From Lincoln to Liberty Valance: The Poetic Vision of John Ford. James Wall
Longtime observer of church & cinema James Wall explores what makes a film "Fordian," examining the themes and motifs of one of Hollywood's most celebrated and influential auteurs. A joint program of the Imaginarium and Cornerstone's newest venue, Flickerings, featuring films, seminars, and a Saturday Afternoon Matinee of the Ford classic, The Searchers. See also our posted introductory introduction to this classic American filmmaker and his work.

Pilgrims on Planet Hollywood: Developing a Christian Approach to Popular Art and Culture. William D. Romanowski
The popular arts-movies, television, popular music and video-influence how people think about themselves, their relation to others, and their place in society. They express ideals and beliefs and offer attitudes and values regarding such things as power, relationships, sexuality and violence. How have Christians engaged the popular arts? Using lots of video clips as illustrations, this seminar will present a sharp Christian critique of key features of the dominant worldview in mainstream Hollywood productions-individualism, religion, gender stereotypes, sex, violence, and materialism. It will help you become more active and discriminating as Christians in evaluating perspectives in popular culture.

"The Icebergs": Unpacking A Christian Masterpiece. Rod Bennett
Author Rod Bennett, famous around here for making fabulous mountains out of fascinating little molehills, will take three whole sessions this year to talk about one picture -- but what a picture! Painted by Frederic Edwin Church in 1870, the epic canvas THE ICEBERGS was the Star Wars of its day, and the lines to see it at a New York gallery stretched for blocks. Rod will use Church's masterpiece as a springboard from which to tell the amazing story of a whole school of Christian landscape artists - men like Thomas Cole, Jasper Cropsey, Albert Bierstadt, and Thomas Moran - whose goal, in their own words, was "not to paint nature, but to paint through nature and make a portrait of God." It's a compelling tale in its own right, but Rod will also find profound lessons in it for today's creative Christians."

God In the Panels: The Theology In Comic Books. William Spencer
The power and influence of the visual, portable, full color comic magazine on readers is immeasurable. Such recent events as the awarding of a Pulitzer Prize to Art Spiegelman for his Holocaust-themed graphic novels "Maus" and "Maus II," and the scheduling of comics in comparative literature courses in universities suggest comics are being taken seriously as literature and art as well. Inside and outside the church, this is the time for a serious, sustained theological reflection on the artform that is accessible and entertaining to readers. Something significant and culturally influential is happening in the reimagining fo God and the world in comic books that demands an examination. (And you'd better believe that Bill Spencer is going to take this opportunity to prove to his til-now skeptical university collegues that his comic collection has been all this time an academic pursuit!)

The Dark Night and the Poet's Soul: T.S. Eliot, Religious Orthodoxy, and Revolutionary Art. Terry Wandtke
As a poet, T.S. Eliot has long been a favorite of academics. When his most significant contribution to Modern poetry,"The Waste Land," was first published, Eliot provided footnotes. The subsequent highly intellectual critical treatment of Eliot's work is rich but often obscures other conventional points of access such as his biography and his own understanding of his work. Eliot's personal experience with despair and orthodox faith worked together with his intellectual grasp of literary and religious tradition, profoundly influencing his poetry. These aspects of his life and work will be presented in an effort to recognize Eliot as a man of both uncoventional artistry and surprising belief.

Beyond Bibleman: Superheroes and Spiritual Gifts. Kathie Lundquist
Our God & Comics seminar series includes this explortion of the relationship between the superhero mythos and the ways Christians are called and gifted to save the world