Christopher Garbowski is interested in values and religion in literature and film. His first book was on Krzysztof Kieślowski's made for television Decalogue series. He also gives lectures to students from abroad on elements of Polish culture, particularly film and religion in Poland. He has published artlicles and books on both topics. Currently he is also a book review editor for The Polish Review. In 2019 he received the Ludwik Krzyżanowski award of the Polish Institue of Arts and Sciences of America for the best article in The Polish Review in the previous year.
Select Publications:
Books
Truth, Beauty, and the Common Good: The Search for Meaning through Culture, Community and Life. Berlin, et. al.: Peter Lang, 2021.
Cinematic Echoes of Covenants Past and Present: National Identity in the Historical Films of Steven Spielberg and Andrzej Wajda.Berlin, et. al.: Peter Lang, 2018.
Lublin: A History. Lublin: University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska, 2018.
Religious Life in Poland: History, Diversity and Modern Issues. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014. (below is the link to the preview in Google books)
http://books.google.pl/books?id=RZudAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1&hl=pl&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false
Pursuits of Happiness: The American Dream, Civil Society, Religion and Popular Culture. Lublin: University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska Press, 2008.
Recovery and Transcendence for the Contemporary Mythmaker: The Spiritual Dimension in the Works of JRR Tolkien. Lublin: Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Press, 2000. Second edition: Zurich/Berne: Walking Tree Publishers, 2004.
Articles or chapters
"The City as a Lieu de Memoire: Phenomenological, Symbolic and Self-Refkective Levels of the Past in Lublin's Present," The Polish Review 63, no. 3 (2018): 35-48.
“The Glorious Dead and Sacred Communities in Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and Wajda’s Katyń,” Religion and the Arts 18, 3 (2014): 373-98.
"Evil." In A Companion to J. R.R. Tolkien, edited by Stuart Lee, 418-30. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.
“Community and Comedy in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life.” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 10, 3 (2007): 34-47.
"The Modernity of Henry James and Agnieszka Holland’s Washington Square.” American Studies 22 (2005): 123-30.
Available online at: http://www.asc.uw.edu.pl/theamericanist/vol/22/22_123-130.pdf
"The Catholic Imagination in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz.” Journal of Religion and Film 5, 2 (2001): web.
