Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Animated Parables: A Pedagogy Of Seven Deadly Sins And A Few Virtues, Joel Mayward

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Terry Lindvall, Animated Parables: A Pedagogy of Seven Deadly Sins and a Few Virtues (Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2023).

Krazy House, Christopher R. Deacy

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Krazy House (2023), directed by Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil.

Exhibiting Forgiveness, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Exhibiting Forgiveness (2024), directed by Titus Kaphar.

Bliss, William L. Blizek, Monica Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Bliss (2022), directed by Joe Maggio.

The T&T Clark Handbook Of Jesus And Film, Joel Mayward

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Richard Walsh, ed. The T&T Clark Handbook of Jesus and Film (London: T&T Clark, 2021).

Herrens Veje: A Catalyst To Reflect Upon Military Chaplaincy And Ecclesial Issues In A Nordic Context, Jan Grimell, Mariecke Van Den Berg

Journal of Religion & Film

This article is based on an analysis of the first season of the Danish series Herrens Veje (The Way of the Lord; Price 2017). The series portrays the young, idealistic pastor and military chaplain August, who is deployed to a conflict zone with a military unit. He accompanies the unit on a patrol to win the trust of the soldiers. During the patrol, they engage in combat and August kills an innocent civilian woman. Upon return, the transition from military to civilian life proves to be increasingly challenging and troublesome. As the series proceeds, August’s mental health deteriorates and his …

Viewing Terrence Malick’S A Hidden Life As Political Theology: Toward Theocinematics, Joel Mayward

Journal of Religion & Film

In this article, I bring Terrence Malick’s 2019 film, A Hidden Life, into conversation with two of philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s concepts: (1) the “social imaginary” as the interplay of ideals, images, ideologies and utopias, and (2) Ricoeur’s description of the genre of “parable” as a narrative-metaphor which provokes a “re-orientation by disorientation” within an audience’s imagination. Drawing from Ricoeur’s thought, I apply a theological film criticism I call “theocinematics” to A Hidden Life in order to call attention to the ways in which the cinematic form itself engenders sociopolitical and theological thought. Through emphasizing film aesthetics in my analysis, …

Lars Von Trier’S Cinema: Excess, Evil, And The Prophetic Voice, Jeanette Solano

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Rebecca Ver Straten-McSparran, Lars Von Trier’s Cinema: Excess, Evil, and the Prophetic Voice (Routledge, 2021).

Under G-D, Dereck Daschke

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Under G-d (2022), directed by Paula Eiselt.

Sorcery, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Sorcery (2023), directed by Christopher Murray.

Biblical Boogeymen, Holy Ghosts, And The New Demonology: A Review Of Three Recent Books On Religion And Horror, Brian Collins

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review essay on three books: Brandon R. Grafius, Reading the Bible with Horror (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019); Brandon R. Grafius and John Morehead, eds., Theology and Horror: Explorations of the Dark Religious Imagination (Fortress Academic/Lexington, 2021); and Steve A. Wiggins, Nightmares with the Bible: The Good Book and Cinematic Demons (Fortress Academic/Lexington, 2020).

Life In The Multiverse: Bringing Chaos Out Of Order?, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper was given as the opening keynote address at the International Conference on Religion and Film at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on June 8, 2022, and is here presented in that form.

My thanks go to those who organized the conference for Vrije Universiteit, notably Professor Johan Roeland and Miranda van Holland.

Giving The Devil His Due: Satan And Cinema, Brandon R. Grafius

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock and Regina M. Hansen, eds., Giving the Devil His Due: Satan and Cinema (New York: Fordham University Press, 2021).

Frederick Wiseman's Essene (1972): The Duality Of Mary And Martha, Nilita Vachani

Journal of Religion & Film

America’s legendary documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman shot Essene 50 years ago at the height of the commune movement in the United States. Unlike his previous institutional films which showcase an insane asylum, a public high school, an inner city police force, a hospital, and a military training school, Essene's canvas is the far less turbulent terrain of a serene and austere Benedictine monastery devoted to the love and service of God and the divine spirit. This paper undertakes a close textual and hermeneutic analysis of Essene alongside an appraisal of Wiseman’s working methodology, his cinematic portrayals of character and dramaturgy, …

Blindspotting And Covid: The Gentrification Of Racism, Ashley Starr-Morris

Journal of Religion & Film

The novel Coronavirus is not only exposing old patterns of racism and systemic inequalities, but deepening them as well. The notion of blindspotting, as described in the film by the same name, is used to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the “spiritual emergency” or crisis of racism in America. "Blindspotting" is an image or situation that can be interpreted in two ways but is understood by some in only one way, thereby producing a blind spot. In 2020 and 2021, we see segments of American society, from politics to white Christian nationalism, upholding a sacred canopy of exceptionalism by …

The Virtues Of Being Human: Faith, Hope, And Love In James Gray's The Immigrant (2013), The Lost City Of Z (2016), And Ad Astra (2019), John Adair

Journal of Religion & Film

James Gray’s three most recent features reflect on the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love, revealed and developed through encounters with others. The Immigrant (2013) reveals the way faith informs familial commitments, social bonds, and a life-giving response to suffering and injustice. The Lost City of Z (2016) portrays a dreamer, a man whose hopeful vision of another world animates every aspect of his being. And Gray’s most recent feature, Ad Astra (2019) traces a man’s turn toward relationship as he discovers what it means to love. In each case, as Gray’s characters display these virtues, the characters transcend …

The Monstrous Other And The Biblical Narrative Of Ruth, Jonathan Lyonhart, Jennifer Matheny

Journal of Religion & Film

Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water (2017) restages the biblical narrative of Ruth in Cold War America, crystallizing the parallel through setting numerous scenes at a local cinema that is playing The Story of Ruth (1960). The book of Ruth tells the tale of how a non-Israelite outsider could be welcomed into the kingdom of God and ultimately into the lineage of Christ. Likewise, del Toro populates his tale with multiple outsiders—multiple ‘Ruths’—including a mute woman, an African American cleaner, a Russian Communist, and an elderly homosexual male. However, these are merely reflections of the ultimate outsider, Del Toro’s …

Corruption As Shared Culpability: Religion, Family, And Society In Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan (2014), Maria Hristova

Journal of Religion & Film

This article engages in close analysis of how Andrey Zvyagintsev depicts corruption and its various manifestations: moral, familial, societal, and institutional, in Leviathan (Leviafan, 2014). While other post-Soviet films address the problem of prevalent corruption in Russia, Zvyagintsev’s work is the first to provoke strong public reactions, not only from government and Russian Orthodox Church officials, but also from Orthodox and political activist groups. The film demonstrates that the instances of legal and moral failings in one aspect of existence are a sign of a much deeper and wider-ranging problem that affects all other spheres of human experience. …

Hail, Caesar! A Jesus Film In Search Of A Christ Figure, Jon Coutts

Journal of Religion & Film

For over a century the moving picture has been a medium ripe for propagation or exploration of the story of Christ. Since the first wave hit screens in the late 1890s and early 1900s, the list of so-called “Jesus films” has come to number in the dozens. Given that Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2016 Hail, Caesar!­ sets itself up as a reprisal of such films, the question is how to interpret it. To explore this, interpretation of the film is framed by consideration of the Coen brothers' attention to religious themes, is set against the backdrop of the second wave …

The Moving Image And The Time Of Prophecy: Trauma And Precognition In L. Von Trier’S Melancholia (2011) And D. Villeneuve’S Arrival (2016), Luca Zanchi

Journal of Religion & Film

Both the deferred recurrence of post-traumatic symptoms and the foresight granted by prophetic vision bring about a disruption of temporality and generate a chronological discontinuity which is often formally rendered as narrative discontinuity. This similarity produces an interpretive ambiguity that is central to the films, Melancholia (2011) by Von Trier and Arrival (2016) by Denis Villeneuve. Both movies begin by hinting at the post-traumatic origin of visions and then gradually shift towards a prophetic explanation. In addressing these two case studies, this article approaches prophecy and its temporality from a narratological perspective, integrating the critical parameters of trauma-theory with the …

J.E.S.U.S.A., John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of J.E.S.U.S.A., directed by Kevin Miller. It is now available on Vimeo Prime (bit.ly/jesusa).

Burden, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Burden (2020) directed by Andrew Heckler.

Three Deaths, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Three Deaths (2020) directed by Jay Dockendorf.

Uncle Frank, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Uncle Frank (2020), directed by Alan Ball.

Farewell Amor, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Farewell Amor (2020), directed by Ekwa Msangi.

This Is Not A Burial, It's A Resurrection, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection (2019), directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese.

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019), directed by Marielle Heller.

Corpus Christi, Sherry Coman

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Corpus Christi (2019), directed by Jan Komasa.

Between Idealization Of A Martyr And Critic Of A Society: Analysis Of Axel Corti’S "Der Fall Jägerstätter", Jakub Gortat

Journal of Religion & Film

The new film approach to the figure of Franz Jägerstätter by Terrence Mallick in 2019 is an occasion to take a critical look at the first movie about the Catholic martyr that was made by the Austrian director Axel Corti in 1971. Although the movie turned out be to a huge success and until now is viewed as one of the turning points in coming to terms with the Nazi past in the Austrian film history, it idealizes, against the director’s intentions, the protagonist and preserves some of the characteristic elements of the history discourse of the times it was …

Religion And Culture In Inherit The Wind, Zachary Sheldon

Journal of Religion & Film

Stanley Kramer’s Inherit the Wind (1960) has long been considered a classic for its indictment of McCarthyism as allegorized in a dramatic treatment of the Scopes Monkey Trial. But for all its political messaging, the film is also patently up front in its treatment of religious perspectives on culture. The presence of such material may be read allegorically but may also be read in connection with the period of the film’s production, as a statement piece on religious perspectives of media such as film. This article examines the religious messaging in Inherit the Wind in conjunction with religious perspectives of …