Book Review: Reel Spirituality, 2nd edition

The original edition of Robert K. Johnston's Real Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue has been for many, myself included, a very helpful text to understand the interaction between theology and the movies we watch. In recent years this interaction has been a growing discipline. Johnston, who teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary, has been a leading writer in the field. Now a second edition of the book has been published and the expansion improves what was already a valuable resource.

Johnston has rewritten all of the chapters of the first edition, and added two more chapters. All the things that made the first edition valuable are still here, but with additional comments about more recent films and also bringing in the expanding body of literature focusing on film from a spiritual and theological perspective. The revisions of the text leave the core teachings intact, but provide even more examples and clearer understandings. This includes his basic approach to film and why film is so useful for theological discussion, and his basic approach to the critical analysis of film from a theological perspective.

Along the way Johnston includes what might be called mini-reviews of various films. The reviews are insightful and always serve to illustrate the critical approaches to understanding film theologically. The reviews are valuable for anyone looking to better understand the theological approach to watching film or just for someone looking for some good films to add to their must see list. But they are not the real reason for the book; they are icing on the cake.

This edition, like the first, concludes with a look at the films of Peter Weir. This examination serves to demonstrate the various principles put forth in the book. Weir's films are diverse in terms of genre, but have certain common themes that wind through them in different way. Johnston's assessment of these films helps the reader to see the process of analyzing films from a theological point of view.

The two biggest additions to the book are the two new chapters. The first deals with the importance of image and music. It corrects one of the shortcomings of the first edition: that it was so strongly focused on the literary aspect of film. To be sure, narrative is almost always central to any film, but much of a film's power comes from the way that narrative is presented. This new chapter looks at the way image and music are used to heighten the storytelling aspect of film. It serves as a brief primer of filmmaking for those without such a background, covering procedures such as framing, editing, special effects.

The second new chapter is the most important improvement in the book. That chapter deals with the ways we respond to films ethically. Often discussions about ethics in film are limited to the amount of violence or sexuality. Johnston wants us to consider films as a way of finding a "common moral vocabulary" of moral discourse for important issues we face as a society. His examples in this chapter are the two films that won best picture Academy Awards for 2004, The Sea Inside (Best Foreign Language Film) and Million Dollar Baby (Best Picture). Both films dealt with issues around euthanasia. Johnston looks at the two films to ascertain their understanding of the issues and the way life and death are viewed in the two films. From there he shows the way these films can be useful in our approach to the difficult issues that are dealt with in these films. Whether one accepts euthanasia as moral or not, the discussion of the issues is important for our culture and films can be a catalyst for such dialogue.

Reel Spirituality is an important resource for anyone seeking to better understand the potential film has in theological reflection. For those who wish to find deeper meaning in films than a few hours of entertainment and for those who wish to find new ways of teaching theological concepts, Johnston's new edition of the book is an essential addition to your library.