"Brian Godawa is that rare breed--a philosopher/artist--who opens our eyes to the aesthetic dimension of spirituality. Cogently argued and fun to read, this book analyzes the rich variety of literary genres found in Scripture itself. Godawa shows convincingly that God interacts with us as whole persons, not only through didactic teaching but also through metaphor, symbol, and sacrament."
Nancy R. Pearcey
Francis A. Schaeffer Scholar
World Journalism Institute, Virginia
Author, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity
"At a contentious intersection of faith and contemporary culture, Brian Godawa offers what many of us have been calling for: balance. In a world (and often a church) torn by imbalanced devotion to either word or image, Godawa joins the two with a needed "and." He shows a well-developed literacy for both forms of communication, shows how the Bible incorporates both, and challenges us to engage our culture creatively and redemptively on both fronts."
Brian McLaren
Author, A New Kind of Christian and A Generous Orthodoxy
"Accessible and engaging, Word Pictures introduces readers to the popular discourse among religious conservatives about visual culture in a mass-mediated society. The strength of Word Pictures lies in the author's fresh explication of biblical passages, "literarily" situating them in both generic and cultural contexts and then drawing interesting parallels for thinking about contemporary popular art."
William Romanowski
Author, Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences - Calvin College, Michigan
"A timely corrective to those of us who would reduce faith to words and arguments, given by an author who uses words and arguments so well. In Word Pictures Brian Godawa manages to be contemporary without being trendy, faithful to tradition without being hidebound. It should be read by anyone concerned for thew well-being of Biblical truth in 21st century popular culture."
Steve Turner
Author, Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts
"This is must reading for anyone interested in the huge question of the use of words and the legitimacy of images for theological and apologetic discourse. Brian Godawa has left no stone unturned. Moving insightfully through the Bible, Luther, Calvin, Tolkien, Lewis, and, of course, films, Godawa lays to rest the many fears about images and imagination. More than that, he encourages Christians to get involved in the media, with a view to transforming them, rather than hiding behind the safe wall of "Christian art."
William Edgar
Professor of Apologetics
Westminster Theological Seminary, Pennsylvania
Author, Reasons of the Heart: Recovering Christian Persuasion
"Godawa offers a helpful corrective to those Christians who would privilege reason over imagination, the cerebral over the sensate. For him, our theology, like our moviemaking, needs both word and image, image and word."
Robert K. Johnston
Professor of Theology and Culture, Fuller Theological Seminary, California Author, Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue
"Brian Godawa's book is an exploration of the literary nature of the Bible. It is a spirited and balanced defense of the imagination as a potential conveyer of truth. There is a lot of good literary theory in the book, as well as an autobiographical story line. The appendix conducts a Christian critique of two movies and the genre of the horror film. Pervading all this wealth is a sense of the author's energetic mind. The thoroughness of research makes the book a triumph of scholarship as well."
Leland Ryken
Clyde S. Kilby Professor of English, Wheaton College, Illinois
Author, The Christian Imagination: The Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing
"This book deserves, and will delight, a wide readership. Part autobiography, part biblical studies, part apologetics, part aesthetics, part historical theology, only a "Renaissance man" like artist-intellectual-communicator Brian Godawa could have brought together "word" and "image" with such serene, soaring mastery. I'll be requiring it in my preaching courses."
Leonard Sweet
Author, Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives
Drew Theological School, George Fox University
"Brian Godawa is that rare combination of industry professional and serious intellectual who is respected by the academic community, and the media industry as well. When Brian speaks, I make notes, because what he thinks matters. Word Pictures is exactly what the culture needs to hear right now. We've moved from a text-based culture to a visually-based culture, and Brian's book is the key to making that transition. It's changed my thinking about understanding the Bible in a Postmodern era."
Phil Cooke
President / Creative Director, Cooke Pictures, Santa Monica, California
"Godawa is one of the best thinkers on Christianity, art, and culture writing today. His latest work, Word Pictures, encourages a much more holistic viewing of movies and TV, which in turn leads to a more complete understanding of the Word of God. His work will make you want to, first, reach for your Bible, and then view (or, even better, make) art that engages the culture and advances the Kingdom of God. He has also convinced me that I am a "literarialist." Read this book and you'll probably become one, too."
Dean Batali, TV Writer
That 70's Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
