American Studies Commons^™

The Death Of Kobe Bryant: Fallen Icons And Heart Of Popular Culture, Justin Bailey

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"It was one more reminder that control is an illusion, that life is fragile, and that each day with loved ones is a gift."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­reactions to the death of Kobe Bryant from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/the-death-of-kobe-bryant-fallen-icons-and-heart-of-popular-culture/

Shows That Shape Us: Saved By The Bell, Erin Olson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"No one really watches sitcoms because they think they’re truly representative of reality, but we also don’t want them to reinforce common misperceptions."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the television program Saved by the Bell from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/shows-that-shape-us-saved-by-the-bell/

Shows That Shape Us: The Office, Justin Bailey

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Laughter might express a diagnosis of what’s wrong with the world, or it might point the way to things somehow being made right."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the television series The Office from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/shows-that-shape-us-the-office-beauty-in-ordinary-things/

Shows That Shape Us: Asking The Right Questions, Justin Bailey

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"God’s word can be translated into every cultural situation, becoming intelligible for us even as it brings a critique of our cultural idolatries."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­interpreting popular culture from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/shows-that-shape-us-asking-the-right-questions/

Won't You Be My Neighbor? (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Was Rogers the actor the same as Rogers the producer, and was that person the same as the real-life Fred Rogers who had a wife and two children and probably also the same kind of sins and temptations that we all have?"

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie Won't You Be My Neighbor? from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/movie-review-wont-you-be-my-neighbor/

First Reformed (Movie Review), Tom Clark

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"The experience of watching First Reformed is deeply moving, unsettling, challenging, quieting, but above all worth it."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie First Reformed from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/movie-review-first-reformed/

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"'Three Billboards' is in no way a crime movie. It is instead a profound movie with a deep insight into the human heart."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­one of the 2018 Golden Globes Best Motion Picture Drama nominees from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/three-billboards-review/

"I Am Your Father", Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Star Wars is supposed to be a generic mythological story with archetypes and narrative structures that transcend all cultures, both in space and in time."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the influence of movies on our culture from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/i-am-your-father/

The Case For Christ (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"The Case for Christ tries to present a rational defense of Christ’s death and resurrection."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie The Case for Christ from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/the-case-for-christ/

The Shack (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"[The Shack] deals head-on with the vexing questions of why a good God allows evil to exist and why people have to suffer."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie The Shack from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/the-shack/

Silence: A Movie Review, Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Scorsese has made his most 'Christian' movie here—at least, overtly Christian. Silence says in a hundred creative ways that God is Not Dead, although not, thankfully, in the title."

Posting about a 2017 Academy Awards Best Achievement in Cinematography nominee ­­­­­­­­ from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/silence-a-movie-review/

Hacksaw Ridge: A Movie Review, Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

“'Hacksaw Ridge' is a rare bird among war movies, neither pro- nor anti-war."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­a 2017 Academy Awards Best Picture nominee from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/hacksaw-ridge-a-movie-review/

Ex Machina: Notes For Viewing, Bob De Smith

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"The film is engaging and disconcerting, and looks at what it means to be human in an age of the machine."

Posting about questions raised in the movie Ex Machina from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/ex-machina-notes-for-viewing/

Mediating The Sacred: Popular Culture As Liturgical Icon In A Secular Age, Jason Lief

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This presentation explores how popular culture and the new forms of technology that mediate it function as a "cultural liturgy" within the immanent frame of secularity. Poetic and symbolic expressions that mediate the sacred within the lived experience of young people will be shared. Icons within the secular experience of young people in the West can be seen positively by Christians. This paper draws from research conducted for a forthcoming book on the relationship between Heavy Metal music and Theology.

Politics Of Bob Dylan, Jeff Taylor

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Bob Dylan’s political worldview has remained essentially the same over six different decades and numerous private and public transformations. Whether he appeared as a New Left protest icon, rock music and Counterculture innovator, rural family man, Christian associated with the Jesus People, or cantankerous social critic distrustful of worldly leaders, Dylan’s notions of freedom and justice, power and sin, have tied all of these roles together.

Values Of Western Society Play A Role In Terrorism, John Visser

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Guest editorial by Dr. Visser published in the Des Moines Register, February 26, 2015.

Some Kind Of Monstrosity: What Youth Ministry Can Learn From Heavy Metal, Jason Lief

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This article brings Slovoj Zizek’s articulation of Pauline Christianity into conversation with Norwegian Black Metal (Gorgoroth) in order to demonstrate the subversive role of popular culture as it challenges the panoptic ideological power of the status quo. Through dialogue with elements of popular culture, like Black Metal, youth ministry is reminded of its prophetic function to challenge the powers of this age as it proclaims the monstrosity of the crucified and resurrected Christ.

Pilgrim’S Progress Progress: How A Novel Can Affect An Entire Culture’S Communication, Bruce Kuiper

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

In this discussion of The Pilgrim’s Progress, three main areas will be explored as ways to show why this book is so worthy of communication study and why it has endured for so long. The first area will be a deeper exploration of the book’s historical background and contemporary role at the end of the 17th century. For the second point, the cultural, social, literary, and communication effects will be examined, reinforcing the concept that the book’s impact was especially substantial in American history. Finally is an argument listing the reasons why a communication scholar should study The Pilgrim’s …