Breaking the sound barrier, breaking faith: How some evangelical Christians perceive representations of Christianity in contemporary film

This study presents a qualitative, interpretive analysis of audiotaped conversations (both one-to-one and focus-group settings) involving six middle-class European-American evangelical Christians' reactions to four contemporary American films (Michael Tolkin's The Rapture 1991; Hector Babenco's At Play in the Fields of the Lord, 1991; Tim Robbins's Dead Man Walking 1995; and Robert Duvall's The Apostle 1997) which pivotally involve representations of Christians and Christianity. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide insight into some evangelical Christians' popular-culture practices---and the effects of those practices---through analyzing their reactions to images of Christianity in film.;This study sheds light on the criteria the participants employ when discerning stereotypes, their evaluative schemas that privilege film as pedagogy, and their hierarchies of moviegoing priorities that shape what they will or will not watch at the movies. Each of the participants viewed movies with Christian characters as potential opportunities for biblical exposition and evangelism, and they frequently hoped to hear filmic characters articulate a narrative code of conversion, although there was variation regarding what they considered clear articulations of the conversion code. When evaluating Christian characters in movies, the participants displayed interpretive processes that entailed a deductive acceptance of two categories ("Christian" and "non-Christian") and an inductive analysis of individual characters' "fruits.";Overall, the participants' reactions to movies suggest a genre of response that revolves around the practices of spiritual discernment. Whether discerning what type of filmic content is appropriate to view or whether a character in a film is a "true" Christian, the participants' viewing practices are interwoven with their religious practices of spiritual discernment. Explaining a narrative code of conversion and memorizing biblical passages are cultural competencies that are learned through the participants' evangelical social formations. Studying and meditating on the Bible as a daily practice and hearing sermons where the narrative code of conversion is explained each week are activities that prepare the participants to bring these practices to bear---on their own terms---within the realm of reading and reacting to popular culture.