Communication, Culture, and Religion – serie

How do we live the moral life? How can we become good and responsible parents, co-workers, and citizens? Essential to the task of becoming fully authentic persons and building genuine communities is seeking goodness and the presence of divine beauty in human experience and the created order. Seeking Goodness and Beauty: The Use of the Arts in Theological Ethics offers the reader a unique and innovative perspective on questions of ethics and how we can incorporate the human experience of the Arts to best live and teach the moral life. Art and aesthetic experiences transcend borders and engage us rationally, emotionally, and sensually. The arts are important for the moral life because they can serve as a locus of revelation. They can effect moral transformation and engage people's religious dimension in surprising ways. Novels, film, autobiography, and music can all contribute to the moral formation of good character and virtue as well as to the skill of discerning right action by developing imagination, shaping moral vision, tutoring the emotions, or guiding the process of moral discernment. As both scholars and teachers, the contributors to this volume not only offer keen insights into how the arts inform the moral life, but they also show how teaching theological ethics may benefit from the arts. Seeking Goodness and Beauty brings together theory and practice in an approachable, engaging manner and offers methods of pedagogy to encourage the use of the arts in moral education.

How do we live the moral life? How can we become good and responsible parents, co-workers, and citizens? Essential to the task of becoming fully authentic persons and building genuine communities is seeking goodness and the presence of divine beauty in human experience and the created order. Seeking Goodness and Beauty: The Use of the Arts in Theological Ethics offers the reader a unique and innovative perspective on questions of ethics and how we can incorporate the human experience of the Arts to best live and teach the moral life. Art and aesthetic experiences transcend borders and engage us rationally, emotionally, and sensually. The arts are important for the moral life because they can serve as a locus of revelation. They can effect moral transformation and engage people's religious dimension in surprising ways. Novels, film, autobiography, and music can all contribute to the moral formation of good character and virtue as well as to the skill of discerning right action by developing imagination, shaping moral vision, tutoring the emotions, or guiding the process of moral discernment. As both scholars and teachers, the contributors to this volume not only offer keen insights into how the arts inform the moral life, but they also show how teaching theological ethics may benefit from the arts. Seeking Goodness and Beauty brings together theory and practice in an approachable, engaging manner and offers methods of pedagogy to encourage the use of the arts in moral education.

We live in a media culture, surrounded by ever-evolving digital technologies. While state schools and secular organizations have embraced the new teaching tools and models for learning that technology affords, religious institutions have struggled with how and why to do the same. All that we can't leave behind: Engaging technology in theological education is a breakthrough book that invites religious educators to both engage and adapt their pedagogy to incorporate new media and technology. Drawing from her expertise as a seminary professor and consultant to religious institutions on the use of technology in teaching, Mary Hess invites professors, pastors, seminarians, and anyone interested in religious education into critical reflection on ways of engaging technology to enhance learning and serve as critical interpreters within communities of faith.

We live in a media culture, surrounded by ever-evolving digital technologies. While state schools and secular organizations have embraced the new teaching tools and models for learning that technology affords, religious institutions have struggled with how and why to do the same. All that we can't leave behind: Engaging technology in theological education is a breakthrough book that invites religious educators to both engage and adapt their pedagogy to incorporate new media and technology. Drawing from her expertise as a seminary professor and consultant to religious institutions on the use of technology in teaching, Mary Hess invites professors, pastors, seminarians, and anyone interested in religious education into critical reflection on ways of engaging technology to enhance learning and serve as critical interpreters within communities of faith.

Communication, Media, and Identity: A Christian Theory of Communication is the first comprehensive theoretical look at the nature of communication from a biblical Christian perspective. This groundbreaking new work discusses the implications of such a theory for interpersonal relations, use of media, and the development of digital culture in the wake of the computer. It also draws widely from the literature of the secular world, critiquing perspectives where necessary and adopting perspectives that are in line with Christian anthropology, epistemology, and ontology. Through this unique lens, the reader is able to understand communication as an art, as a tool for evangelism, and as a unique human activity that allows people to have a stake in the creation. It covers both mediated and non-mediated forms of communication, is sensitive to theological differences within the Christian faith, and examines closely the problem of technology, and especially digital technology, for the practice of communication. As the newest book in the Communication, Culture, and Religion Series, Robert Fortner's work illuminates the theological aspects of communication.

Communication, Media, and Identity: A Christian Theory of Communication is the first comprehensive theoretical look at the nature of communication from a biblical Christian perspective. This groundbreaking new work discusses the implications of such a theory for interpersonal relations, use of media, and the development of digital culture in the wake of the computer. It also draws widely from the literature of the secular world, critiquing perspectives where necessary and adopting perspectives that are in line with Christian anthropology, epistemology, and ontology. Through this unique lens, the reader is able to understand communication as an art, as a tool for evangelism, and as a unique human activity that allows people to have a stake in the creation. It covers both mediated and non-mediated forms of communication, is sensitive to theological differences within the Christian faith, and examines closely the problem of technology, and especially digital technology, for the practice of communication. As the newest book in the Communication, Culture, and Religion Series, Robert Fortner's work illuminates the theological aspects of communication.

Movies are often examined for subtext and dramatizations of social and psychological issues as well as current movements. Studies of well-known Catholic directors, such as Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford, have made the search for Catholic themes a reputable field of examination. Through a Catholic Lens continues the search for these themes and examines the Catholic undercurrents by studying nineteen film directors from around the world. Although these directors may or may not be practicing Catholics, their Catholic background can be found in their writing and directing. Each chapter, written by a different contributor, analyzes one film of each director for its Catholic motifs. With the recent increase of cinema studies, this collection will be of interest to students and academics as well as cinema buffs.

Movies are often examined for subtext and dramatizations of social and psychological issues as well as current movements. Studies of well-known Catholic directors, such as Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford, have made the search for Catholic themes a reputable field of examination. Through a Catholic Lens continues the search for these themes and examines the Catholic undercurrents by studying nineteen film directors from around the world. Although these directors may or may not be practicing Catholics, their Catholic background can be found in their writing and directing. Each chapter, written by a different contributor, analyzes one film of each director for its Catholic motifs. With the recent increase of cinema studies, this collection will be of interest to students and academics as well as cinema buffs.

Baugh traces the development of the Jesus-film and through critical film and theological analysis show us the limitations of this genre. Baugh analyzes several important and often prize-winning films showing how each film-maker has created a valid and often complex and challenging metaphor of the Christ-event. He questions many of the traditional approaches to religious film, and offers a new approach and new criteria for the appreciation and judgment of these films.