Gregory Wolfe editor of Image Journal "Ron Austin, an experienced and insightful creative artist, opens a door to the wonder and the spiritual foundations essential to art, religion, and life itself". John Furia Former President, Writers Guild of America, Director of Screenwriting Program, University of Southern California School of Cinema Television "With humanity, generosity, and a wisdom that comes from a lifetime of experience as a child actor with Charlie Chaplin himself, as a screenwriter in Hollywood, and as a professor at USC's film school, Ron Austin explores the spiritual foundations of cinema. His brief spiritual history of film in this book is superb and should keep your Netflix list full for a year. Here is a small work that is anything but slight". Robert K. Johnston author of Reel Spirituality "According to Pope John Paul II, what we call emotion is often just excitement, lacking the depth and seriousness of genuine emotion, for which we are too distracted. In today's world, much of the distraction takes the form of visual over-stimulation. But, as Ron Austin knows so well, the cinematic arts are capable of rescuing us from what Robert Bresson called the 'school of inattention' and reviving our capacity for deep emotion and serious reflection. Ron's marvelous meditation reminds us that the art of filmmaking remains important because we humans must be in the mood for truth and film, having a liturgical vestige, is capable of putting us in the mood". Gil Bailie Founder and President of the Cornerstone Forum "In a New Light opened my eyes to the rich history of cinema and the many ways art and spirituality have been linked through film over the last century. Ron Austin writes with subtlety and depth as he explores such themes as evil, transcendence, hope, sacrifice, imagination, and redemption. This is a work of broad thinking and deep faith." D. Michael Lindsay author of Faith in the Halls of Power