Cinematic Faith

This engaging book explores how Christians can most profitably and critically hear, read, and view popular culture through the lens of film. William Romanowski highlights the benefits of a faith-informed approach to cinema that centers on art and perspective and shows how Christian faith contributes to the moviegoing experience, leading to a deeper understanding of movies and life. The book draws examples from classic and contemporary American movies and includes illustrative film stills. Additional resources for professors and students are available through Baker Academic's Textbook eSources.

We live in a secular world and cinema is part of that secular edifice. There is no expectation, in modern times, that filmmakers should be believers – any more than we would expect that to be the case of novelists, poets and painters. Yet for all that this is true, many of the greatest directors of classic European cinema (the period from the end of World War II to roughly the middle of the 1980s) were passionately interested not only in the spiritual life but in the complexities of religion itself. In his new book Mark Le Fanu examines religion, and specifically Christianity, not as the repository of theological dogma but rather as an energizing cultural force – an 'inflexion' – that has shaped the narrative of many of the most striking films of the twentieth century. Discussing the work of such cineastes as Eisenstein and Tarkovsky from Russia; Wajda, Zanussi and Kieslowski from Poland; France's Rohmer and Bresson; Pasolini, Fellini and Rossellini from Italy; the Spanish masterpieces of Buñuel, and Bergman and Dreyer from Scandinavia, this book makes a singular contribution to both film and religious studies.

Bryan Stone engages the cinema to open a discussion of theology and the culture of our time by pairing specific Christian doctrines found in the Apostles' Creed with popular movies and videos.

Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema, Volume II continues the work presented in the first volume of this title, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2008. It provides informed yet accessible articles that will give readers an introduction to masters of world cinema whose works explore the themes of human spirituality and religious faith. Volume II contains essays dealing with canonical directors notably absent from the first entry of the series (such as Godard and Kurosawa) while also including examinations of contemporary auteurs who are still actively working (for example, Andersson, and von Trier). While retaining a truly international emphasisâ "it includes essays about directors from the United States, Canada, Iran, Sweden, India, Denmark, Italy, Mexico, Australia, and Japanâ "Volume II also acts as an important contribution to canon formation, illustrating the complexity and variety in the films of those who are truly the masters of world cinema. Built solidly around close, formal readings of selective films, the essays in Volume II also demonstrate familiarity with film history and bring insight from such varied disciplines as New Testament Studies, Clinical Psychology, Art History, and Medieval History. It also seeks to broaden the understanding of â ~faithâ (TM) and â ~spirituality, â (TM) examining how the meaning of such terms changes as the cultures that produce the art that defines them continues to evolve.

Over the past fifteen years, writer, producer and director Christopher Nolan has emerged from the margins of independent British cinema to become one of the most commercially successful directors in Hollywood. From Following (1998) to Interstellar (2014), Christopher Nolan's films explore philosophical concerns by experimenting with nonlinear storytelling while also working within classical Hollywood narrative and genre frameworks. Contextualizing and closely reading each of his films, this collection examines the director's play with memory, time, trauma, masculinity, and identity, and considers the function of music and video games and the effect of IMAX on his work.

How plausible is it to examine the medium of film through a Christian lens? Are there any grounds for supposing that, in 'going to the movies', one is participating in a religious activity? Faith in Film identifies and explores these key questions. From the unprecedented and innovative perspective of Christian theology, this book investigates how cinema audiences wrestle with religious beliefs and values. Through a reading of films as diverse as Groundhog Day, Billy Liar, Fight Club, Nobody's Fool and The Passion of the Christ, Deacy reveals that the movies raise vital questions about the spiritual landscape and normative values of western society today.

This book explores the representation of the idea or theme of redemption in contemporary, popular film. The discussion focuses primarily on the work of three directors – Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese and Kore-eda Hirokazu – but also considers a few films from other directorial hands. David Rankin divides the notion of personal redemption into transactional and transformational aspects, differentiating between redemption, understood as that which is external to the person but impacting on their being and environment, and that which is internal to the person. Redemption is viewed broadly as a journey from brokenness to wholeness, from imprisonment to release, or from some form of slavery to freedom. Both secular and religious (especially Christian) understandings of the notion are discussed, and consideration is given to how the former might inform the latter.

Scorsese's 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ arguably generated more resistance and conflict upon its release than any film before or since, engendering intense debate and even hatred between religious conservative protesters and liberal progressive defenders of the picture. This is the first full examination of the controversy, its participants, and their claims concerning the film's religious meaning. This debate reflects deep levels of social and cultural insecurity produced by the shifting role of religion and religious language in an increasingly secularized society, and demonstrates how a popular film about Jesus captured, inflamed, and strengthened existing animosities. Providing new insights into film's significance as an indicator of the changing relationship between secular and religious domains, the work offers a thorough and fascinating historical analysis of the various interpretations of Last Temptation and its reception.