Movies and the Church of Baseball - Religion in the Cinema of the National Pastime

Christian religious imagery and symbolism has a long history in American baseball cinema, from The Busher (1919) to Angels in the Outfield(1994) and present-day movies. This book examines The Natural, Field of Dreams, Bull Durham and other films, exploring the frequency of Christian imagery and themes in the American baseball movie. From Babe Ruth's performance of a miracle to help a disabled boy walk again in The Babe Ruth Story to Shoeless Joe Jackson's question to Ray Kinsella--"Is this heaven?"--in Field of Dreams, Christian themes and American baseball film are inextricably linked. This discussion encompasses symbolic imagery in mainstream film, Christian baseball movies directed by Christian filmmakers promoting their faith messages and images of America as a prelapsarian paradise before "The Fall."

List of contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

1.¿Play Ball: The Films

2.¿Diamonds on the Cross: Baseball's Connections deletewith Christianity

3.¿Depictions of "Other" Religious Practices in Baseball Films

4.¿God, the Bat, the Ball and the Bottle in Christian Cinema

5.¿The Fathers and the Sons: Christian Cinema Baseball Films deleteand the "Fatherhood Crisis"

6.¿The Fall, the Desire for a Return to the Prelapsarian Ideal deleteand the Whitewash: The Past as It Will Be

Conclusions

Chapter Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the author

Jonathan Plummer is a senior lecturer in film and television at Solent University, Southampton, England. He lives near Winchester.

Product details

• Authors: Jonathan Plummer, Jonathan Plummer
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 06.02.2025
• EAN: 9781476676555
• ISBN: 978-1-4766-7655-5
• No. of pages: 198
• Illustrations: Raster,schwarz-weiss
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Photography, film, video, TV; Baseball, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology of Religion, SPORTS & RECREATION / Baseball / General, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / History & Criticism, Religious groups: social & cultural aspects, Film Theory & Criticism, Film history, theory or criticism, Social groups: religious groups and communities, baseball; church