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Eyes Wide Open : Looking for God in Popular Culture
by William D. Romanowski

Bill is a friend of mine, we see each other each year at the City of Angeles Film Festival, and he teaches at Calvin College. He is an incredible thinker and fluent with pop culture. If you want to know the meaning of pop culture, I highly recommend this book to you. Publisher note: "Grounded in Christian principles, this accessible and engaging book offers an informed and fascinating approach to popular culture. William Romanowski provides affectionate yet astute analysis of familiar, well-loved movies and television characters from Pretty Woman to Homer Simpson. He speaks with expertise on films from Titanic to Casablanca and music from Mozart to Springsteen, bringing sources as diverse as Shakespeare and Allan Bloom into the discussion."

Pop Culture Wars
Religion and the Role of Entertainment in American Life.
by William D. Romanowski

After I read this book, I handed it to my 15 year old daughter. I wanted to give her a handle on pop culture. I am indebted to Bill. This book was published before his excellent Eyes Wide Open. This is a ground breaking book that helps the reader in developing a helpful critical approach toward the media, instead of being in constant fear of it. He covers television, rap music, movies. It may be a college level book, but I gave it to my 15 year old daughter to read. It covers all her favorite things, like MTV, from an enlightened Christian perspective.

Communicating for Life: Christian Stewardship in Community and Media
by Quentin J. Schultze, Martin E. Marty

Professor Quentin Schultze is a friend of mine. He is a man of vision and insight. His students love him. The book is brilliant. Publisher's note: "We are responsible for how we communicate, for what we communicate, and for how our communication affects others. Quentin Schultze guides readers through an interesting, creative, and spiritual study of communication. Rooted in a Christian worldview, Communicating for Life explores the implications of individual human communication and the influence of communication on community. Several aspects of the discipline of communication are examined, including the flawed nature of human communication, contrasting views of communication, and the role of media in contemporary society."

Border Crossings : Christian Trespasses on Popular Culture and Public Affairs
by Rodney Clapp

The usual modern assumption is that Christians are supposed to leave explicitly Christian convictions and practices behind when they engage public affairs and popular culture. In this fascinating book, Rodney Clapp rejects that assumption and (with lively Christian convictions intact) trespasses onto secular territory-from global corporations to Winnie-the-Pooh, from family values to "The X-Files", from consumerism to Hank Williams and John Coltrane. He shows, with panache, humor and unstinting insight, that "Christians can inhabit the whole world-public and private, body and soul-exactly as Christians."
"Rodney Clapp is perhaps the most perceptive contemporary Christian commentator on the intersection of society, culture and the church. " -Michael L. Budde, DePaul University
"Rodney Clapp is a major player in the Evangelical transition into the postmodern world." -Robert E. Webber, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary

Reel Spirituality :
Theology and Film in Dialogue (Engaging Culture)
by Robert K. Johnston

Robert was the dean of the Seminary I attended and is a dear friend. He loves film and he loves God. He is on the Board of the City of Angeles Film Festival where I see him each year. Publisher's note: "The motion picture is an art form that has significantly influenced human culture. Films can shape our perceptions-from relationships and careers to good and evil. They are often a window into the human soul, a glimpse that can be both terrifying and holy. In view of the increasingly powerful role that movies play in our cultural dialogue, Robert K. Johnston, professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, has written a book to guide Christian moviegoers into a theological analysis of and conversation with film. Among the more than 200 movies Johnston cites are American Beauty, The Apostle, The English Patient, The Godfather, Life Is Beautiful, The Sound of Music, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Truman Show."

Meeting Gil Bailie changed me forever!

Violence Unveiled:
Humanity at the Crossroads
by Gil Bailie (1995)
Winner of the 1996 Pax Christi USA Book Award

I met Mr. Bailie at the City of Angeles Film Festival. He was one of the lecturers. He's a kind, unassuming, man with a powerful prophetic message that changed how I view violence. Few people have studied the spiritual meaning of violence. Gil Bailie has. guarantee you that this book will alter your thinking.
     "About once in a decade I read a book which profoundly affects the way I see reality. This is such a book." -Sandra M. Schneiders, Horizons.
     "Anyone concerned about the rise of violence and social disintegration in our culture, and who wants to understand what is really happening, must read this book. It's that important." -Sojourners.

Raised by Wolves:
The Story of Christian Rock & Roll
by John J. Thompson, Dinah K. Kotthoff (Photographer)

An insider's look at the birth, evolution, and growing popularity of Christian rock music. As the counter-cultural movements of the sixties gathered steam, one of its first splinter groups was the Jesus freaks. In addition to culturally hip pastors, the scene produced a handful of musicians who brazenly coupled rock & roll music with lyrics that reflected a Christian world-view and often became an outright evangelistic tool. Jesus music was born. Raised By Wolves is about this music. It traces the birth and growth of a genre that has married seeming opposites - Jesus and rock & roll - for 30 years. John J. Thompson looks at the social conditions in which this music developed and how it has been evolving in North America since the Jesus Movement of the sixties, including a look at contemporary Christian rock. He also looks at the artists behind this music, including groups like dc Talk, The Supertones, and crossover artists such as Jars of Clay, MxPx, and Sixpence None the Richer. These are the real rebels of rock & roll who live on the fringes in an underground Christian culture.

Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes
by Jacques Ellul

Yea, yea, I know. This book was written following WW2. But, this is the book that got me thinking about how media influences us. It is the classic standard on the subject. And, Ellul is one of the greatest thinkers of our day. If you have not been introduced to him yet, here is a great place to start. One reviewer sums up the book this way: "Propaganda is a relatively recent phenomenon made possible by the channels of the mass media. Ellul analyzes propaganda in all its forms. He argues that propaganda is indeed effective, that it is indeed necessary, that it is indeed harmful to democracy, and that it need not be based on lies. It is precisely at this point that the dangers of propaganda become apparent because often the propaganda released is truthful in content. Propaganda is also necessary even for a government that claims to be a democracy (and yes the United States does engage in it on its citizens). Ellul examines the history of propaganda as it was used by Joseph Goebbels in Nazi Germany, Lenin and Stalin among the communists, and in the United States. In an appendix, he deals with scientific studies, which have aimed at measuring propaganda's effectiveness, and with the propaganda of Mao in China (which includes the topic of "brainwashing", unfortunately not very developed in the text). He also discusses propaganda as put out by churches and concludes that a true Christianity cannot rely on propaganda. Also, the relation between propaganda and advertising is examined."

The Catholic Imagination
by Andrew M. Greeley

Insight into pop culture from a catholic perspective. Greeley teaches Sociology at the University of Chicago and the University of Arizona. The Catholic Imagination is Andrew Greeley's attempt to summarize what is unique about Catholic culture. "Catholics live in an enchanted world, a world of statues and holy water, stained glass and votive candles, saints and religious medals, rosary beads and holy pictures," Greeley writes. "But these Catholic paraphernalia are mere hints of a deeper and more pervasive religious sensibility which inclines Catholics to see the Holy lurking in creation." In seven chapters, The Catholic Imagination considers some of the central themes of Catholic culture--sacrament, salvation, community, festival, hierarchy, erotic desire, and the mother love of God--particularly as they have been treated by Catholic artists.

Virtual Faith : The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X
by Tom Beaudoin, Harvey Cox

If you've ever seen God in a tattoo or had a revelatory experience listening to R.E.M., Virtual Faith is for you. Tom Beaudoin has spent his whole life parked in front of the TV, surfing online, and jamming to the radio--that is when he hasn't been church hopping, getting graduate degrees in theology, or serving in the Israeli army. His book is the most comprehensive and accessible reading on the religious nature of irreverence among members of the so-called "Generation X." While Beaudoin skirts some of the most contentious issues raised by Gen-X pop culture (neither "Marilyn Manson" nor "homosexuality" appears in the index), his book is groundbreaking and important simply because it makes a bold move: he aims two rays of light--God's and Madonna's--straight at each other, and actually takes seriously the wild spectrum that results.

Jesus in Disneyland : Religion in Postmodern Times
by David Lyon

Description: In this lively and accessible study, David Lyon explores the relationship between religion and postmodernity, through the central metaphor of 'Jesus in Disneyland'. Contemporary disciples of Jesus have used Disneyland for religious events, whilst Disney characters are now probably better known throughout the world than many biblical figures. But this book cautions against seeing it as a simple substitution. Rather, Lyon shows how this metaphor reveals highly innovative and potentially enduring features of contemporary spiritual quests. In the West, many religious institutions have declined in social significance, but what Lyon calls the religious realm, including faith and spirituality, is flourishing in multifarious forms. Throughout the text he examines a wide variety of religious and para-religious behaviour, exploring its relation to issues of identity, cyberculture, consumer culture and social theories of time. Lyon's stimulating use of contemporary case studies illuminates the interconnections between religion and postmodernity in a world where holy wars are waged in cyberspace, New Age self religions resonate with new identity quests, and Pentecostalism sparks globalization from below.

Challenge of Postmodernism: An Evangelical Engagement
by David S. Dockery (Editor)

"This is an important book, not because all of the essayists are unquestionably right . . . but because the most important intellectual movement of the contemporary Western world is here being addressed from the perspective of Christian believers. . . . I hope this book achieves the wide circulation it deserves." -D. A. Carson, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"For solid intellectual wrestling that is faithful to both modern thought and the Christian faith, this book is an outstanding contribution." -Mark A. Noll, Wheaton College
"This book is well-informed, well-argued, and challenging. The scholarly depth and intellectual verve of this engagement bodes well for the future of serious theological work among evangelicals." -Timothy George, Beeson Divinity School
"An impressive analysis. . . . Thoughtful evangelicals who engage this postmodern world will find this book both helpful and hopeful." -Leighton Ford, Leighton Ford Ministries

Culture Shift : Communicating God's Truth to Our Changing World
by David W. Henderson, Haddon W. Robinson

"Culture Shift" is an invaluable resource for Christian leaders in churches and in parachurch organizations, seminary and Bible college students, and thinking Christians who desire to interact with seekers and nonbelievers. Readers will gain a lucid view of: - how the culture breeds consumers, spectators, and self-absorbed individuals - how people think in a relativistic world with no room for God - how to break out of the Christian subculture to communicate with the postmodern world "The world has moved," Henderson writes. This book will help readers discover where it has moved and how to meet it there. Dr. David W. Henderson is a senior pastor in West Lafayette, Indiana, and a regular contributor to "Discipleship Journal". He has served widely as a conference and chapel speaker in the United States and overseas.

Foolishness to the Greeks : The Gospel and Western Culture
by Leslie Newbigin

I first picked this book up in the eighties. It had a powerful revolutionary effect on my thinking. It is basically a book that helps you deprogram. There is so much that the Western culture believes that is just not true. I recommend this book to all who dare to be challenged. It is one of my most valued books. Publisher's note does not do this book justice: "How can biblical authority be a reality for those shaped by the modern world? This book treats the First World as a mission field, offering a unique perspective on the relationship between the gospel and current society by presenting an outsider's view of contemporary Western culture."