PARADISE LOST: The Religious Life of Charles Darwin
 "Exceptionally Well Done." -Library Journal | *NAMED EDITOR'S PICK BY THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION* In this artistically-crafted documentary film, director David Wollert personalizes one of the great controversies of the modern era. The viewer is asked to take Charles Darwin's faith journey, one full of tortured struggles and questions, seriously. Incorporating voice-overs from his journals and autobiography, the film traces Darwin's personal and professional life as it documents his transition from theism, to deism, to agnosticism. The interdisciplinary film features a thoughtful and open-ended narrative endendering broad audience appeal for an otherwise contentious topic. Intellectually provocative and visually stunning, Paradise Lost presents a humanistic portrait of a man struggling to comprehend a world explained both by religion and by the science that bears his name. View the Trailer (QuickTime) Purchase the DVD
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REVIEWS Writer/director Wollert reflects on Charles Darwin's complex personality and his digression from his earlier years as an orthodox theist to his latter years as an agnostic. Even though Darwin had trouble understanding God, he paradoxically continued to support Christian causes such as shelters for alcoholics and missionary and evangelistic efforts of his day. There have been few people who have had a greater influence on the fields of science, theology, sociology, and philosophy than Charles Darwin. This DVD is exceptionally well done and would be an asset to any library collection.
-Ravonne Green
Library Journal
REVIEWS
David Wollert's film, Paradise Lost: The Religious Life of Charles Darwin, seeks to present Charles Darwin, not as an enemy of Christian faith, nor as a secular saint of science, but as a nineteenth century scientist whose research, whose personal losses, and whose religious reflections turned him into "an honest and vulnerable human being in a state of perpetual soul searching." Wollert paints a sympathetic picture of a man whose own evolution led him from Christianity into deism, and then into agnosticism—but never atheism. Paradise Lost is a serious piece of work. The film is beautiful. People who are struggling with issues of faith and a scientific worldview will find this sympathetic treatment of Darwin instructive. I will see to it that our college library adds this documentary to its permanent collection, and will recommend to our Communications Area that students of film become acquainted with this example of rhetoric and artisanship.
-Dr. Theodore N. Thomas
Milligan College
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