Dr William Edgar
Speaker and Author
A Biblical Theology of Entertainment
Overview
We are understandably disturbed by the inane demands of today’s entertainment industry. A number of historical reasons exist for the atmosphere of distraction our culture fosters. Yet it would be wrong to reject all leisure activities out of hand. The Bible directs us to rest as well as work. How should that rest be characterized? What sorts of entertainment are godly and legitimate? This seminar will explore a number of opportunities for us to connect entertainment to our hope in the gospel.
Outline
Introduction
Discovering Robert Johnson
Why speak of entertainment?
1. The dangers of modern entertainment
1.1 The story of Ed
1.2 The secularization of work
1.3 The great dilemma, work or leisure
1.3.1 Leisure is not rest
1.3.2 Leisure and boredom
1.3.3 Leisure as an industry
1.4 The blinding politics of entertainment
2. Two inadequate critiques
2.1 Neo-conservative fears
2.1.1 Declinism
2.1.2 Sola bootstrapsa
2.2 Post-modern resignation
2.2.1 God is everywhere
2.2.2 Whatever matters to you
3. A third way: The blessings of true entertainment
3.1 Work is good, yet fallen
3.2 Rest is good, yet partial
3.3 Entertainment is a conversation with eternity
3.4 Entertainment is an “inn along the way”
4. Types of entertainment
4.1 Laughter
4.2 Sports
4.3 Meals
4.4 Music
Conclusion
From entertainment to enlightenment
Suggested Reading
History and Theory of Culture
Patrick Brantlinger: Bread and Circuses: Theories of Mass Culture as Social Decay (Ithaca: Cornel U. P., 1983)
Robert M. Crunden: A Brief History of American Culture (New York: Paragon, 1994)
John Docker: Postmodernism and Popular Culture (Cambridge University Press, 1994)
Mike Featherstone: Consumer Culture and Postmodernism (London, Newbury Park: Sage, 1991)
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars (New York: Oxford U P, 1998)
Todd Gitlin: The Whole World Is Watching (1980)
Lynn Hunt, ed.: The New Cultural History (Berkeley: U of California P, 1989)
Jackson Lears: Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertizing in America (New York: Basic Books, 1994)
Charles Lemert: Postmodernism Is Not What You Think (Oxford, Malden: Blackwell, 1997)
George E. Marcus & Fred R. Myers, editors: The Traffic in Culture: Refiguring Art and Anthropology (Berkeley: U of California, 1995)
Michael Parenti: Make-Believe Media: the Politics of Entertainment (St Martins Press, 1991)
Calvin Seerveld: Rainbows for the Fallen World (Toronto: Tuppens, 1980)
John Storey: An Introduction to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (Athens: U of Georgia, 1998)
Interacting with Various Media
Martha Bayles: Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music (New York: Free Press, 1994)
Wendell Berry: The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (San Fran: Sierra Club, 1977)
T. W. Boxx & G. M. Quinlivan, eds.: Toward the Renewal of Civilization (Gr Raps: Eerdmans, 1998)
Clifford G. Christians, Mark Fackler & Kim B. Rotzoll: Media Ethics: Cases & Moral Reasoning (White Plains: Longman, 1995)
Richard Grenier: Capturing the Culture: Film, Art and Politics (Washington: Ethics & Public Policy Center, 1991)
Roger Lundin: The Culture of Interpretation: Christian Faith and the Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993)
Mark A. Noll: The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994)
Neil Postman: Amusing Ourselves to Death (New York: Viking Penguin, 1986)
Giles Oakley: The Devil’s Music: A History of the Blues, 2nd ed. (New York: Da Capo, 1997)
Flannery O’Connor: Mystery and Manners (New York: Noonday, 1962)
William D. Romanowski: Pop Culture Wars: Religion and the Role of Entertainment in American Life (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1996)
Os Guinness: The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose for Your Life (Waco: Word, 1998)
Quentin J. Schultze et al: Dancing in the Dark: Youth, Popular Culture and the Electronic Media (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991)
Steve Turner: Hungry for Heaven: Rock ‘n’ Roll & the Search for Redemption, revised edition (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1995)
Gregory Wolfe, editor: The New Religious Humanists: A Reader (New York: Free Press, 1997)
© Dr William Edgar 2005
