Art Cinema and Theology

Revue de Presse :
"While others have called for informed dialogue between film studies and theology, Ponder goes further in modelling detailed study of four aspects of filmmaking connected to four auteurs hailed by cineastes as well as theologians. He shows how their distinctive techniques support a postmodern theology in which meaning is found only in community, and in the process indicates with detail and insight how film technique serves content and not only form." (John Lyden, editor of Journal of Religion & Film and author of Film as Religion: Myths, Morals, and Rituals, 2003)

"In Ponder's unpacking of a film's narrative features, his exploration of the movie's visual/aural elements (sound, editing, lighting, and cinematography) is superb, as is his wide-ranging theological investigations, helping to illumine the film's theological depths. His thesis, that a film's sound and images complicate/nuance/deepen its narrative meaning andcan be enriched by the parallel use of theological criticism as an alternate form of "critical theory" is provocative." (Robert K. Johnston, Professor of Theology and Culture, Fuller Theological Seminary, USA. Author of Reel Spirituality, 2006, Useless Beauty: Ecclesiastes through the Lens of Contemporary Film, 2004; co-editor of God in the Movies, 2017)