Faith doesn’t always show up the way you expect it to. Director Nikolay Velikanov’s Soul’s Journey: Exploring Faith follows actor Jonathan Jackson as an unexpected night sets off a spiritual chain reaction that changes the way he lives his life from that moment on.
Jonathan Jackson isn’t your typical Hollywood guy chasing his next role. The six-time Emmy winner grew up a Seventh-day Adventist, married a woman raised Catholic who didn’t believe in much of anything, and felt like something was missing spiritually. In 2006, while filming a movie in Romania, he found what he was looking for. Looking out his hotel window, he witnessed crowds of Orthodox believers celebrating Easter down the streets of Romania during Pascha. Their faith was undeniable. The evening left an indelible impression that he could not turn away from.
That moment sent Jackson down a rabbit hole of reading Christian history and asking hard questions, which drew him to the Eastern Orthodoxy he witnessed in Romania—the most untouched version of Christianity since the resurrection. He said it felt less like a conversion and more like a confirmation of something he’s always believed. His wife converted next, and then their kids. This encounter hit Jackson so hard that he sat down and wrote his family a letter to try to explain it.
“Looking out his hotel window, he witnessed crowds of Orthodox believers celebrating Easter down the streets of Romania during Pascha.”
Soul’s Journey: Exploring Faith sticks with the format most faith documentaries use — a talking-head interview with Jackson intercut with footage of the Orthodox Church in prayer, ceremony, and worship. Director Nikolay Velikanov includes a clip of Jackson playing the title role in Elder Joseph the Hesychast, the film about the 20th-century monk St. Joseph, who is isolated in the desert and faces struggles that define both their faiths.
Jackson digs deep into the discipline of silence and the liturgical calendar — the fasts and feasts the Church has kept for centuries. Jackson finds real beauty and mystery in that tradition rather than treating it as an obligation to God or his faith. His faith also bled into his professional career, as he refused to let one compromise the other.
Velikanov keeps Soul’s Journey: Exploring Faith simple, letting Jackson’s own words about his faith and life in the Orthodox Church carry the film. It’s a small, focused documentary, but Jackson’s story makes the case that real conviction doesn’t need much more than an honest conversation.
For screening information, visit the Soul’s Journey: Exploring Faith official website.
"…the most untouched version of Christianity since the resurrection."
