{"title":"Roy M Anker","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"catching-light-book-roy-m-anker-9780802827951","title":"Catching Light","description":"Films have come to not only entertain modern minds but also inform and shape them. Many of the best cinematic works have profound religious elements -- some obvious, some more subtle. In \u003ci\u003eCatching Light\u003c\/i\u003e Roy Anker examines nineteen popular films, showing how they convey a range of striking perspectives on the human encounter with God. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThese selected films portray God showing up in different, surprising ways amid the messy circumstances of life. Anker looks closely at the plot of each film, especially at how characters, through their experiences, ultimately move toward Light, toward recognition of a loving, redemptive deity. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe first section of \u003ci\u003eCatching Light\u003c\/i\u003e looks at classic 1970s films that inspect personal, social, and cultural evil: \u003ci\u003eThe Godfather\u003c\/i\u003e trilogy, \u003ci\u003eChinatown, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Deer Hunter.\u003c\/i\u003e The second group of films depicts the ways and depths of specifically Christian notions of redemption: \u003ci\u003eTender Mercies, The Mission, Places in the Heart, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBabette's Feast.\u003c\/i\u003e Some of the most successful films of our time have come as fairy-tale fantasies: the \u003ci\u003eStar Wars\u003c\/i\u003e saga, \u003ci\u003eSuperman, \u003c\/i\u003e and three of Steven Spielberg's lost boy stories (\u003ci\u003eClose Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA.I.: Artificial Intelligence\u003c\/i\u003e), each of which Anker interprets as a fable of search and redemption. The films in the last section of the book feature characters who, to their great surprise, are ambushed by a wholly unexpected God: \u003ci\u003eGrand Canyon, American Beauty, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThree Colors: Blue.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn addition to focusing on the theological dimension of each film, Anker comments on its merits both as story and as cinema. Also included are sidebars that discuss each film's history and significance as well as the quality and special features of DVD editions. For anyone interested in the intersection of religion, art, and culture, \u003ci\u003eCatching Light\u003c\/i\u003e offers a unique view of contemporary faith.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49594199114001,"sku":"GOR010353316","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50098523832593,"sku":"CIN0802827950G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51363140567313,"sku":"GOR004948410","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52105726198033,"sku":"CIN0802827950VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52433874977041,"sku":"NLS9780802827951","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53351758725393,"sku":"NIN9780802827951","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0802827950.jpg?v=1751043576"},{"product_id":"self-help-and-popular-religion-in-early-american-culture-book-roy-m-anker-9780313311369","title":"Self-Help and Popular Religion in Early American Culture","description":"One of two volumes on the relationship between popular religion and the self-help tradition in American culture, this book focuses on early America, from the Protestant Ethic and Puritan New England through Revivialism and American Romanticism. The concept of self-help is a distinctive part of the American character of individualism. This volume provides an introductory interpretive guide to major self-help figures and movements with origins in popular religious movements. The opening chapter recounts the perspectives and conclusions of previous histories of American self-help and includes analyses of several important related works. The following chapters present a historical narrative that traces those junctures where American history and popular religion have reputedly and actually intersected. In surveying the historical and scholarly materials that depict the history of popular religion and self-help, this volume emphasizes the historiographical debates that shape the interpretation of the ideas and figures.  This reference will serve as a valuable research tool for American religion and popular culture scholars. Arranged chronologically, this volume discusses, in three major sections, the Protestant Ethic and Puritan New England; Benjamin Franklin, Cotton Mather, and Individualism; and Revivalism, Religious Experience, and the birth of mental healing. An extensive bibliography is included.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49797822447889,"sku":"CIN0205195709G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52484326326545,"sku":"NLS9780313311369","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0205195709.jpg?v=1751461150"},{"product_id":"beautiful-light-book-roy-m-anker-9780802873699","title":"Beautiful Light","description":"Though religious films usually don't get much respect in Hollywood, religion still regularly finds its way into the movies. In \u003ci\u003eBeautiful Light\u003c\/i\u003e Roy Anker seeks out the often unnoticed connections between film and religion and shows how even films that aren't overtly religious or Christian in their content can be filled with deep religious insights and spiritual meaning. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Closely examining nine critically acclaimed films, including \u003ci\u003eMagnolia, The Apostle, American Gigolo\u003c\/i\u003e, and M. Night Shyamalan's \u003ci\u003eWide Awake\u003c\/i\u003e, Anker analyzes the ways in which these movies explore what it means to be human--and what it means, as human beings, to wrestle with a sometimes unwieldy divine presence. Addressing questions of doubt and belief, despair and elation, hatred and love, Anker's work sheds beautiful light on some of Hollywood's most profound and memorable films.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49891033350417,"sku":"CIN0802873693G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52104913879313,"sku":"CIN0802873693VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52435372114193,"sku":"NLS9780802873699","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0802873693.jpg?v=1750979432"},{"product_id":"of-pilgrims-and-fire-book-roy-m-anker-9780802865724","title":"Of Pilgrims and Fire","description":"\u003cp\u003eSilas is out of the shadows and into the open trying to force the tiny nekos to become pets as Wilhelm had intended, but Sebastien, a tiny neko, has become mayor of Elsewhere. 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Together with the first volume, Self-Help and Popular Religion in Early American Culture, these two meticulously researched volumes clearly define and present the broad scope of the self-help tradition as it pervades American culture and as it developed and was influenced by popular religion. An extensive bibliography is included.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52482408775953,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52482409791761,"sku":"NLS9780313222498","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780313222498.jpg?v=1759853175"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-roy-m-anker.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}