Next up? I'm speaking at the Northwest Christian Writers Association in Seattle.

Here are the details for my next speaking engagement...

From Christianity Today's review of "Through a Screen Darkly"

Many thanks to Eric Miller for this generous, thoughtful review in Christianity Today:

Overstreet's memoirist-as-mentor tack serves the "invitation" part of the book well, enabling him to address contentious issues from an intimate, personal vantage. Nudity, sex, violence, profanity, anti-Christian storylines: He approaches each in a seasoned, sometimes battle-weary way, still smarting from the e-mail shellackings he's received from hostile readers over the years. So in the form of a story — his own story — he responds, seeking to deepen the reader's notion of what art is and fashion a new framework for considering the vexing questions art invariably raises.

Overstreet is most convincing in his effort to show evangelical readers that their traditional approach to art tends to impede both a rich experience of the goodness of God and a profound understanding of this present darkness. "If I think that by withdrawing I can get away from sin's influence in the world, I forget that sin is active within my own walls and within my own heart," he writes. He urges readers instead to more daringly embrace good art, whether Christian or not, as a means of expanding vision and enlarging wisdom, accepting "the sensual pleasure of God's gifts" even as they take care to avoid the kind of exposure that may actually diminish their ability to taste goodness.

To this end, Overstreet gives layers of description of dozens of films, ranging from The Empire Strikes Back to Taxi Driver to Wings of Desire. It's a clinic in art criticism. Through his earnest and illuminating instruction, we learn much about genre, sacramentality, cinematography, and more. His quest to "apprehend beauty wherever I can find it" is clearly an impassioned romance, one he longs to usher us into as well.

...

Overstreet's achievement in this book is his winsome articulation of the magnificence of art and its irreplaceable part in a fully human life. With an enlarging vision of the story in which our art has unfolded, his criticism will cut through our enigmatic darkness with yet more light.

Help spread the word: Write your review of "Through a Screen Darkly"!

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I'm asking now!

If you like the book, post a brief review of Through a Screen Darkly here. Let Amazon customers know that the book will be worth their while!

Eugene Peterson's "Eat This Book" ... and moviegoing

I am finding Eugene Peterson's Eat This Book to be a particularly inspiring meditation on our need to read, taste, chew, and digest the Bible.

And along the way, I am thunderstruck by how often the points Peterson is making about how we should read scripture run parallel what I've tried to convey about how we should attend to art.

I've just read a section on the power and essentiality of storytelling. (p. 40)

Check this out:

Honest stories respect our freedom; they don't manipulate us, don't force us, don't distract us from life.

Great. Reminds me of the way I recognize a great movie.

And THEN he says:

Not all stories, of course, are honest. There are sentimentalizing stories that seduce us into escaping from life; there are propagandistic stories that attempt to enlist us in a cause or bully us into a stereotyped response; there are trivializing stories that represent life as merely cute or diverting.

Wow. He just said in one paragraph what I took pages to explore in my examination of different kinds of "dishonest" filmmaking.

Then he says:

The Christian life requires a form adequate to its content, a form that is at home in the Christian revelation and that respects each person's dignity and freedom with plenty of room for all our quirks and particularities.

There's a whole discussion waiting to happen, just from that quote. "A form adequate to its content." He's talking about the Christian life, but let me tell you... if more Christian artists came to understand that the form of their work is as important as the content, we would have a new rennaissance of artmaking.

I don't know how many times I've received emails in which someone has protested my critique of a mediocre "Christian movie" or "Christian music" saying, "But Jeff, your focus is in the wrong place. It doesn't matter how good the art is so long as the message is good."

Wrong. If we package the message in mediocrity, we show it disrespect, and worse, we make it unappealing to those we would desire as an audience.

The form and structure of the Bible is awe-inspiring. The forms and structure of God's creation... from the ocean to the human body to a hummingbird... are awe-inspiring, excellent, beautiful, and meaningful. In the same way, great art lasts and speaks to us because of its excellence. And there is no art more lasting and powerful than great art inspired by, and reflecting back, God's Word. In fact, the meaning of great art and the excellence of great art are inseparable. They are very much the same thing.

Blog sightings!

Mentions of Through a Screen Darkly are popping up online. I'm going to keep track of this, partly because I'm curious to see where the book lands, and what happens when it does. And, partly because... well... I wrote the book in hopes that it would inspire further conversation about the power of movies, the rewards of movies, and the dangers of movies, and if that conversation's gonna happen, I want to be there. (I especially want to be there if someone offers critique, because, well, I still have a lot to learn and a long way to go in this journey.)

Today's Through a Screen Darkly webtour takes us to:

• Matt Page's Bible Films blog.
• Matthew Winslow at Christian Realism.

Musing about the joy of books.

I'm hearing from folks all over the country that their copies of Through a Screen Darkly are arriving in the mail.

Isn't it strange? You can write about anything on the Internet, and it can be read all over the world instantly. But if you put it on paper, and it takes days for it to arrive somewhere in the mail, suddenly everybody agrees that it's a reason to celebrate!

The Internet is great, but as far as I'm concerned... books are still the best mode of reading. When you hold the book, turn the page, and have the whole thing in a lasting package that can be handed on from one person to the next, one generation to the next... and you can mark things and highlight things... that's something special.

Not only that, but when you're online, you have the option of switching from subject to subject rapidly. And you are always aware of your own power to engage and respond.

With a book, you're required to be humble and patient... and to chew on what is served to you.

I took some time out from the computer today to read Eugene Peterson's Eat This Book, and I felt so refreshed. Part of that was the beauty and profundity of what Peterson has written. And part of it was the fact that I wasn't staring at a glowing screen, but looking at ink on paper and relaxing into the pleasure of the language.

And the Internet's got nothing on books when it comes to olfactory aspect. Peterson's Eat This Book makes me want to taste and digest good literature, but I keep holding the book up to my nose too, just to breathe that new-book smell...

Here they come! Copies of the book are on their way!

I'm told that the box full of books should arrive on my doorstep this week.

Some copies have already been delivered to book reviewers.

Almost as long as I've been able to write my name on paper, I've wondered what this moment would be like... to hold my first copy of my own published book. I'm so weary from all of the writing and editing I've done recently, I hope I can stand up straight and appreciate it. It's been a long strange trip.

Many, many thanks... not for the first time, and not for the last... to Alex Field and all of the people at Regal Books for making this happen. And to my agents, Lee Hough and Don Pape, for finding this project a home there. And to Marsha Marks, who had a wild idea one day and introduced me to Don Pape. This is all happening thanks to their enthusiasm, hard work, and grace.

Of course, I wouldn't have met them or been able to do any of this if the Divine Choreographer Himself hadn't brought us together. So, the greatest thanks of all to the Almighty.

And many thanks to you as well, for spending so much time in conversation with me about faith and art. Without those conversations, I wouldn't have had a book to write.

Anyway, while we're waiting for the book to arrive, you might enjoy perusing a collection of conversations I've been enjoying with various moviegoers, film critics, writers, and even one particular filmmaker. Check out Looking Closer's Twenty-Five Favorite Films of 2006.

The most meaningful movie moments you've ever seen.

Something very special is happening right now over at the Looking Closer Journal blog.

I'm enjoying the many comments of readers who are sharing their favorite movie moments of all time.

I'd love to know which moments stand out for you.

The last chapter of Through a Screen Darkly is devoted to celebrating moments in film that have meant the most to me and, in fact, changed my life. So I get rather worked up, even teary-eyed, when people start contributing to this discussion.

Are we cattle?

It's exciting when we see Christians engaging popular culture and demonstrating discernment.

We are called to "wise as serpents, and innocent as doves," right?

But when we start behaving like cattle... following whatever is marketed to us, going to see whatever our pastors have been convinced to promote, trusting advertising instead of using our heads... that's when cultural "engagement" becomes cultural enslavement.

Check out Peter T. Chattaway's latest post.

An update on "Through a Screen Darkly"

The book is finished!

Proofreading is done.

The front and back cover are complete.

I'm told that printed copies do, at long last, exist.

You'll be seeing them soon if you've ordered some copies (one for you, one for each of your movie-loving friends, so you can talk it over, of course).

What a long, strange trip it's been. I've learned a great deal. And now, we're shifting from the busy-ness of writing the book to the busy-ness of talking about it... in print, on the radio, online, and beyond.

This Friday, I'll be appearing on WordFM in Pittsburgh.

Next month, I'll be speaking at several events, including the Northwest Christian Writers Association, and at a special book release party in La Conner, Washington.

In April, I'll be addressing the Seattle chapter of the G.K. Chesterton Society about faith and film.

I'm also blogging a bit about the book and moviegoing over at the Amazon blog. This week, I'm inviting you to share your list of favorite films from 2006, as well as your favorite (and least favorite) sequels of all time. Come over and share your experiences!

Here's are some questions for you:

Do you have a favorite radio program, where you'd like to hear me talk about Through a Screen Darkly?

If so, email me at joverstreet [at] gmail [dot] com, and tell me the name of the station, the program, and the DJ (if you have that information). I'm currently charting out a calendar of radio interviews, so I can share with listeners who haven't yet discovered LookingCloser.org or Through a Screen Darkly.

Also, if you can think of a magazine that might be interested in reviewing the book, or publishing an excerpt, or printing an interview, now is the time to tell me about it. We're in a flurry of activity setting these things up.

What an adventure.