Study Guide: A Thinking Christian's Guide to Watching Movies

By Annie Crawford and Joseph Holmes

Every month, the Society for Women of Letters holds online Bluestocking Salons where we discuss a theological, philosophical, or literary work over Zoom. Shadowlands Dispatch is pleased to feature study guides for these works for SWL members and paid Shadowlands Dispatch subscribers.

Our September 2024 Salon featured Wildcat, the new Flannery O’Connor biopic, led by SWL Founder Annie Crawford and writer and film critic Joseph Holmes. Below, please find the accompanying study guide, with a PDF at the end of this post available for download.

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INTRODUCTION

Christians have long—and rightly—wanted to help people watch movies better. The world has never known a more potent form of storytelling! The multi-sensory, cinematic experience combines vivid visuals, moving music, dynamic characters, and engrossing narrative to cast a powerful spell over its audience. It is important to know, read, and speak the language of film so we can discern what our movies are teaching us and how to talk back to them through a Christian perspective. Unfortunately, too many Christians don’t understand the language of film or how it fits within the Christian worldview.