Listen to a Bob Edwards interview with Greg
XM Radio September 21, 2007 copyright
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

 

Greg Garrett explores spiritual messages of Christmas films Dec. 7 at BookPeople bookstore

Austin author Greg Garrett will explore the spiritual messages – positive and negative – of contemporary and legendary Christmas films on Friday, Nov. 7, beginning at 7pm at BookPeople, 603 N. Lamar.

Garrett, writer-in-residence at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest and professor of English at Baylor University , will focus on films like “Fred Claus,” “Elf,” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” After the talk which is open to the public without charge, Garrett, a lay preacher at St. James Episcopal Church and 2007 seminary graduate, will also sign copies of his recently-published book The Gospel according to Hollywood . The book examines Hollywood films from the Thirties to the present for their spiritual content. It garnered a coveted starred review in “Publishers Weekly” and a “highly recommended” rating in the “Library Journal.”

 

 

Previous news about The Gospel according to Hollywood

New book by Greg Garrett slated for September 6 launch

The national launch party for Greg Garrett's latest book, The Gospel according to Hollywood, will be held at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin , Texas , at 7 pm on Thursday, September 6. The evening will feature live performances of movie music, food and drink, a reading from the book, and a booksigning.

 The Gospel according to Hollywood is the most recent in a best-selling series published on religion and popular culture by Westminster John Knox Books. Dr. Garrett explores theological themes in dozens of classic and recent films throughout the book. Films range from It’s a Wonderful Life, ET and Schindler’s List to RobinHood, North by Northwest and Pulp Fiction.

The first book in the Westminster John Knox Books series – Robert Short's The Gospel according to Peanuts – was published in 1965 and went on to sell ten million copies; more recent entries have included The Gospel according tothe Simpsons, written by religion reporter Mark Pinsky, and The Gospel according toTolkien, written by theologian Ralph Wood.

Dr. Garrett's book is his own most recent in the field of religion and culture, where he has written on The Matrix films (The Gospel Reloaded, co-written with Chris Seay) and on the superhero figure found in comics, graphic novels and film (Holy Superheroes). He has also written two critically-accclaimed novels, Free Bird, and Cycling, and a book of memoir, Crossing Myself. In 2005, Dr. Garrett was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for lifetime literary achievement.

Dr. Garrett is Professor of English at Baylor University , and Writer in Residence at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, where he earned his M.Div. A frequent media guest on story, religion, and culture, he also teaches, does workshops, and gives lectures and readings across the US and overseas.

Initial Reviews of The Gospel according to Hollywood

Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) It is easy to see the religious imagery in movies like The Passion of the Christ and The Mission, but much more difficult to uncover it in mainstream Hollywood films. Garrett, professor of English at Baylor University and popular author, analyzes dozens of films and extracts their religious and spiritual themes. Rather than focus solely on contemporary films, Garrett digs into the past five decades and investigates important works that are often overlooked in similar books.

He masterfully weaves threads of Christian history, doctrine and tradition into the chapters, utilizing these films as platforms from which to teach the reader. The chapter on peace and justice is especially powerful, as the author not only instructs but also advocates for working toward a more just society.

Being a Christian means to put one's faith in action, and Garrett is able to elucidate how these movies can have the power to encourage some to live a more authentic Christian life. While he realizes that not all Christians will buy into his primary thesis -- that movies can reveal something about spirituality and God's action in the world -- he also understands that "many theologians have argued that nothing in creation is outside the scope of God." This is a bold and courageous belief, and kudos to Garrett for advancing it.

Library Journal - Graham Christian
Negotiating the tricky terrain between spirituality and popular culture is a specialty of Garrett (Holy Superheroes: Exploring Faith and Spirituality in Comic Books). In his latest work, Garrett casts his net more widely than before, using films as far-ranging in date and genre as The Philadelphia Story, Brokeback Mountain, Unforgiven, Crash, and North by Northwest, among many others, to discuss the hard and serious traditional Christian themes of faith, the Trinity, sin, grace, redemption, and justice.

Garrett's book confines itself to movies that are not explicitly religious (which, as Garrett recognizes, preach to the choir) but finds valuable and distinctive lessons in movies with mass appeal. The strength and fascination of the book lie in Garrett's deftness in showing moviegoers that the messages they can feel really are there -- and in persuading the devout that there are values to be found, even in the cineplex. Highly recommended.

 

EILEEN FLYNN: FAITH

Path of this righteous man was guided, in part,
by 'Pulp Fiction'

Saturday, July 21, 2007 copyright Austin American-Statesman

Jules Winnfield inspired Greg Garrett to become a Christian again. That's right, Jules, that Jheri curl-sporting, Scripture-quoting, philosophical assassin from Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction."

Garrett, 45, who recently earned a divinity degree from the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest and teaches at Baylor University in Waco, has seen the movie more than 40 times.

And that famous final scene still gives him chills. Jules (played brilliantly by Samuel L. Jackson) tells John Travolta's Vincent Vega that he's giving up his life of crime and that he has reconsidered the partly correct passage from Ezekiel, the one he cites just before he kills someone: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee."

"He goes through a couple of exegeses when he finally recognizes the truth," Garrett said, "that he's an evil man when what he really wants is to become a good man."

Not that Garrett was living an evil life. But his childhood religion had left him depressed and angry, disconnected from the hope and redemption he would later find in the Episcopal Church. And as a writer, musician and comic book buff, among other things, he was quick to pick up on religious ideas in pop culture.

Jules spoke to him.

"What's really powerful for me is his willingness to embrace radical change," Garrett said. "The idea that we are meant to be different people than we are — that is the whole Gospel story right there. When you see the person that God wants you to become, will you become that person or will you remain the same person you've always been?"

Garrett offers his spiritual insights on a host of films in his latest book, "The Gospel According to Hollywood." You may recall "The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in The Matrix," a book he co-wrote with Houston minister Chris Seay. A revised edition of another title, "Holy Superheroes," will be released next spring.

These days, we hear much concern from conservative Christians who complain about contemporary culture's skewed values and Hollywood's lack of respect for the Christian faith. But Garrett finds implicit moral and religious lessons on the silver screen.

"It's pretty clear, with very few exceptions, that movies are not intended to convey articles of faith," he said. "If you go to a movie expecting it to save souls, you're almost sure to be disappointed because that's not (its) function."

But one can, Garrett stressed, find spiritual and religious messages that may or may not be intended. Look at "Signs," he said, the film starring Mel Gibson, who plays an Episcopal priest who loses his faith after his wife dies.

"It handles (those messages) in a sophisticated way in a popular film framework," he said. "It's a movie about faith and doubt, but it's also a science fiction film. What (Mel Gibson) discovers is there is a presence larger than himself that has his best interests in mind, but he discovers it because of an alien invasion."

I've interviewed Christians who are wary of putting too much stock in this sort of thing. Some believe Christians should resist the culture, not embrace it. But Garrett hears from plenty of Christians, particularly those in the Generations X and Y categories, "that culture is a part of their spiritual understanding."

"This is also true for those who, in formal terms, we think of as unchurched," he said; "the same people who will find spiritual meaning in 'Pulp Fiction' or 'The Matrix' or 'Signs' but may not be churchgoers."

Whether Tarantino wrote the character of Jules to convey the possibility of redemption is less important, Garrett said. Garrett found meaning and church — he attends St. James' Episcopal Church in East Austin — partly because of the story's impact on him.

"I don't know anything about Tarantino's faith tradition, if he even has any spiritual life," Garrett said. "But pretty clearly in the story Jules is a character that we like and we respect, and when he makes this decision, it's a decision that has resonance whatever Tarantino might personally believe."