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Shoah: Bfi Film Classics, Matthew Page

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Sue Vice, Shoah: BFI Film Classics (BFI/Bloomsbury, 2026).

A Poetic History: Islamic And Japanese Parallels In Film, Joshua Polanski

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of David Sander, A Poetic History: Islamic and Japanese Parallels in Film (Bloomsbury, 2026).

Cloud: Between Paris And Tehran: Kiarostami/Corbin/Lacan, Heba Arafa Abdelfattah

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Joan Copjec, Cloud: Between Paris and Tehran: Kiarostami/Corbin/Lacan (MIT Press, 2025).

Eternity, Leah R. Sisk

Journal of Religion & Film

This film review of Eternity was developed from an essay on how the film demonstrates the nature of choice, including William James's notion of a leap of faith.  The original essay was submitted for an undergraduate Philosophy and Religion class on American Pragmatism at Western Carolina University.

Disclosure Day, Christian Wilken

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Disclosure Day (2026), directed by Steven Spielberg.

Nothing Is As It Should Be: Estrangement, Threshold-Crossings, And Cosmic Struggle In David Lynch’S Blue Velvet And Lost Highway, Susanne Wigorts Yngvesson

Journal of Religion & Film

This article examines estrangement as a structuring existential and aesthetic principle in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986) and Lost Highway (1997). Through close, plot-attentive readings intended to remain accessible to readers unfamiliar with Lynch, it argues that the films stage three interlocking dynamics: becoming a stranger to oneself, the fracturing of the ‘ground’ of ordinary existence, and life as a cosmic struggle in which human agency is partial and contested. Paul Tillich’s The Courage to Be provides the main theological–philosophical lens, clarifying how anxiety, non-being and courage shape scenes of desire, violence and transformation. Film-theoretical work on thresholds and cinematic …

Unidentified, Candace Mixon

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Unidentified (2026), directed by Haifaa al-Mansour.

No Place For Us: The Scapegoat Mechanism In The Early Genealogy Of The Outlaw Road Movie, Luke Smith

Journal of Religion & Film

This essay applies René Girard’s scapegoat mechanism to an early genealogy of the outlaw-couple-on-the-run narrative and of the outlaw road movie more broadly. Through readings of You Only Live Once (1937), They Live by Night (1948), Gun Crazy (1950), and Bonnie and Clyde (1967), it argues that scapegoating in these films operates as a process rather than a single final act: the outlaw couple is first marked and excluded from ordinary goods such as work, respectability, and domestic space, then publicly blamed as a cause of disorder, then amplified through mythmaking, circulation, and repetition until finally sacrificed in a closing …

Misread Before Being Known: Race, Religion, And Institutional Non-Inquiry In Abrogation, Franklin Livingston

Journal of Religion & Film

Institutions often arrive at certainty before they arrive at knowledge. This article names that mechanism institutional non-inquiry — the organizational habit through which visual and cultural assumptions substitute for direct verification, allowing identity classifications to solidify before the subject meaningfully enters the encounter. Unlike prejudice, racialization, or established theories of pre-reflexive social perception, institutional non-inquiry isolates the organizational encounter itself as the specific procedural moment at which collective interpretive habits make inquiry feel unnecessary. Examining Abrogation (2024), a micro-budget American independent feature following Daud Khan, a Brown Pakistani-American infectious disease specialist whose movement through evangelical, civic, and federal institutions repeatedly …

Moving On: Purgatorial Seriality And Unanswered Prayer In Lost’S “Ab Aeterno”, Christian Wilken

Journal of Religion & Film

“Ab Aeterno” (Lost, 6.09) distills the series’ religious logic with unusual explicitness by staging theodicy not as doctrine but as narrative procedure. This article argues that the episode converts Catholic sacramental form (confession, absolution, and penitential address) into a serial ethics of endurance in which closure is structurally deferred. Richard Alpert’s confession establishes a subject who seeks an authorized word that would stabilize suffering, yet the priest’s refusal (“I can’t”) installs a theology of unanswered prayer that becomes the template for Richard’s long durée of waiting. Jacob’s “cork” parable then supplies a katechontic justification of restraint: evil is not abolished …

Between Icon And State: Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan The Terrible, Milja Radovic

Journal of Religion & Film

Remembering the 80th anniversary of Sergei Eisenstein’s film Иван Грозный (Ivan the Terrible, 1944/1945), it is crucial to re-examine Eisenstein’s work, including his last film that became an unintentional ‘testament’ to cinema. Eisenstein’s mastery has been pivotal for understanding cinema and film language, the way this language operates, constructs and deconstructs and communicates historical realities. This paper focuses on a film that was made in two parts, Part I in 1944 and part II in 1945, to investigate Eisenstein’s approach to the subject of history, nation and religion. The research considers how this master of cinema contemplated intricate ideas and …

Piercing The Veil In Sinners: Theological Insights From The Juke Joint, Antonio D. Sison Cpps

Journal of Religion & Film

Celebrated as a critical and commercial success, Ryan Coogler’s genre-defying opus Sinners has also been considered as one of the most culturally significant films of 2025. It also promises to be one of the most theologically resonant films of the year. This is evinced not only in its thematic and literary bases but, importantly, in its very audiovisual language and grammar, its stylistic strategies qua film. As reasoned in this essay, Coogler’s film is a rich locus theologicus, a nexus for theological discovery and insight.Sinners kindles the hermeneutical impulse to dialogue with African American/Pan-Africa theologies exemplified by the …

Affirmative Transcendence: The Ethics Of Mazu And The Internal Expansion Of The Confucian Moral Imagination, Yu Pei

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper proposes and defends the concept of affirmative transcendence through a systematic analysis of the 2012 Chinese television drama Mazu (38 episodes, CCTV). Affirmative transcendence names a structure in which the protagonist achieves sacred status (shen 神) not by negating her human relationships but by maintaining them while exhibiting a mode of moral perception that exceeds the limits of role-based ethics. The paper argues that what is analytically distinctive about this structure is its internal character: the tradition is not rejected but exceeded, and the exceeding is accomplished through resources the tradition itself provides. The paper identifies two …

A Metaphorical Passage To God: Simone Weil And Robert Bresson, V. G. Voigt Hogg Phd

Journal of Religion & Film

VOIGT HOGG_Abstract (REVISED)_Journal of Religion & Film_30 April 2026

This article contrasts the metaphysical and religious philosopher Simone Weil’s concepts of attachment and detachment with auteur director Robert Bresson’s method of subtraction. It argues for a commonality in their philosophy and cinema, that guides the reader or viewer respectively, to perceive a metaphorical passage to God through the lived experience of suffering. The article considers by what means does Weil and Bresson share a mutual commitment to understanding the state of the soul in affliction, while also acknowledging an opposition in the interpretation of detachment in relation to suicide. The …

Sinkhole Hazards, Risks, And Remediation: A Fifty-Year Case Study In New Jersey, Usa, Oladoyin Kolawole, Rita L. Sousa, Christina Comuso, Mohab Hussein

Sinkhole Conference 2026

New Jersey presents a uniquely complex sinkhole and ground subsidence hazard shaped by intersecting geological, industrial, and anthropogenic forces. Sinkhole herein refers primarily to collapse sinkholes, that is, the abrupt or progressive downward failure of the ground surface into subsurface voids, as distinct from solutional closed depressions of purely karst origin. This paper synthesizes five decades (1976-2026) of documented sinkhole and ground subsidence records across the state, examining root causes, societal and environmental impacts, and remediation strategies employed in response to such hazards. The review shows that New Jersey’s hazard is governed by three dominant mechanisms: karst dissolution in carbonate …

Cover Collapse Sinkholes In Stormwater Infrastructure In The Urban Karst Of Bowling Green, Kentucky: Occurrence, Mitigation, And Prevention, Nick Lawhon P.G., C.F.M.

Sinkhole Conference 2026

Cover collapse sinkholes are an extremely common geohazard in karst terrains. These features, formed by concentrated flows of water entering the subsurface through discrete points in the epikarst, are particularly common in stormwater infrastructure in Bowling Green, KY. There are currently 787 known stormwater basins and hundreds of miles of stormwater conveyances in this fast-developing city, all of which concentrate stormwater flows over the naturally sinkhole-prone karst system. This paper reports on the occurrence of cover collapse sinkholes in stormwater infrastructure, particularly retention and detention basins, from inspections over the past 7 years and records from City-managed sinkhole repair projects, …

Biogeomechanics Of Eicp Reinforcement Of Karstified Rock Masses, Mary C. Ngoma, Oladoyin Kolawole

Sinkhole Conference 2026

Sinkholes are among the most significant karst-related hazards, arising from the dissolution of soluble rock and subsequent collapse of overlying geomaterials, thereby compromising rock mass stability and underground infrastructure. Conventional sinkhole remediation approaches often rely on cement-based grouting to prevent failure; however, the associated environmental impacts underscore the need for eco-friendly and sustainable alternatives such as biocementation. While biocementation has been a widely applied technique in reinforcing soils and cemented structures, the potential of biocemented hybrid soil-embedded karstified rock systems remains unexplored. To address sinkhole-related post-hazard remediation, this work investigates the potential of biocementation as a sustainable reinforcement strategy for …

Documenting The Ineffable: A Comparative Analysis Of Mystical Representation In Kimiavi’S The Garden Of Stones And Western Sufi Documentary, Hessam Abedini

Journal of Religion & Film

This article examines how documentary film attempts to represent mystical experience through comparative analysis of Parviz Kimiavi's The Garden of Stones (1976) and American documentaries featuring Samuel Lewis, particularly Sunseed (1973). Rather than assuming terms like "sacred" or "authentic," the study grounds its analysis in empirical definitions from William James, historical scholarship by Carl Ernst and Annemarie Schimmel, and literary theory from Fatemeh Keshavarz. Through detailed examination of specific scenes—Darvish Khan hanging stones from dead trees, Lewis leading ecstatic dances—the article demonstrates how different cinematic strategies approach documentary's epistemological limits when confronting ineffable experience.

The analysis corrects historical misunderstandings about …

Delay-Based Forwarder Election For Evpn Multihomed Ethernet Segments, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques are described for selecting which of two or more network nodes attached to a shared access device forwards traffic for that device, using measured delay rather than configuration or addressing. Each node measures the delay of its own attachment circuit to the access device with an active measurement protocol, filters the samples, and advertises the resulting value to the other nodes of the redundancy group in a control plane message scoped to that group. Each node applies a common selection rule to the advertised values, identifies the node reporting the lowest delay, and applies a relative hysteresis test, an …

Stemsyl: A Colour-Stem Phonetic Script For English, With Keyboards For Phones And Watches, Phillip Bryan Larson

Defensive Publications Series

Stemsyl is a phonetic stem, position, and color system for reading, writing, and typing languages by sound. This version is for American English, and variations extend it to other accents and languages. Each syllable is drawn as a short horizontal stem carrying up to three vertical ticks: the consonant before the vowel, the vowel, and the consonant after it. A tick can be above the stem, centered across it, or below it, and its position together with its color names exactly one sound. The 24 consonants form eight color families of three, and the 14 vowels use seven colors in …

The Gift Operation: Forward-Only Transfer (Pay-It-Forward) As A Design Criterion Distinguishing Gift Circulation From Exchange In Peer-To-Peer Reciprocity Systems, Thon Ly

Defensive Publications Series

We disclose a design criterion for peer-to-peer gift, reciprocity and gratitude systems (pay-it-forward schemes, time banks, complementary currencies, peer-recognition ledgers): classify each transfer by where the recipient's next transfer goes. A transfer passed onward to a third party is generalized reciprocity, a gift that circulates; a transfer returned to its source in a return that settles the account is balanced reciprocity, an exchange, to be named as one. The criterion is applied to one institution's mechanisms (an earmarked, forward-only, non-withdrawable money balance; funded time together; tagged physical gratitude artifacts; gift codes; a common pool emptied on a fixed annual date), …

The Song That Is Not His: Attribution, Provenance-Marking And Training-Objective Rules For Generative Voice Models Of Deceased Artists Without Surviving Estates, Thon Ly

Defensive Publications Series

This paper discloses attribution rules, provenance-marking requirements, a training-objective constraint and a model-release restriction for generative voice and style models trained on the recordings of deceased artists whose estates, rights-holders and records of intent do not survive. The worked case is the Cambodian musicians and filmmakers killed under the Khmer Rouge (1975–1979), where consent cannot be obtained, no rights-holding institution survives, and the destruction was aimed at the culture, so that an indistinguishable reconstruction completes the erasure. Generated work is credited to a named living human creator and published for, never by, the deceased artist: a dedicated work, not an …

Clinical Evaluation Of Wound Healing After Following Third Molar Extraction Using Bone Bioactive Liquid And Platelet-Rich Fibrin: A Comparative Study, Zainab H. Alawi, Elham Hazeim Abdulkareem

Maaen Journal for Medical Sciences

This comparative clinical trial aimed to analyze the postoperative impact of platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) and bone bioactive liquid (BBL) on wound and bone healing after surgical extraction of third molars. 60 patients aged between 18 and 55 years, including 35 females and 25 males, who qualified for the inclusion criteria were included. Participants had been assigned to one of three groups: Group A control, Group B (PRF), and Group C  (BBL). Evaluation was done at the end of 7 days for suture removal and healing assessment based on the Landry et al. healing score based on the color of the …

Church-Based Qualitative Research, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

Qualitative research is collecting, analyzing, and interpreting subjective data to answer an important research question. It can be contrasted with quantitative research, which focuses on collecting numerical (relatively objective) data to test specific hypotheses. It is an attractive form of research in church contexts because it does not require training in statistics and can be conducted in almost all ministry settings. It is especially appropriate for topics that are under-researched, poorly understood, or involve concepts that are difficult to measure. Common problems associated with church-based qualitative research include overly broad research questions, weak descriptions of what has been observed, shallow …

When Everything Moves Faster Than The Soul: Spirituality In A Fast-Paced World, Pablo Marzilli

Great Commission Research Journal

This article analyzes one of the main characteristics of the hypermodern era in which we live: social acceleration. We live in an extremely individualistic era that forces us to be highly efficient and productive in everything we do. This social phenomenon leads to a sense of being overwhelmed; our culture demands that we maximize the use of our time, to the point where we feel that we are less productive than we actually are, even though this is objectively impossible. This culture of acceleration, which makes us live at a dizzying pace, also influences the church and reshapes our daily …

My Pilgrimage In The Growth Of The Church, Charles Van Engen

Great Commission Research Journal

I have lived a life invested in the growth of the church and forming leaders who would mobilize the church toward growth. I have sought to pay forward what others did for me. Born of missionary parents, I was raised in the state of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. From 1973 to 1985, my wife, Jean, and I served the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico in Chiapas, Mexico, in leadership formation, training evangelists, pastors, and teachers of rapidly growing churches. In 1981, I received a Ph.D. in missiology under Johannes Verkuyl at the Free University of Amsterdam. I taught Mission Theology …

Dipl 6460 Intelligence, Brendan J. Balestrieri Ph.D.

Diplomacy Syllabi

This course examines the history, institutions, people, and processes of intelligence as a critical element of national and international security. Using case studies, it will also look at some of the key intelligence missions, such as strategic warning, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, counter proliferation, and counterinsurgency. This course will also introduce you to structured analytical techniques (SATS) and examine the reorganization of the intelligence community after 9/11 and how great power rivalry is influencing changes to intelligence.

Dipl 2109 Ab Institutions Of Global Governance, Purnaka L. De Silva Phd

Diplomacy Syllabi

The focus and aim of this Course – DIPL 2109AB: Institutions of Global Governance – is to understand the concept of Global Governance from the vantage point of International Organizations.  Global governance, central to international relations, refers to the loose framework of global regulation – both institutional and normative – that constrains conduct and attempts to maintain order.

When we speak of order, we need to specify order for whom – states, peoples, groups, or individuals.  Order may denote any regular or discernible pattern of relationships that are stable over time or may additionally refer to a condition that …

Dipl 2109 Aa Institutions Of Global Governance, Purnaka L. De Silva Phd

Diplomacy Syllabi

The focus and aim of this Course – DIPL 2109AA: Institutions of Global Governance – is to understand the concept of Global Governance from the vantage point of International Organizations.  Global governance, central to international relations, refers to the loose framework of global regulation – both institutional and normative – that constrains conduct and attempts to maintain order.

When we speak of order, we need to specify order for whom – states, peoples, groups, or individuals.  Order may denote any regular or discernible pattern of relationships that are stable over time or may additionally refer to a condition that …

Little Bighorn Days 2026, Hardin, Montana, Emma Keinath-Lopez

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This study was conducted for Little Bighorn Days to provide insight into the characteristics of attendees of the 2026 Little Bighorn Days event hosted in Hardin, Montana. Seventy attendees of the event completed the survey. Results show that the majority of respondents were Montana residents, with 66% residing in Montana and 85% of Montana respondents residing in Big Horn County. Respondents from outside Big Horn County spent an average of five nights in Montana and reported a total spending of $24,994.00, with the highest expenditures occurring in hotel/motel/bed and breakfasts, restaurants/bars, retail goods/services, and gasoline/diesel. Overall, attendees reported high levels …