This is the first full-length exploration of the relationship between religion, film, and ideology. It shows how religion is imagined, constructed, and interpreted in film and film criticism. The films analyzed include The Last Jedi, Terminator, Cloud Atlas, Darjeeling Limited, Hellboy, The Revenant, Religulous, and The Secret of my Success.
Each chapter offers:
- an explanation of the particular representation of religion that appears in film
- a discussion of how this representation has been interpreted in film criticism and religious studies scholarship
- an in-depth study of a Hollywood or popular film to highlight the rhetorical, social, and political functions this representation accomplishes on the silver screen
- a discussion about how such analysis might be applied to other films of a similar genre
Written in an accessible style, and focusing on Hollywood and popular cinema, this book will be of interest to both movie lovers and experts alike.
List of Contributors Forward, Tenzan Eaghll (independent scholar, USA) and Rebekka King (Middle Tennessee State University, USA) Introduction - Three Film Critics Walk into a Theatre: The Ideological Blindspot in the Academic Study of Religion and Film, Tenzan Eaghll (independent scholar, USA) 1. Atheistic Documentaries and the Critique of Religion in Bill Maher’s Religulous, Teemu Taira (University of Helsinki, Finland) 2. Capitalism, the Hero’s Journey, and the Myth of Entrepreneurship in The Secret to My Success and Joy, Dennis LoRusso (Princeton University, USA) 3. Oprah, Mindy, and Reese: The Holy Trinity of Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time, Leslie Dorrough Smith (Avila University, USA) 4. Race, Colonialism, and Whiteness in Scorsese’s Silence, Malory Nye (Aberdeen University, UK) 5. We Haven’t Located Us Yet: The Mystic East in Wes Anderson’s Darjeeling Limited, Michael J. Altman (University of Alabama, USA) 6. Lost in Žižek, Redeemed in Cloud Atlas: Buddhism and Other Tales of “Asian Religions” in Western Cinema and Affective Circulation, Ting Guo (University of Toronto, Canada) 7. Magical realism, Anti-modernity, and the Religious Imaginaries of Latin American cinema: A look through Ciro Guerra’s The Wind Journeys, Rebecca Bartel (San Diego State University, USA) 8. Unsettling Settler-Colonial Myths about Native Americans in The Revenant, Matt Sheedy (Bonn University, Germany) 9. From the Horrors of Human Tragedy and Social Reproduction to the Comfort of a Demonic Cult: Agency in the Film Hereditary, Sean McCloud (University of North Carolina-Charlotte, USA) 10. Superheroes, Apocalyptic Messiahs, and Hellboy, Aaron Ricker (McGill University, Canada) 11. AI Apocalypticism and the Religious Impulse In, and From, the Terminator Franchise, Beth Singler (University of Cambridge, UK) 12. Myth of the Auteur and the Authentic in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Richard Newton (University of Alabama, USA) Conclusion - Religion as Film: Constructing a Course as a Critique of a Dominant Paradigm, Tenzan Eaghll (independent scholar, USA) Notes Bibliography Index
Tenzan Eaghll is an independent academic and author whose work has been published in Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Religious Compass, Implicit Religion, and the Bloomsbury Critiquing Religion series. He is the creator and co-host of the podcast Fascism in Cinema. Rebekka King is Associate Professor and Co-Director of Religious Studies at Middle Tennessee State University, USA. She has published in Critical Research on Religion, Religion and Society: Advances in Research, and the Bloomsbury Critiquing Religion series.
Reviews for Representing Religion in Film
Relevant for students and scholars across a range of disciplines, Representing Religion in Film not only provides analyses of compelling case studies, but it also presents the theoretical tools necessary for studying religion and popular culture more broadly. Read with a highlighter and a bag of popcorn. * K. Merinda Simmons, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Alabama, USA * This book will change the way we think about religion and film studies. * William L. Blizek, Professor Emeritus, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA *
