When I was in graduate school a decade ago, earning a master’s degree in cinema and media studies, I had to read a lot by critical theorists (referred to by some as “cultural marxists”): Antonio Gramsci, Theodor Adorno, the Frankfurt School, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, and so on. To be in a secular humanities grad program today is to be steeped in critical theory.

Helpful though some of it was, I found critical theory to be largely convoluted and counterproductive, shifting the discourse away from assessing the “good, true, and beautiful” of cinema and media (what I was and am most interested in) and focusing entirely on power dynamics and hegemonic oppression. I was so disenchanted with the ubiquity of critical theory that I reconsidered my original intent to pursue a doctorate in the field.

Critical theory is problematic for many of the reasons highlighted by Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer in their recent primer for TGC. The article is a must read for any Christian student reading critical theorists in the classroom, or anyone else seeking to understand how these prevalent concepts are shaping campuses and the culture at large.