A Conversation Reflecting on Christianity and Film/TV Shows

I have the privilege of serving as an external fellow for the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture at Southeastern Seminary. This past week I was at Southeastern for a meeting of the fellows of the CFC and the Bush-Drummond Lecture. The lecture this year was given by Mike Cosper, who is the Founder and Director of the Harbor Institute for Faith and Culture.

At lunch before the lecture in the evening, I participated in a panel discussion with Mike about his most recent book, The Stories We Tell: How TV and Movies Long for and Echo the Truth. Here’s a quick summary of the book from the publisher’s website:

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.

Here’s the video of that conversation.