, and a back page "column" every issue by G.K. Chesterton. After we saw Wonder, we created the Cornerstone Festival "Imaginarium". Rod was in on that first Imaginarium and has been a part of the team ever since, contributing lectures with titles like "God's Haunted House" and "King Kong Died For Your Sins," teaching us how to apply that Chestertoninan sense of wonder and wry cultural criticism to such things as monster movies and tv.

Seminar: The Icebergs: Unpacking A Christian Masterpiece

William Spencer
Trained at Rutgers as an English teacher and deflected into ministry during the mid-century urban riots, since 1966 William David Spencer has been active in a number of urban and educational ministries. Increasingly, over the last twenty five years, much of his attention has been focused on the immense impact of the arts as the conveyor of contemporary society's theological and anthropological worldviews. His eamination of the place of religious phenomena and thought in current culture has yielded extensive treatments beginning with the publication of Mysterium and Mystery: The Clerical Crime Novel (a condensation of Bill's 824 page doctoral dissertation on the image of God in the popular mystery genre for his ThD degree in Theology and Literature at Boston University (1986)), an analysis of the imaging of God in varying art media, God through the Looking Glass (Baker/Paternoster, 1998), the spread of the Christian heterodoxy Rastafari through the medium of music in Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader (Temple University Press, 1998) and most recently the completion of a major 23 year critique of Rastafarian Christology, Dread Jesus, just published by SPCK.

Seminar: God in the Panels: The Theology In Comics

Terry Wandtke
Specializing in Modern literature, film, and popular culture studies, Terrence Wandtke teaches literature and composition at St. Louis University. Since its inception, he has been involved with the St. Louis International Film Festival's Interfaith Award and organized the St. Louis Faith and Film Conference. He is currently writing a book about the poetry and film work of Modernist author, H.D.

Seminar: The Dark Night and the Poet's Soul: T.S. Eliot, Religious Orthodoxy, and Revolutionary Art

Kathie Lundquist
A longtime Imaginarium attendee who is ready for the bigtime, joining in this year with an hour-long session on comics, focussing on superheros.

Seminar: Beyond Bibleman: Superheroes and Spiritual Gifts