Publication Details
Morrison, G. J.
(2011).
Book Review: Into the Dark: Seeing the Sacred in the Top Films of the 21st Century. By Craig Detweiler..
Heythrop Journal, 52 (6), 1083-1084.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2265.2011.00699_41.x
Abstract
The art of interpretation demands good sense and sensibility before we can arrive at meaning. There are a multitude of choices and methods available. One popular option is to draw together theory and experience. Where we come to the world of theology and ‘top films of the 21st Century,’ the synthesis of thematisation of ideas and representations of experience is a predictable choice. Following this synthetic approach yet developing it as something that can be recycled anew, the theologian and Hollywood script writer, Craig Detweiler, has produced engaging and often exciting reflections upon many top IMDb ranked films of the early 21st Century. He has particularly limited his discussion to the genre of ‘film noir’. And so ‘into the dark,’ Detweiller takes the reader as closely as possible to experience the sacred in the movie theatre. Perhaps like Noah, he creates his own ‘ark’ of reflections or, like Derrida, a personal archive of memory from the Internet Movie Database, so that we make develop an ‘archive fever’ and invite theology on a journey into the dark of a world flooded by films and ‘the play’ of stories.
Keywords
Peer-reviewed, Theology, Top Films, 21st Century, IMDb, von Balthasar, Practical Theology
