What if watching movies could be a spiritual discipline? For one film critic, great films became guiding lights -- an escape from fear-based religion into richer experiences of imagination, beauty, community, and faith.
Growing up in a bubble of churches and Christian schools, Jeffrey Overstreet was taught by example to condemn "worldly" art and culture as predatory and poisonous. Yet, the flicker of light from cinema screens proved a temptation too powerful to resist. And what he found there was quite the opposite of what hed been told: He found God at play in ten thousand theaters. Now, through deeply personal and eye-opening stories, Overstreet invites you to retrace a revelatory journey: from Pinocchio to My Neighbor Totoro, from Disneys Hundred-Acre Wood to The Tree of Life, from The Black Stallion to Blade Runner, from Dead Poets Society and Do the Right Thing to Moonrise Kingdom and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.
Spoiler! Movies do not burn down Overstreets faith. Rather, they free him to answer the Scriptures instruction -- not only to love the world, but to learn from it. Great cinema invites us to hear a holy voice in the beauty of the natural world, and to break away from destructive distortions of Jesuss teaching. Guided by the lights of screens and Scripture, the author of Through a Screen Darkly and the fantasy novel Auralias Colors testifies of a God who moves in mysterious ways, calling us into a life of courageous creativity.
Recognized in The New Yorker, TIME, The Seattle Times, Image, and Christianity Today for his writing on cinema, Jeffrey Overstreet, an assistant professor Seattle Pacific University, teaches creative writing, English literature, academic writing, and film studies. He earned his BA in English literature and his MFA in creative writing from Seattle Pacific University.
"I truly believe there is a golden ratio hidden within storytelling. When revealed to an audience, is that man touching the divine? Jeffrey Overstreets personal journey through film makes a darn good case for it." --Andrew Stanton, director and co-writer of Finding Nemo and WALL-E
"There are writers who astound me with the depth of their love and knowledge of cinema. And there are writers who pursue the truth and beauty of the divine, and reject the ignorance of the doctrinaire, with a rigor that inspires me beyond words. Jeffrey Overstreet is the very rare writer who does both. The gorgeous, jewel-like essays in Lost & Found in the Cathedral of Cinema add up to a singular confession of faith, a revelatory memoir of artistic discovery, and a much-needed reminder of Gods presence in all spaces where light and darkness converge, movie theatres very much included." --Justin Chang, Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic, The New Yorker
"Jeffrey Overstreet writes about movies in an engaging and inspiring way--full of enthusiasm, curiosity, and heart. He finds surprising and beautiful connections between his own faith and the stories we experience on screen, whether its the playful joy of The Muppets, the quiet grace of The Black Stallion, or the magic and mystery of The Secret of Kells. His reflections are easy to read, yet deeply moving, making you want to revisit old favorites with fresh eyes. Im truly honored that my own work is part of this thoughtful celebration of cinema." --Tomm Moore, director and writer, The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and Wolfwalkers
"Jeffrey Overstreets love of movies shines through every page of this engaging and thoughtful book. I suspect that Im one of many readers who will be inspired by Overstreets reflections to consider how movies have been formative in our own lives." --Kathleen Norris, author of Dakota: A Spiritual Geography and coauthor of A Whole Life in Twelve Movies
"Great writing about film is as rare and beautiful as a great film itself. No surprise, because it requires many of the same attributes. Chiefly, a consideration for the time invested by its audience and a strong, unique point of view. Overstreets writing is rich with both. This book is entertaining, personal, stirring, and extremely well-thought-out, and you may just emerge a more perceptive, emotionally engaged moviegoer (and person) by the end." --Chad Hartigan, director and writer, This Is Martin Bonner, Morris from America, and The Threesome
"Jeffrey Overstreet is a bridge-builder, a writer who desires to connect what some perceive as disparate worlds--the world of faith and the world of cinema. In increasingly divisive times, where faith is weaponized and art is minimized, Overstreet invites us into a deeper relationship with both, to discover how the study of one can inform our understanding of the other, and how faith and art in concert help keep us open to the staggering and beautiful mysteries that surround us. This is devotional reading." --Scott Teems, director and writer, The Lowdown, Rectify, and Narcos: Mexico
"Jeffrey Overstreet gets it. He knows the faith-fueling power the cinema can hold. In Lost & Found in the Cathedral of Cinema, he writes about the movies with a novelists passionate flair and a memoirists confessional vulnerability. This is the rare book that is criticism, drama, and memoir all at once." --Josh Larsen, cohost of Filmspotting; author of Movies Are Prayers and Fear Not! A Christian Appreciation of Horror Movies
