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Faculty Name
Dept.
Project Title
Project
Abstract
Romanowski, William
Communication Arts & Sciences
Writing about Religion and Film: Revising Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular
Culture
For several years now, the editorial staff at Baker/Brazos Press have been gauging my
interest in a 3rd edition of Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture. First
published in 2001, Eyes Wide Open won the 2002 Evangelical Christian Publishers
Association (ECPA) Gold Medallion Award (Christianity and Society), was listed as a Brazos
Press Best Seller, and has a Korean­language edition and an English­language edition
(Philippines). A three­part Eyes Wide Open DVD series commissioned by Calvin College won
a 2002 Aegis Award and received a Communicator Award of Distinction 2002. Writing a 2nd edition aimed more directly at the college textbook market provided an
occasion to work with a MacGregor Student Fellow, Jennifer Vander Heide, who went on to
complete an MA in Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin and afterwards taught as an
adjunct in the CAS Department. The 2nd edition was published in 2007; Jennifer and I also
co­authored an article that was accepted by the Journal of Religion and Communication. Part of my agenda as the Arthur H. DeKruyter Chair in Faith and Communication is to again
revise and update Eyes Wide Open. In the first edition, which was intended mostly for
Evangelical Christians, I identified problems and frustrations with the dominant “Christian”
approaches. Employing Reformed sensibilities, I introduced the concept of a cultural
landscape as an alternative Christian paradigm for understanding and appraising popular art.
In response to reviews and sales tracking, the 2nd edition was aimed more broadly at the
“faith­based” community and college textbook market. One important reason for this 3rd
edition is to increase the book’s lasting influence by making it even more accessible for use
by Christian educators (college and high school), campus and youth ministers, and church
groups. This 3rd edition will dovetail with my current research on “Film and the Religious
Imagination,” another publication in progress meant for generally educated readers, scholars,
and educators. By emphasizing appreciation with understanding, Eyes Wide Open highlights
ways that perspectives—whether moral or ideological, secular or religious—inform
production and interpretative strategies. This edition will advance my approach, which is
unique among studies of this sort, by demonstrating the essential relation between form, (i.e.,
the techniques that filmmakers use to tell stories, like design, cinematography, editing, and
narrative), and perspective, the ideals, beliefs, and assumptions that shape story, theme,
characterization, and even style. Increasing viewer awareness of how perspectives are
communicated also treats the admittedly thorny question of how people of faith are to mind
their religious convictions, while also respecting the screen artist’s freedom and the integrity
of the artwork. The challenge is to help viewers get beyond simply applauding movies that
affirm their views and rejecting others, in order to appreciate artistic encounters with various
perspectives as a way of enriching our understanding of the human dilemma. This book
revision and the creation of an associated student­friendly “eSource” provides opportunity for
a qualified student to better understand the relation of theory and practice and strategic
communication.
Project
Outcome
A 3rd revised and updated edition of Eyes Wide Open will be published by Brazos Press with
an associated online “eSource” study guide hosted on the publisher’s website. The student
and McGregor program will be credited in the book acknowledgements and the online
resource. This project is the natural next step in my academic career, which has been given to
cultivating a Reformed approach to popular art and culture, and especially the cinema. This
revision of Eyes Wide Open, conducted in conjunction with my related project, tentatively
entitled “Film and the Religious Imagination,” is grounded in concepts and knowledge
acquired over many years while researching and writing numerous journal essays and books
like the CCCS project, Dancing in the Dark: Youth, Popular Culture and the Electronic Media
(Eerdmans, 1991), Popular Culture Wars: Religion and the Role of Entertainment in American
Life (IVP, 1996), and most recently, Reforming Hollywood: How American Protestants Fought
for Freedom at the Movies (OUP, 2012). The courses I teach in film aesthetics, screenwriting,
film criticism, history, and genre are another valuable source of discovery. The aim of an eventual publication on “Film and the Religious Imagination” is to invigorate the
academic sub­discipline of film and religion by articulating and demonstrating the
significance of joining film and culture studies with religion. Eyes Wide Open has already
proven to be a valuable resource to aid young Christians in their engagement with popular art
and culture. The main reason for this revision is to enhance its usefulness and contribution to
the popular discourse. Together these two publications fulfill the expectations of the
DeKruyter Chair to address both professional and general audiences.