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Protestants on Screen explores the Protestant contributions to American and European film from the silent era to the present day. The authors analyze how Protestant filmmakers, beliefs, theology, symbols, sensibilities, and cultural patterns have shaped the history of film.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Introduction Part I: Why Protestants and Film
- Introduction Part II: What is Religion and Why is it Important in Film?
- Introduction Part III: What is Protestantism?
- Introduction Part IV: Protestantism and Film - Historical Overview
- Introduction Part V: Protestant Film Aesthetics
- Introduction Part VI: Chapter Overview
- Part I. History and Theory of Protestantism in Religion and Film Studies
- 1 - Protestant Responses to Hollywood, Censorship, and Art Cinema
- William D. Romanski
- 2 - Independent Protestant Film, from the Silent Era to its Resurgence
- Andrew Quicke
- 3 - Protestant Themes within Secular Models of Salvation --"Redeemed" or just "A Bit Happier"'?: The Example of Crazy Heart
- Clive Marsh
- Part II. The Protestant Reformation on Screen
- 4 - "Here I stand I can do no other..." Martin Luther in German and American Biopics
- Esther Wipfler
- 5 - The Vexed Man: Oliver Cromwell and the English Reformation and Civil War on Screen
- Gastón Espinosa
- 6 - Propaganda, Blasphemy, and The Savage God in The Witchfinder General and The Wicker Man
- Victor Sage
- Part III. Protestant Influences in European Art Films
- 7 - Words versus "The Word": Language and Scripture in Ingmar Bergman's Films and Writings
- Maaret Koskinen
- 8 - Protestant Miracle in Dreyer's Ordet
- Marc LeFanu
- 9 - Babette's Feast: Protestant Pietism, the Conflict of Spirit and Flesh, and Reconciliatory Grace in the Danish Babette's Feast
- Kjell O. Lejon
- 10 - Protestant Ambivalence Towards Allegory in Wim Wenders' The Scarlet Letter
- Erik Redling
- Part IV. Protestant Experience in American Movies
- 11 - Where Were You? The Problem of Evil in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life
- Mark Scott
- 12 - "Holy Ghost Power!" in Robert Duvall's The Apostle
- Gastón Espinosa and Jason Stevens
- 13 - Sinner or Saint?: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement in Selma
- Julius H. Bailey
- 14 - The Religious Motif of Mountains in Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?
- Melanie Johnson
- 15 - A Tender View of Conservative Evangelicalism in Higher Ground
- Paula M. Kane
- 16 - Evangelicals and Star Wars: Appropriating a Culture from a Galaxy Far Far Away
- Alex Wainer
- Part V. Protestant Themes in Film Genres
- 17 - The Rise and Fall of Evangelical Protestant Apocalyptic Horror: From A Thief in the Night to Left Behind and Beyond
- Timothy Beal
- 18 - The Western. Radical Forgiveness in Unforgiven
- Sara Anson Vaux
- 19 - Protestant Pacifist: War and Pacifism in Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge
- Matthew S. Rindge
- 20 - Film Noir, Calvinism, and Self-Surveillance in Paul Schrader's Hardcore
- Jason Stevens
- 21 - Lost in Adaptation: Aslan's Divinity and the Purpose of Real Pain in Narnia versus Fantasy Film
- Devin Brown
About the author
Gastón Espinosa is Department Chair and the Arthur V. Stoughton Professor of Religious Studies at Claremont McKenna College.
Erik Redling is Professor of American Literature and Culture and Managing Director of the Muhlenberg Center for American Studies at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.
Jason Stevens has taught at Harvard University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and he has been a fellow of the National Humanities Center (Durham, NC) and the University of Pittsburgh, (Humanities Center).
Summary
Protestants on Screen explores the Protestant contributions to American and European film from the silent era to the present day. The authors analyze how Protestant filmmakers, beliefs, theology, symbols, sensibilities, and cultural patterns have shaped the history of film. Challenging the stereotype of Protestants as world-denouncing-and-defying puritans and iconoclasts who stood in the way of film's maturation as an art, the authors contend that Protestants were among the key catalysts in the origins and development of film, bringing an identifiably Protestant aesthetic to the medium.
The essays in this volume track key Protestant themes like faith and doubt, sin and depravity, biblical literalism, personal conversion and personal redemption, holiness and sanctification, moralism and pietism, Providence and secularism, apocalypticism, righteousness and justice, religion and race, the priesthood of all believers and its offshoots-democratization and individualism. Protestants, the essays in this volume demonstrate, helped birth and shape the film industry and harness the power of motion pictures for spiritual instruction, edification, and cultural influence.
Additional text
Protestants on Screen opens with an introduction that provides an informative overview of Protestantism,...The collection makes insightful connections between religion and cinema and is commendable for taking Protestantism and the art it inspires seriously.
