Salvation from Cinema offers something new to the burgeoning field of "religion and film": the religious significance of film technique. Discussing the history of both cinematic devices and film theory, Crystal Downing argues that attention to the material medium echoes Christian doctrine about the materiality of Christ’s body as the medium of salvation. Downing cites Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu perspectives on film in order to compare and clarify the significance of medium within the frameworks of multiple traditions. This book will be useful to professors and students interested in the relationship between religion and film.
"The book is written with two goals in mind. The first is to give film viewers some background and context for evaluating what they see on screen, By and large. Hollywood is not conversant with theological issues; occasionally, movies reveal an appalling ignorance about religion. More often, however, the approach movies take is simply flat-footed and unsophisticated. Giving readers the tools they need to interpret and critique cinematic portrayals of sanctity is one goal of this book.".
In Celluloid Saviours, the author analyses a corpus of US films dating from the silent era that she calls film blanc. In these fantasy films a guardian spirit with extraordinary powers suspends the ordinary, known laws of time and space, and a main character reforms himself or herself in life-changing ways. The author argues that the historical pattern of film blanc relates to the rise and fall of liberal and reform thought in US politics, specifically to conceptions of human nature as a tabula rasa. This conception is evident both in the early feature films featuring angels such as Chaplin’s The Kid and much later examples such as the 1980s box office hit, Trading Places. She argues that this narrative tradition runs from Hollywood’s beginnings to the present day and is foreshadowed in the English ghost stories of Charles Dickens. The classic era of film blanc is epitomised in the enduringly popular film, It’s a Wonderful Life. More recent examples of narrative form analysed by Caston include The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Much work in the field of theology and film lacks a really theological focus. This book suggests a methodology based on the recognition of the imagination as the fundamental category in producing and interpreting film. The argument is presented that the imagination holds theological significance when it is conceived of in certain ways. As a result, the book adopts the 'paradigmatic imagination' (an imagination which works within the paradigms of scripture) or 'theological imagination' (one grounded in theological forms), which is both noetic (it is the image-making faculty of the mind) and almost ontological (it is that which draws human beings into the future which they are able to construct or bring into being). Once the theological (paradigmatic) imagination has been identified and justified, its insights will be applied to 'Jesus films' and 'Christ figure films' asking whether or not they provide us with valid Christological understanding. Films with redemptive or salvific themes are discussed as is the popularity of mythical stories and animation. The final chapter will make the case that the engagement of the theological imagination with film is a method in practical theology.
Much work in the field of theology and film lacks a really theological focus. This book suggests a methodology based on the recognition of the imagination as the fundamental category in producing and interpreting film. The argument is presented that the imagination holds theological significance when it is conceived of in certain ways. As a result, the book adopts the 'paradigmatic imagination' (an imagination which works within the paradigms of scripture) or 'theological imagination' (one grounded in theological forms), which is both noetic (it is the image-making faculty of the mind) and almost ontological (it is that which draws human beings into the future which they are able to construct or bring into being). Once the theological (paradigmatic) imagination has been identified and justified, its insights will be applied to 'Jesus films' and 'Christ figure films' asking whether or not they provide us with valid Christological understanding. Films with redemptive or salvific themes are discussed as is the popularity of mythical stories and animation. The final chapter will make the case that the engagement of the theological imagination with film is a method in practical theology
This work is an introduction to the cinema of mainland China from the early 1930s to the early 1990s. Emphasizing both film contexts and film texts, this study covers a broad cinematic analysis that includes investigations of cultural, cross-cultural, social, ethnic and political issues.
The Routledge Companion to Religion and Film brings together a lively and experienced team of contributors to investigate the ways in which this exciting discipline is developing.
Hollywood is a $40 billion annual business, one that is highly influential in culture. If we want to know who we are as individuals and a society, what we believe and what we value, we need to know and understand Hollywood and film. Make no mistake, Hollywood is neither philosophically, politically, nor morally neutral! Many studies demonstrate how movies “affect” us long before we have thought it through. In other words, Hollywood “smuggles” all kinds of ideas into our minds and hearts without us even knowing it. While Hollywood may be the biggest and most influential in the world, this book will demonstrate the growing international influence of film from India (Bollywood), Nigeria (Nollywood), Zimbabwe (Zollywood) and Yesilçam (Turkey). 'Film, Philosophy and Religion' explicitly and implicitly takes a philosophical approach to analyzing film theoretically and methodologically. There are topic and film-specific chapters that take a theological approach, and others that explore ideas like Affect, Axiology, Art Reflecting the Artist and Transcendence (Spirituality) of Film. Hermeneutics also have a central role in the book, including films based on biblical texts that act as interpretations of these texts and fill in the blanks (albeit speculatively by way of script and directors). Chapters also explore the philosophy of aesthetics and film realism which end with theology, while other chapters explore the incompatibility of science with religion, as well as a chapter on the timely topic of rape in Turkish film. The book’s scope goes from the “Horror of Evil in Ridley Scott’s Alien Universe” to “Love Can Thaw a Frozen Heart: The Philosophy of Love in the Frozen Films” (Disney Princess Narratives). This book represents international films and scholars. The diverse perspectives from theist to atheist—and everything in-between—are sure to spark thinking and generate talking points that provide something for everyone in an accessible format. It will be of great interest to university students and professors, scholars, seminaries, and the general public.
Originally published as the The Continuum Companion to Religion and Film, this Companion offers the definitive guide to study in this growing area. Now available in paperback, the Bloomsbury Companion to Religion and Film covers all the most pressing and important themes and categories in the field - areas that have continued to attract interest historically as well as topics that have emerged more recently as active areas of research. Twenty-nine specifically commissioned essays from a team of experts reveal where important work continues to be done in the field and provide a map of this evolving research area. Featuring chapters on methodology, religions of the world, and popular religious themes, as well as an extensive bibliography and filmography, this is the essential tool for anyone with an interest in the intersection between religion and film.
