our perception of our own religious history and reminds us that there is nothing new under the sun. Over and over again, the historical narrative eerily echoes our own recent history.

For instance, by the 1920s, Protestant church leaders, pointing to films such as Cecil B. DeMille's bedroom dramas, were saying that Hollywood was "antagonistic to the faith" and "spreading a moral blight across America." Churches began to install projection equipment and show wholesome films to parishioners at church, hoping that "sold-out sanctuaries would persuade Hollywood that churchgoers were a ready market for inspirational and biblical movies." Romanowski explains that "church-oriented films . . . had an unimpressive track record," but the effort resurfaced over and over.

Another example that sounds familiar: Protestants in the late 1920s and early 1930scollective past, and to continue to develop a Christ-honoring perspective on film, we must read and understand our history. In Reforming Hollywood, Romanowski has given us an important tool for just that work.

Alissa Wilkinson teaches in the Media, Culture, and the Arts program at The King's College in New York City and is co-editor of the public theology journal Comment.