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Institute for Faith and Learning
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    • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture
      • 2022 Art Seeking Understanding
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      • 2012 Technology and Human Flourishing
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Baylor BU Institute for Faith and Learning Conferences and Symposiums Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture 2014 Faith and Film
  • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture
    • 2022 Art Seeking Understanding
    • 2021 Living Accountably
    • 2019 The Character of the University
    • 2018 Stewardship of Creation
    • 2017 The Bible and the Reformation
    • 2016 Higher Learning
    • 2015 The Spirit of Sports
    • 2014 Faith and Film
      • Video Archive
    • 2013 Kierkegaard: A Christian Thinker for Our Time?
    • 2012 Technology and Human Flourishing
    • 2011 Educating for Wisdom in the 21st Century University
    • 2010 Human Dignity and the Future of Health Care
    • 2009 Secularization and Revival
    • 2008 Bottom-Up Approaches to Global Poverty
    • 2007 Friendship
  • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
  • Other Conferences and Events

2014 Faith and Film

film

2014 Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture
Thursday, October 23-Saturday, October 25

Over the past century, cinema has become the defining medium of Western culture, occupying the role that theater and the novel played in earlier generations. Recent advances in communication technologies allow films to reach global audiences on a vast and previously unimaginable scale.

Christian religious themes have been critically important to film from the earliest days. The cinema has produced vast biblical epics and intimate spiritual studies, sensitive biographical explorations and provocative revisions of scripture, and many sentimental expressions of popular piety. Questions of faith are hardly confined to films that are explicitly religious; rather, these themes permeate all genres of film, often in subtle and unexpected ways.

Cinema represents a vast resource for religious exploration and debate. Film, after all, is a medium appreciated, even loved, by people who would not normally be open to religious messages. And, although the scholarly study of film is a rich field, issues of faith are still underplayed. All too often, both secular-minded critics and Christian viewers routinely miss the varieties of ways—good and bad—in which faith appears in film.

The 2014 Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture, Faith and Film, invites exploration of the place of Christian faith in cinema, past and present.

Featured presenters include:

  • Christopher B. Barnett, theology and the arts, Villanova University
  • Bruce Beresford, award-winning director of such films as Breaker Morant, Tender Mercies, and Driving Miss Daisy
  • Matt Cardin, author, scholar, blogger on religion and horror at The Teeming Brain
  • Gregory G. Collins, independent filmmaker and lecturer, The Pennsylvania State University
  • Greg Garrett, professor, novelist, and memoirist, Baylor University
  • Thomas S. Hibbs, professor of ethics and culture and film critic, Baylor University
  • Philip Jenkins, historian and cultural commentator, Baylor University
  • Joseph Kickasola, film theory, religion and media, and film production, Baylor University
  • Frederica Mathewes-Green, author and commentator on spirituality and public life
  • John Morehead, scholar of religion and pop culture at TheoFantastique.com and Cinefantastique Online
  • Grant Nieporte, screenwriter for television and the film Seven Pounds
  • Mark W. Roche, German, literature, intellectual history, philosophy, and film, University of Notre Dame
  • William Romanowski, professor of communication arts and sciences, Calvin College
  • Terry Teachout, drama critic for The Wall Street Journal, playwright, commentator, and blogger
  • Alissa Wilkinson, English and humanities at The King's College and film critic for Christianity Today Movies
  • John Wilson, editor of Books & Culture and editor-at-large for Christianity Today
Baylor BU Institute for Faith and Learning Conferences and Symposiums Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture 2014 Faith and Film
  • About
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    • Staff
  • Conferences and Symposiums
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    • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture
      Back
      • 2022 Art Seeking Understanding
        Back
        • Call for Proposals
        • Conference Schedule
        • Key Information and Frequently Asked Questions
        • Plenary and Featured Speakers
      • 2021 Living Accountably
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        • Plenary and Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2019 The Character of the University
        Back
        • Plenary and Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2018 Stewardship of Creation
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2017 The Bible and the Reformation
        Back
        • Co-Sponsors
        • Featured Speakers and Panels
        • Video Archive
      • 2016 Higher Learning
        Back
        • Featured Speakers and Panels
        • Video Archive
      • 2015 The Spirit of Sports
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2014 Faith and Film
        Back
        • Video Archive
      • 2013 Kierkegaard: A Christian Thinker for Our Time?
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2012 Technology and Human Flourishing
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2011 Educating for Wisdom in the 21st Century University
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2010 Human Dignity and the Future of Health Care
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2009 Secularization and Revival
        Back
        • Video Archive
      • 2008 Bottom-Up Approaches to Global Poverty
      • 2007 Friendship
    • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
      Back
      • Bailey Lecture Video Archive
    • Other Conferences and Events
      Back
      • IFL@25
        Back
        • Select Pictures from IFL@25
      • 2019 LFP National Conference
        Back
        • Presenters
      • Art & Soul
      • Pruit Memorial Symposium
        Back
        • 2001 Celebrating Augustine's Confessions
        • 2002 Christianity and Economics
        • 2003 The Schooled Heart
        • 2004 Slavery, Oppression, and Prejudice
        • 2005 Global Christianity
      • Baylor University Medical Ethics Seminar
        Back
        • 2016 Medical Ethics Seminar
        • 2017 Medical Ethics Seminar
        • 2018 Medical Ethics Seminar
      • One-Time Conferences
  • Programs
    Back
    • Communio: A Retreat for Baylor Educators
    • William Carey Crane Scholars Program
      Back
      • Additional Information
    • Missio
    • Forming Character in the Classroom
      Back
      • About the Program: Called to Character
      • Past Workshops
    • Reading Groups and Guest Speakers
    • Soundings Project
  • Media and Resources
    Back
    • Faith Animating Online Education
      Back
      • Starting Points
      • A Christian Imagination about Online Education?
      • Cultivating Character and Online Learning
      • Additional Resources
    • Institute for Faith and Learning Video Archive
    • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture Video Archive
    • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
    • Recommended Reading
    • External Resources
    • The Christian Reflection Project
      Back
      • Acedia
      • Advent Ethics
      • Aging
      • Anger
      • Apocalyptic Vision
      • Attentive Patience
      • The Book of Acts
      • Caring for Creation
      • Catechism
      • Chastity
      • Children
      • Christianity and Islam
      • Christmas and Epiphany
      • Cities and Towns
      • Cloning
      • Consumerism
      • Death
      • Disability
      • Easter
      • Food and Hunger
      • Forgiveness
      • Freedom
      • Friendship
      • Gambling Culture
      • Generosity
      • Global Wealth
      • Health
      • Heaven and Hell
      • Hospitality
      • Immigration
      • Inklings of Glory
      • Lent
      • The Letter of James
      • Marriage
      • Membership
      • Monasticism Old and New
      • Moral Landscape of Creation
      • Mysticism
      • Parables
      • Patterns of Violence
      • Peace and War
      • Pentecost
      • Pornographic Culture
      • Prayer
      • Prison
      • Prophetic Ethics
      • Racism
      • Sabbath
      • Schools in a Pluralist Culture
      • Scripture
      • Sermon on the Mount
      • Singing Our Lives
      • Sports
      • Suffering
      • Traveling Well
      • Virtual Lives
      • Vocation
      • Where Wisdom Is Found
      • Women and the Church
      • Women in the Bible
      • Work
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