Experience God in the movies! A valuable resource guide examining over thirty films and their theological impact. Excellent for film buffs and church leaders alike.

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.

Academic philosophy may have lost its audience, but the traditional subjects of philosophy—love, death, justice, knowledge, and faith—remain as compelling as ever. To reach a new generation, Paul W. Kahn argues philosophy must be brought to bear on contemporary discourse surrounding these primal concerns, and he shows how this can be achieved through a turn to popular film. In such well-known movies as Forrest Gump (1994), The American President (1995), The Matrix (1999), Memento (2000), The History of Violence (2005), Gran Torino (2008), The Dark Knight (2008), The Road (2009), and Avatar (2009), Kahn explores powerful archetypes and their hold on us, and he treats our present-day anxieties over justice, love, and faith as signs these traditional imaginative structures have failed. His inquiry proceeds in two parts. First, he uses film to explore the nature of action and interpretation, and narrative, not abstraction, emerges as the critical concept for understanding both. Second, he explores the narratives of politics, family, and faith as they appear in popular films. Engaging with genres as diverse as romantic comedies, slasher films, and pornography, Kahn gains access to the social imaginary, through which we create and maintain a meaningful world.

This resource enables biblical studies instructors to facilitate engaging classroom experiences by drawing on the arts and popular culture. It offers brief overviews of hundreds of easily accessible examples of art, film, literature, music, and other media and outlines strategies for incorporating them effectively and concisely in the classroom. Although designed primarily for college and seminary courses on the Bible, the ideas can easily be adapted for classes such as “Theology and Literature” or “Religion and Art” as well as for nonacademic settings. This compilation is an invaluable resource for anyone who teaches the Bible.

Award-winning screenwriter Brian Godawa guides you through the place of redemption in film, the tricks screenwriters use to communicate their messages, and the mental and spiritual discipline required for watching movies.

The Routledge Companion to Religion and Film brings together a lively and experienced team of contributors to introduce students to the key topics in religion and film and to investigate the ways in which the exciting subject of religion and film is developing for more experienced scholars. Divided into four parts, the Companion: analyzes the history of the interaction of religion and film, through periods of censorship as well as appreciation of the medium studies religion-in-film, examining how the world’s major religions, as well as Postcolonial, Japanese and New Religions, are depicted by and within films uses diverse methodologies to explore religion and film, such as psychoanalytical, theological and feminist approaches, and audience reception analyzes religious themes in film, including Redemption, the Demonic, Jesus or Christ Figures, Heroes and Superheroes considers films as diverse as The Passion of the Christ, The Matrix, Star Wars and Groundhog Day. This definitive book provides an accessible resource to this emerging field and is an indispensable guide to religion and film for students of Religion, Film Studies, and beyond.