Fall 2011 Schedule:

Purpose: The Faith and Film Forum (FFF) exists to assist students in engaging with popular non-religious film in a critical and theological manner. FFF is a completely voluntary program. 

Rationale for FFF: Film is one of the most powerful visual media of our day. Going to the movies or watching movies on DVDs is one of the top recreational activities of college students, even students at our Nazarene colleges. Our students see numerous films a year with very little opportunity to process them, critique them or think theologically about them.

“College students seek out entertainment, spending nearly $3 billion annually on movies, DVDs, music, and video game purchases and rentals. They ring up music sales to the tune of $474 million, they view theater tickets as worthy of $658 million, and they spend $341 million for games. At home and in their dorms they’re watching movies, spending $600 million to buy and another $326 million to rent DVD’s.

The appetite for in-theater movie viewing is especially high; a college student goes to more than ten movies per year. On average, a college student spends $70 annually on movie tickets compared to $32(1) for the general population including children.

‘If you’re going to reach college students, theaters are one place you have to be’, said White.”

(From The 360 College Explorer Study, www.harrisinteractive.com)

Philosophy of FFF Advisory Committee: According to Robert Johnson professor of theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, (Reel Spirituality, 2000) the history of the church’s relationship to secular film includes a path from avoidance to divine encounter.

Avoidance----caution----dialogue----appropriation----divine encounter

Our goal at SNU will be to provide students with tools so that they may dialogue with film from their particular faith tradition and become critical thinkers, even finding God in unexpected places. Each FFF will consist of the showing of a film followed by an in-depth discussion facilitated by various campus faculty and staff.

Johnson outlines six reasons that Christians should enter into dialogue with popular art (in this case film). The FFF believes that these reasons are in accord with the standards and mission of SNU.

Six reasons Christians should enter into dialogue with popular culture/art
1) God’s prevenient grace is present throughout human culture.
2) Theology should be concerned with the Spirit’s presence and work in the world.
3) God is active within the wider culture and speaks to us through all of life.
4) Image as well as word can help us encounter God.
5) Theology’s narrative shape makes it particularly open to interaction with other stories.
6) The nature of constructive theology is a dialogue between God’s story and our stories.

In addition to the above six reasons, we at SNU also ascribe to the following four points:

1) Frequently, individuals approach film as mere entertainment and may tend to be passive recipients rather than critics of film - both positively and negatively. While it is probably true that many of us have lenses through which we view film we may be unaware of these lenses and particularly how these lenses have been shaped by the surrounding culture. We believe that Christians can benefit from an articulated theological lens.

2) In line with SNU’s motto, “Character, Culture, and Christ,” we are dedicated to interacting with the best of culture to find where God is working in the world as well as to transform those areas of culture where God is most needed.

3) There is scriptural/theological precedent that suggests that God is at work in all areas of the world (e.g., prevenient grace). Scripture demonstrates that God can and did use the “enemy” to speak to and teach his people (e.g., Isaiah 10 and Hakkuk). Other passages of scripture reveal the “ungodly” acting more in line with Christ’s teachings than the people of God (see story of Jonah or the Good Samaritan story). Therefore, it is not unreasonable to believe that God can use “secular” media to teach Christians as well as use Christians to teach the world.

4) The FFF takes seriously the Christian concept to be “in the world” but not “of the world”. For this reason we may at times (when we believe that the value of a film merits it) watch films that contain elements that we as a university would not promote or embrace as personal lifestyle choices. Nevertheless, we may watch these films because a) they are being seen by a large majority of our students and they need to be critiqued, and b) they may express important truths that we may be inoculated from in our Christian communities (e.g., forms and types of classicism, racism, sexism, injustices, etc.).

Criteria Considered in Selecting a Film:
Does the film explicate a complex scriptural/theological concept (e.g., incarnation, redemption, forgiveness, etc.) in a useful way?
Does the film offer a contrary narrative (perhaps more in line with Christianity) to society’s dominant narratives (e.g., film promotes community over individualism, peace over aggression, etc.)?
Does the film teach us something about what it means to be fully human?
Does the film offer a critique of Western Christianity?
Does the film expose us to larger societal issues that we as believers must be aware of?
Does the film bring us into the presence of the Divine?

The FFF advisory committee will utilize the above criteria in selecting films. If the majority of the FFF advisory committee believes that the film has enough merit to be shown it will be selected.