Crystal L. Downing

After being named Distinguished Professor of English and Film Studies at Messiah College in PA, Crystal Downing accepted a position as Co-Director of the Marion E. Wade Center and co-holder of the Marion E. Wade Chair in Christian Thought at Wheaton College: a position she shares with her husband, David C. Downing. Her first book, Writing Performances: The Stages of Dorothy L. Sayers (Palgrave 2004), was granted the Barbara Reynolds Award for best Sayers scholarship in 2009 by the international Dorothy L. Sayers Society. Downing’s next two books, How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith (IVP Academic 2006) and Changing Signs of Truth (IVP Academic 2012), explore the relationship between cultural studies and Christianity and continue to be studied by graduate students in seminaries around the world. Her fourth book, Salvation from Cinema: The Medium Is the Message (Routledge 2016), critiques the burgeoning field of “religion and film,” encouraging people of faith to acquaint themselves with film theory in order to better assess movies—not only as cultural artifacts but also as works of art. In addition to her books, Downing has published nearly eighty essays on topics ranging from the Amish to Woody Allen, and her literary criticism appears in eight critical editions of canonical texts. Delivering nearly fifty juried papers at professional conferences, she has also been invited to serve as a keynote speaker at over thirty conferences in North America and Europe. For hobbies, Downing loves to jog or bicycle through rural countryside and to hike up waterfalls. One of her life goals is to visit as many Frank Lloyd Wright buildings as possible.