Baylor professor examines Heaven on Earth in movies, music and more
What does Heaven look like in your mind? Does it have streets of gold, or angels playing harps on clouds? Perhaps you think of departed friends or family members with whom you’ll reunite. What about Hell? Do you imagine a cave filled with flames, or devils with pitchforks?
Chances are, most of the images that come to mind when you think of the afterlife — whether that be Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, or even forms of the “undead” like ghosts or zombies — have been shaped as much by Harry Potter or The Hunger Games as they have by church or other religious training. To make that point, Baylor English professor Greg Garrett explores references to the afterlife in everything from Lost to Batman movies to Madonna lyrics in his latest book, Entertaining Judgment: The Afterlife in Popular Imagination.
[READ Garrett’s column, “Why we need stories about the afterlife,” in The Huffington Post]
Garrett says that what we think of Heaven, Satan, angels and demons is often shaped more by literature, movies and television than by anything else. To demonstrate, Entertaining Judgment unearths dozens of examples of references to the afterlife from popular culture. Some examples are obvious: the players in Field of Dreams, the angel Clarence in It’s A Wonderful Life, and books like Heaven Is For Real.
Other examples are less overt, but contain themes of the afterlife. When watching The Dark Knight, did you see Gotham as a hell on earth? Could the stranded characters on Lost be experiencing a sort of purgatory? Garrett shows how such programs demonstrate themes based on our views of the afterlife, images he says often combat anxiety about what happens after we die.
[WATCH Garrett’s thoughts on Entertaining Judgment on the Oxford University Press YouTube Channel]
The intersection of faith and pop culture is a topic Garrett knows well. A Baylor professor since 1989, he has authored more than 20 books, many focusing on themes of faith in movies, music and television. He was named Baylor Centennial Professor in 2013, an honor which financially supported his work on Entertaining Judgment.
Sic ’em, Dr. Garrett!