ISBN: 9781433537103 (mobi ebook)
Publisher: Crossway
Retail: $12.99
About the book:
The average American watches 5 hours of TV every day.
Collectively, we spend roughly $30 billion on movies each year.
Simply put, we’re entertainment junkies. But can we learn something from our insatiable addiction to stories? Mike Cosper thinks so.
From horror flicks to rom-coms, the tales we tell and the myths we weave inevitably echo the narrative underlying all of history: the story of humanity’s tragic sin and God’s triumphant salvation. This entertaining book connects the dots between the stories we tell and the one great Story—helping us better understand the longings of the human heart and thoughtfully engage with the movies and TV shows that capture our imaginations.
About the author:
Mike Cosper is one of the founding pastors of Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky, where he serves as the pastor of worship and arts. He is also founder of Sojourn Music and contributes regularly to the Gospel Coalition blog.
My thoughts:
To start, I am very glad that I have not watched half of the movies/tv shows that are used as reference in this book. A lot of them I hadn't ever even heard of. Some sound down-right terrible. Depressing, disgusting, or just not like what I would find to be good entertainment. But there are some that I have heard of, have watched and have enjoyed. After reading the book by Jerram Barrs about literature echoing Eden (truth, beauty, goodness), I thought this might be an interesting read.
The writing is interesting. Cosper is witty but straight forward. He doesn't paint the ugly pictures in the television shows and movies near as bad as I am sure they are, but the reader can still get the 'picture'. There are only 10 chapters so it really isn't a very long book but as I said, I haven't heard of/see many of the shows he's talking about. Those portions were a little bit tougher for me to slog through, especially when it wasn't a particularly flattering show.
I believe we are watching because TV and movies are both echoing and forming our desires, and I want to delve into what those desires really are. loc 271
After chapter 2, I won't focus much on the moral aspects of watching TV and movies...Here, I'm less interested in debating the merits of watching content than I am in understanding what drives it. I want to get to the heart of these stories. Why do we tell them? What motivates us? I believe that the motivation for our stories is deeply connected with the gospel, and by thinking about that connection, we can more deeply appreciate both. loc 289
Jeremiah 17:9 tells us plainly that the desires come from our heart, which is deceitful. By saying that stories that are told are connected to the gospel, I think, is taking it too far. Especially when the writer of the story is truly against God (which I don't really recall if any of the shows mentioned in the book are expressly stated as being such). I have a difficult time agreeing that we can 'appreciate' the gospel more fully through watching these kinds of shows. But I do think the shows can be appreciated more (or completely avoided) by reading the gospels.
Stories help give us a sense of place. They stir our imaginations and help us experience love, betrayal, hatred, and compassion that might otherwise be foreign. They prepare us for experiences like love, or help us process things like sorrow and suffering. loc 302
Overall, it was an okay book. As everyone has personal liberty- we make the choices we make without God twisting our arm- I cannot say that Cosper is wrong or right. He makes good points, but as Charlotte Mason says: "It is a great safeguard to know that your 'reason' is capable of proving any theory you allow yourself to entertain." (Vol. 2, p. 46)
***Disclaimer: I received the above ebook as part of Crossway's Beyond the Page reviewer program, free for the purpose of this review. All opinions stated are my own. See Disclosure/Policies.***
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