Page - 126 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/02

Review: Watching TV Religiously | 125www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/2, 121–125 for classes on theology and popular culture. That being said, it focuses almost exclusively on US TV, and will thus be most relevant in an American educational setting. Even for readers outside the United States, however, it is a valuable re- source, both because of American TV’s global reach and because it serves as an exemplary model that could be adopted and adapted for theological engage- ment with the medium in other contexts. Callaway and Batali are hopeful that “this book will spark constructive con- versations that are at least as fun, enlightening, and meaning-filled as the con- versations that surround so many of our favorite television shows” (17). Mission accomplished. Watching TV Religiously is winsome and thought-provoking. But this work goes further still, aiming to foster a mode of cultural engagement appropriate to a time in which the Western church finds herself increasingly on the cultural margins. The authors write, “The most theologically faithful thing to do is not to demand that the broader culture (and TV in particular) demon- strate … radical transformation as a precondition for our engagement … but to set aside our own interests in order that we might co-labor with culture” (208). This statement could be taken as the book’s raison d’être: to equip the church to be, to use their James Davison Hunteresque phrase,3 a “long-suffering presence” amidst a not-yet-transformed people – who happen to really like TV (208). I can think of no better book for the task. BIBLIOGRAPHY Callaway, Kutter, 2013, Scoring Transcendence. Contemporary Film Music as Religious Experience, Waco: Baylor University Press. Hunter, James Davison, 2010, To Change the World. The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christian- ity in the Late Modern World, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Johnston, Robert K., 2007, Reframing Theology and Film. New Focus for an Emerging Discipline, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. FILMOGRAPHY 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, US 1957). Friends (David Crane / Marta Kauffman, US 1994–2004). Happy Days, Fonzie for the Defense (Jerry Paris, US 1978). House of Cards (Beau Willimon, US 2013–). Parks & Recreation (Greg Daniels / Michael Schur, US 2009–2015). The Big Bang Theory (Chuck Lorre / Bill Prady, US 2007–). The Simpsons, Homer Madman (Jeffrey Lynch, US 1994). 3 Hunter 2010.