Kirjahaku

When humankind faces what it perceives as a threat to its very existence, a macabre thing happens in art, literature, and culture: corpses begin to stand up and walk around. The dead walked in the fourteenth century, when the Black Death and other catastrophes roiled Europe. They walked in images from World War I, when a generation died horribly in the trenches. They walked in art inspired by the Holocaust and by the atomic attacks on Japan. Now, in the early twenty-first century, the dead walk in stories of the zombie apocalypse, some of the most ubiquitous narratives of post-9/11 Western culture. Zombies appear in popular movies and television shows, comics and graphic novels, fiction, games, art, and in material culture including pinball machines, zombie runs, and lottery tickets. The zombie apocalypse, Greg Garrett shows us, has become an archetypal narrative for the contemporary world, in part because zombies can stand in for any of a variety of global threats, from terrorism to Ebola, from economic uncertainty to ecological destruction. But this zombie narrative also brings us emotional and spiritual comfort. These apocalyptic stories, in which the world has been turned upside down and protagonists face the prospect of an imminent and grisly death, can also offer us wisdom about living in a community, present us with real-world ethical solutions, and invite us into conversation about the value and costs of survival. We may indeed be living with the living dead these days, but through the stories we consume and the games we play, we are paradoxically learning what it means to be fully alive.

From the beginning, American cinema has been both a powerful mythmaker and a social critic. D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, arguably the first feature film, shows us just how early in its history cinema had established its influence. In 1915 it was the first movie to be screened at the White House. After the screening, President Woodrow Wilson is rumored to have said, "It's like history writ with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all terribly true." Birth of a Nation famously portrayed the Klu Klux Klan in a favorable light, a portrayal that contributed to the modern resurgence of the group and brought racist depictions of African Americans imported from the minstrel show to the silver screen. Such white fantasies of black American life have played out on our movie screens for the last century. In response, filmmakers of color have created nuanced and indelible portraits of race, as in Ava DuVernay's Selma or Barry Jenkin's Moonlight. Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman shows us just how far into our culture Birth of a Nation has reached. In this powerful new book, Greg Garrett brings his signature brand of theologically motivated cultural criticism to bear on this history. After more than a century of cinema, he argues, movies have altered our cultural perspectives in the same way that religious narratives have. And in fact, religious traditions offer powerful correctives to our cultural narratives. A Long, Long Way incorporates both cinematic and religious truth-telling to the subject of race and reconciliation. In acknowledging the racist history of America's national art form, Garrett offers the possibility of hope for the future.

It is far more common nowadays to see references to the afterlife--angels playing harps, demons brandishing pitchforks, God among heavenly clouds, the fires of hell--in New Yorker cartoons than in serious Christian theological scholarship. Speculation about death and the afterlife seems to embarrass many of America's less-evangelical theologians, yet as Greg Garrett shows, popular culture in the U.S. has found rich ground for creative expression in what happens to us after death. The rock music of U2, Iron Maiden, and AC/DC, the storylines of TV's Lost, South Park, and Fantasy Island, the implied theology in films such as The Corpse Bride, Ghost, and Field of Dreams, the heavenly half-light of Thomas Kinkade's popular paintings, and the supernatural landscape of ghosts, shades, and waystations in the Harry Potter novels all speak to our hopes and fears about what comes next. Greg Garrett scrutinizes a wide array of cultural productions to find the stories being told about what awaits us: depictions of heaven, hell, and purgatory, angels, demons, and ghosts, all offering at least an implied theology of life after death. The citizens of the imagined afterlife, whether in heaven, hell, on earth, or in between, are telling us about what awaits us, at once shaping and reflecting our deeply held--if sometimes inchoate--beliefs. They teach us about reward and punishment, about divine assistance in this life, about diabolical interference, and about other ways of being after we die. Especially fascinating are the frequent appearances of purgatory, limbo, and other in-between places. Such beliefs are dismissed by the Protestant majority, and quietly disparaged even by many Catholics. Yet many pop culture narratives represent departed souls who must earn some sort of redemption, complete some unfinished task, before passing on. Garrett's incisive analysis sheds new light on what popular culture can tell us about the startlingly sharp divide between what modern people profess to believe and what they truly hope to find after death.

This book will thrill movie buffs and casual fans alike. In an engaging style, author Greg Garrett looks at the theological elements in dozens of classic and new classic Hollywood films, including a discussion about what the new openness to spirituality in the movies might mean for the future of American cinema and American religion.

Spider-Man. Batman. The X-Men. The Fantastic Four. Comic books and the characters they have spawned have become twenty-first-century mythology. Greg Garrett helps us see the profound depth that can be found in the glossy, fast-paced, and often violent world of comics, graphic novels, and the films they inspire. Holy Superheroes! provides extensive discussions of some of our most beloved comic heroes and concludes with an appendix of twenty-five comics and graphic novels for discussion of spirituality and comics.

Where is God in the midst of suffering? How do people find strength and comfort in times of terrible adversity? Award-winning writer Greg Garrett addresses these questions and others as he helps readers grapple with the question of where God can be found in times of tragedy. He explores the theological themes of biblical stories and American myths and discusses how these stories have shaped our beliefs about God. He further examines what these foundational narratives reveal about our understanding of God, how they inform how we live our lives, and how we experience God's presence in the midst of grief and suffering. This well-written volume is engaging reading for clergy, chaplains, pastoral counselors, and all who must find the courage and faith to support individuals and families in times of suffering and grief.

According to recent surveys, many Americans associate the label "Christian" with judgmental attitudes, hypocrisy, a fear of hell, and a commitment to right-wing politics. Author Greg Garrett suggests another way, arguing that a faith that focuses solely on personal morality and the afterlife misses much of the point of Jesus' message.This other way of following Christ is not concerned with an array of commandments or with holding the "right" beliefs. Rather it is centered on loving each other and loving God, what Garrett calls "love where the rubber meets the road, where faith meets the world."Personal and moving, the book relates Garrett's experiences growing up in--and leaving--a disapproving conservative church and then finding his way back into a different kind of Christian community, one that is communal, missional, just, and loving. Garrett draws on popular culture to illustrate his spiritual points, showing how authentic Christian truth can be found in unlikely places.

"The old way of “being church”—measured by political influence, money, and congregants in the pews—may indeed be vanishing, but it is being replaced by something new and beautiful for those with the eyes, ears, heart, and soul to experience it. Prolific author Greg Garrett reminds Episcopalians of the many gifts that our tradition can offer a doubting and hurting world. He reveals a church that values intellect, beauty, diversity, and community, and promotes thoughtful engagement with questions of faith, ethics, and community. This church espouses a generous orthodoxy, welcoming left and right, mystic and doubter. It values education, social justice, and engagement with literature and culture. And in opposition to the radical individualism espoused by most of American Protestantism, it offers the unique gift of a tradition shaped by English culture that believes the individual is a part of her or his community—not in opposition to it."

This book captures the author’s efforts to find his way out of a spiral of depression – a tortuous path through mental anguish and suicide attempt(s) into the grace that brought him spiritual rebirth, sanity and a life of service to others. Crossing Myself will speak to those who have come through depression and those who still struggle with it. It can be appreciated by men and women, adults or teens for its literary style and personal insights of redemptive faith.

One of the most beloved stories in history, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series topped the best-seller charts, inspired the highest-grossing film series of all time, and has now become a $250 million Universal Studio theme park. What is it about this story that has ignited such fandom and struck such a chord with people around the world? As English professor, culture critic, and Potter devotee Greg Garrett explains, these novels not only entertain but teach deeply held truths about ourselves, others, and the world around us. Unlocking the textual intricacies behind the Harry Potter narrative, Garrett reveals Rowling's magical formula--one that, he contends, earns her a place right next to the literary giants of old.Not for sale in the UK.

James Baldwin's fiction, essays, criticism, and dramatic writing offer searing critiques of religion, culture, and discrimination that are still timely, but in his writings, and in the witness of his life, Baldwin holds out the possibility of hope and espouses the primacy of love despite the difficulties of a present moment. In the life and work of Baldwin, equity, justice, and reconciliation--while difficult to attain--remain dreams worth pursuing. This requires us to face our past, he reminds us, our actual history, so that we can move forward together, and this is a universal call from a very particular human writer. In Baldwin's call to look at our lives and bear witness to the truth, we encounter our own calls to live more fully, love more honestly, have faith in things truly worth pursuing. Like St. Irenaeus (Against Heresies 4.20.7) of old, Baldwin argues that the glory of God is the human being fully alive. Following Baldwin as a spiritual guide offers us the chance to live into the things to which we're called--to become genuinely human. During the reading for and writing of this book, Garrett followed in Baldwin's physical footsteps--walking with him from his early years in Harlem to his painful journeys to the American South, from the cafes of St.-Germain in Paris to the mountains of Switzerland, where he did some of his most important thinking and writing. Garrett consulted critical and cultural studies, as well as archival materials from the recently-inaugurated Baldwin Collection at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and the Harry Ransom Humanities Center in Austin, and the Beinecke Library at Yale. Out of this close study of Baldwin's words and his legacy, Garrett invites new readers and longtime lovers of Baldwin into a thoughtful exploration of his continued relevance.

Baldwin's writing offers critiques of religion, culture, and discrimination, and in the witness of his life he holds up hope and the primacy of love despite all the difficulties of the present moment. In this passionate introduction, Garrett presents the life and work of Baldwin in all his writing genres, on themes of equity, justice, and reconciliation. Garrett followed in Baldwin's footsteps--from New York City to the American South, from the cafes of St.-Germain in Paris to the mountains of Switzerland, where Baldwin did some of his most important thinking and writing. Garrett consulted critical and cultural studies, as well as archival materials from the recently-inaugurated Baldwin Collection at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. Out of this close study of Baldwin's words and legacy, Garrett invites new readers and longtime lovers of the great Black writer into a thoughtful exploration of his continued relevance.

Veteran TV journalist Calvin Jones travels to Paris, where he negotiates love, friendship, and despair in award-winning novelist Greg Garrett's Bastille Day. With brilliant pacing and gorgeous prose, acclaimed novelist Greg Garrett tells the story of American TV journalist Calvin Jones, who travels to Paris to work with a producer friend he knows from their dark days covering the war in Iraq. Cal Jones has had a quiet ten years, by design. After surviving the loss of two people he loved in the Iraq war, which he covered as a national correspondent, he fell apart and retreated to a local news job in Texas. Cal is still wrestling with those old demons when he goes to Paris to work with an old friend and encounters Nadia, a brilliant, lovely, and sad Saudi Muslim woman in Paris with plans to wed a Saudi sheikh in a family-arranged marriage. Against his own better judgment, Cal falls for Nadia, even dragging her from the Seine when she attempts to solve her insoluble problem by taking her own life. He begins to risk a heart he thought was too badly broken to ever love again, and as the wedding ticks closer, to hope that perhaps Nadia can make a choice that includes him. Then their time rescuing each other is interrupted by the terror attack in Nice, which Cal is called out to cover. Back in that setting, Cal is thrown back into the memories of senseless violence and extremism that shattered him in Iraq--and that threaten to shatter him and his hopes now. Garrett's characters wrestle with the ghosts of their pasts, as they long for love, friendship, and faith in the present. Bastille Day is a gloriously-affecting novel about how our histories can damage us, but hope can heal us.