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
