{"id":342,"date":"2016-03-01T21:35:54","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T02:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/chrisicisms\/?p=342"},"modified":"2016-03-01T21:35:54","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T02:35:54","slug":"the-month-of-christian-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/chrisicisms\/2016\/03\/01\/the-month-of-christian-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"The month of Christian movies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"gods-not-dead-2-GND2_Poster_rgb\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

It appears that \u201cRisen\u201d<\/a> was just the beginning.<\/p>\n

Two weeks after the Joseph Fiennes historical drama hit theaters (and has raked in more than $20 million so far),\u00a0Christianity will be hitting the box office big time. While faith-based films have begun making more of an appearance since the success of \u201cGod\u2019s Not Dead,\u201d I can\u2019t remember seeing so many films about Christ or Christianity releasing so closely together. Whether a major release, a one-time event or a television special, it appears that there\u2019s going to be a lot of religious talk at the movies in coming months. Let\u2019s take a look at a few of these before I offer some brief thoughts.<\/p>\n

The Young Messiah \u2014 March 11
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/iframe>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Miracles from Heaven \u2014 March 16<\/strong><\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN - Official Trailer (ft. Jennifer Garner)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CldGTG6iVrU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Passion (Fox) \u2014 March 20\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/jhTLwlOMBEo\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/jhTLwlOMBEo<\/a>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Easter Mysteries \u2014 March 20 (one-night only event)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Easter Mysteries Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KWCvi_DGOI0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>God\u2019s Not Dead 2 \u2014 April 1\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"God's Not Dead 2: Official Trailer #2\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C2gr5cO-5is?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Story of God \u2014 April (National Geographic)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"EXCLUSIVE: Morgan Freeman Travels to Uncover the Mysteries of Creation in 'Story of God' Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l9PEMc_nXuQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot coming out. As someone who writes about faith, film and television, I find it exciting. There\u2019s going to be a lot to delve into and write about in the coming month (and that\u2019s in addition to my Lent series about films about Jesus, as well as regular releases like \u201c10 Cloverfield Lane\u201d and \u201cBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.\u201d). And I\u2019m very glad to see that there\u2019s a lot of diversity in here; these aren\u2019t all simple faith-based dramas. There\u2019s television spectacle, documentary, historical drama and theater in the mix. For someone who usually is very wary of art that claims to represent my faith, I find myself excited to see many of these.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there\u2019s the expectation by many that just because many of these works carry a faith-based or Christian label, we should be lining up to see and support them without criticizing. If you\u2019ve been following me long enough, you know I don\u2019t believe that\u2019s the case. I believe that if Christians want their work to stand alongside the best of Hollywood, they have to open it up to the same criticism. I don\u2019t believe in going soft on a film just because it talks about something I believe in, and I believe that a bad film about faith that handles its message poorly or clumsily can actually be a very dangerous thing. We\u2019re told in Scripture to test all things, and I believe that there\u2019s definitely a place for Christian film criticism to do just that.<\/p>\n<p>And yes, there are some movies listed above that I\u2019m kind of dreading. \u201cGod\u2019s Not Dead 2\u201d looks to be a piece of persecution porn. And while I think Jennifer Garner is a very capable actress with the right material, \u201cMiracles from Heaven\u201d looks like it could be another saccharine release from the \u201cHeaven is for Real\u201d producers. I\u2019ll admit my eyebrow arches a bit whenever I hear of movies like this, and I want to spend some time later this week delving deeper into some of the problems I have with faith-based movies.<\/p>\n<p>But what surprises me are how many of these movies actually look interesting. There\u2019s a very striking look to the \u201cYoung Messiah\u201d trailer, and the film is based on a highly regarded Anne Rice novel about the early years of Christ. Now, it could be as much of a dud as \u201cThe Nativity Story\u201d was a few years back. But given that we\u2019ve never seen a movie about the early years of Jesus, I\u2019m curious to see the approach this movie takes, and hopeful that it will be a refreshing take on the story.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll be having more about \u201cEaster Mysteries\u201d here in the coming weeks, I hope. And I have to admit that I\u2019m curious about this. It looks like a rather compelling bit of theater, and the music just in that short clip sounds like this isn\u2019t just your standard Easter cantata. These one-night-only events from Fathom are sometimes really interesting, and I\u2019m very eager to see what, exactly, this is.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m a bit worried about what Fox\u2019s \u201cPassion\u201d event is on March 20. I know it\u2019s going to be a live event hosted by Tyler Perry (there\u2019s the problematic part) in which a giant, glowing cross is walked through New Orleans. As someone who\u2019s always curious about live TV \u2014 particularly live TV that is going to feature both Seal and Michael W. Smith \u2014I\u2019m fascinated by this, even if it could be a trainwreck. And Morgan Freeman exploring God sounds very intriguing; I\u2019m hoping to have more writing on this for you as it gets closer.<\/p>\n<p>So, there\u2019s a lot coming out. And while I don\u2019t plan to tackle every bit of faith-based drama that comes down the pike, I do plan on seeing as many of these as I can. I find the intersection of art and faith to be a thing of great interest, and I\u2019m eager to see what works and what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>And on \u00a0personal note, thank you to all the readers who have visited during the first month of this site. I\u2019m encouraged by the interaction I\u2019ve seen, and I\u2019m going to try to keep content coming pretty regularly. I\u2019m still working out a schedule I\u2019d like to stick to, and I have a few special things I want to write in the coming weeks. But thanks for reading thus far. I\u2019m eager to see where we go next!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It appears that \u201cRisen\u201d was just the beginning. Two weeks after the Joseph Fiennes historical drama hit theaters (and has raked in more than $20 million so far),\u00a0Christianity will be hitting the box office big time. While faith-based films have begun making more of an appearance since the success of \u201cGod\u2019s Not Dead,\u201d I can\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2598,"featured_media":343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,18],"tags":[171,9,169,174,87,175,172,6,168,173,170],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-lists","tag-anne-rice","tag-christianity","tag-gods-not-dead-2","tag-jennifer-garner","tag-jesus","tag-miracles-from-heaven","tag-morgan-freeman","tag-movies","tag-passion-play","tag-story-of-god","tag-the-young-messiah"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>The month of Christian movies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It appears that "Risen" was just the beginning. 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