Shining Glory: Theological Reflections on Terrence Malick's Tree of Life

Terrence Malicks stunning film The Tree of Life is a modern Job story an exploration of suffering and glory an honest look at strife within a Texas family in the 1950s. In Shining Glory Peter J. Leithart examines the biblical and theological motifs of the film and illuminates how Malick exploited the visual poetry of film to produce one of the most spiritually challenging and theologically sophisticated films ever made. A very helpful meditative guide and exploration of the complexity wonders and depths of Malicks remarkable Tree of Life. --Roy Anker Professor of English Calvin College Peter Leithart has provided a great service by approaching this film of Terrence Malick--Americas greatest filmmaker and perhaps the greatest of his time--with the seriousness it merits and by considering it in light of the religious and metaphysical themes it so beautifully and so mysteriously explores. I hope this book is the first of many such treatments. --David Bentley Hart author of The Experience of God Peter J. Leithart is President of Trinity House a study center in Birmingham Alabama and an adjunct Senior Fellow at New St. Andrews College Moscow Idaho.