Film and Digital Media @ Messiah

Here’s an annotated bibliography of some important books on the subject of Christianity and film I compiled a while ago. If there’s a book I’m missing, please let me know!

Baugh, Lloyd. Imaging the Divine: Jesus and Christ-Figures in Film. Rowman & Littlefield (1997).

Jesuit Fr. Lloyd Baugh discusses films by Arcand, Pasolini, Bresson, Scorsese and many others on the basis of his faith and his understanding of Christian doctrine. Baugh’s research and analyses are often rich and astute. The sections on women as Christ figures, in such films as Babbett’s Feast, Bagdad Cafe, and Dead Man Walking, reverberate with surprising insights and good sense. The best book for use in a parish cinema studies group.

Johnston, Robert K. Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue. Baker Book House; (2000).

Johnston, professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, gives an introduction to cinema via Evangelical Christian faith. He notes that for the most part the cinema has displaced the Church as the location where we come to wrestle with the deeper questions of meaning, God, and what it means to be human. After recounting the historically difficult relationship between the church and the movie industry, Johnston offers a typology of Christian approaches to cinema (based on Niebuhr’s typology in Christ and Culture). Like Niebuhr, it may well be that Johnston is allowing the typology to become little more than a way of dismissing approaches that he finds inadequate. Johnston encourages the audience (by the example of his writing) to view movies on their own terms, then engage in theological reflection before passing judgment on their orthodoxy. This simply written, yet informed book could be used in a parish cinema studies group, but with a caveat concerning its heavy-handed approach.

Langenhorst, Georg. Jesus ging nach Hollywood: die Wiederentdeckung Jesu in Literatur und Film der Gegenwart. Patmos Verlag; 1. Aufl. edition (1998).

Georg Langenhorst, Professor of Religion at University of Erlangen/Nürnberg, outlines how world literature of the last 15 years has rediscovered Jesus of Nazareth. Many present-day novelists try to discern the yet unresolved mystery of the fascination of Jesus through satire, history, or in the human context. Many contemporary films show similar tendencies, that is, where theology and pulpit preaching obviously fail, artists look for Jesus directly in flesh and blood. Langenhorst holds that this is where the vast majority of people find Jesus today, in literature and film. After a comprehensive exploration of contemporary literature and film, the book explores the consequences for preaching and religious education today of this truth. Langenhorst concludes that Christians must grasp this opportunity or risk irrelevance in today’s world.

Marsh, Clive, et al. Explorations in Theology and Film: Movies and Meaning. Blackwell Publishers; (1998).

This unwieldy work lumps together theologians, biblical scholars, filmmakers, and everyone else it seems, to consider the film’s potential to contribute to contemporary theological discussion. The book examines the generally one-sided conversation between film and theology, both raising and ignoring crucial questions about the relationship between theology and culture. The first part considers basic theory and theological approaches to media. The largest part of the book looks at particular films, including Dead Poets Society, the Terminator films, Awakenings, The Piano and the films of Martin Scorsese. In the third part the editors pat themselves on the back for doing such a service to theology and culture by bringing the book into existence. Only useful if you’ve got all the other books and want to complete your library.

Miles, Margaret R. Seeing and Believing. Beacon Press; (1997).

Miles, who is Professor of Historical Theology at Harvard Divinity School, examines fifteen motion pictures, critiquing Hollywood’s view of religion and values in America from an academically focused cultural studies perspective. The films she analyzes, produced between 1981 and 1993, include The Last Temptation of Christ, Romero, The Chosen, Thelma and Louise, and The Rapture. Issues of race, gender, class, violence, and marginalization are explored in film “texts” and subtexts, supported by statistics and survey results. The author concludes that films are best at expressing the anxieties of a changing society. An appendix provides questions for film analysis as cultural product, text, and cultural voice. Throughout the book, Miles explores the way films have answered the ancient question of “how should we live?” Challenging and articulate, this book is recommended for serious Christian film study.

Reinhartz, Adele. Scripture on the Silver Screen. Westminster John Knox Press; (2003).

Adele Reinhartz, Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at Wilfrid Laurier University, focuses on a dozen key films, examining the ways the Bible is portrayed. For some of the films, the biblical connection is explicit in the narrative itself (e.g. the role of the Book of Ruth in Fried Green Tomatoes, a story about women’s friendships). In others, the Bible’s role is more subtle and symbolic (e.g. the “Fall” and the exile from Eden depicted in Pleasantville). Her praise for the films discussed here is generally non-stop, but she also includes a final chapter on movies that got it wrong, those that (according to her lights) offer misleading or superficial understandings of scripture.

Stern, Richard C., et al. Savior on the Silver Screen. Paulist Press; (1999).

Stern and his fellow authors examine nine movies about the life of Jesus, exploring how the image of Jesus in each reflects the time and culture in which the film was produced. The selections include silent, foreign, epic, and musical films. For each film there is an introduction, pre-viewing and post-viewing questions, and a discussion of its major features. All of these nine films are covered in Tatum’s book with more historical depth, but Savior on the Silver Screen is oriented for use in small group settings and is more pastorally directed. A book to consider for a parish cinema studies group.

Stone, Bryan P. Faith and Film: Theological Themes at the Cinema. Chalice Press; (2000).

Similar to Baugh’s book but with an Evangelical slant. Arranged according to theological themes, it covers a broader area than films simply about Christ. Worth reading for its breadth, it lacks the academic research and tone of Langenhorst, Walsh, Marsh or Miles. That said, Stone is the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at the Boston University School of Theology, so he has very good academic credentials. A good book for a parish film discussion group, but with caveats concerning some of the theological ingenuousness.

Tatum, W. Barnes. Jesus at the Movies. Polebridge Press; (1998)

A comprehensive guide to virtually all the major Hollywood films made about Jesus Christ to date. Tatum covers silent era epics such as Olcott’s From The Manger To The Cross and Griffith’s Intolerance, up to Jewison’s Jesus Christ Superstar and Greene’s Godspell. Jesus At The Movies is a thoroughly researched guide to its field. With its selected bibliography and filmography, it is a valuable reference covering the movie representations of Jesus Christ. Given all that, it can be theologically simplistic at times.

Walsh, Robert and Richard G Walsh. Reading the Gospels in the Dark: Portrayals of Jesus in Film. Trinity Press International; (2003).

Religion professor Richard Walsh explores movies such as Jesus of Montreal, Shane, Godspell and The Greatest Story Ever Told. He argues that Jesus films are cultural and ideological products, and he arranges them into five basic eras, showing how they reflect the tensions and hopes of different periods of the 20th century. Although the book suffers occasionally at times from a plaintive academic tone, Walsh’s insights into religion and popular culture sometimes click.