Film, Religion and Education in the Twenty-First Century: The Hollywood Hermeneutic
We live in a post-modern, post-Christian and post-literate world where popular films have become the lingua franca of the video generation. Regrettably, their pedagogic utilisation as an extra-ecclesiastical resource within Religion Studies, Theology and Religious Education has frequently been under...
| Published in: | Journal for the academic study of religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Equinox Publ.
2006
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| In: |
Journal for the academic study of religion
Year: 2006, Volume: 19, Issue: 1, Pages: 35-52 |
| Further subjects: | B
film and religion
B Hollywood and film B religion and the Media B Hermeneutics |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | We live in a post-modern, post-Christian and post-literate world where popular films have become the lingua franca of the video generation. Regrettably, their pedagogic utilisation as an extra-ecclesiastical resource within Religion Studies, Theology and Religious Education has frequently been under-utilised, unappreciated or deliberately ignored. For the profession to remain culturally relevant in the twenty-first century, it needs to integrate popular films into the pulpit, home and classroom as soon as practicable. Consciousness-raising via thematic surveys of the field is a valid first step in demonstrating how extensively religion permeates the medium. Consequently, the popular Hollywood cinema was scanned, the critical literature was reviewed, and textually-based, humanist film criticism was employed as the analytical lens. Three taxonomic categories were identified and explicated herein. Namely: (1) Christ-figures: The re-enfleshment of Jesus Christ, (2) Subtextual sacredness: Biblical props, characters and themes, and (3) Holy words: Explicit scriptural references and Bible-quoting. It was concluded that the Hollywood hermeneutic has immense value for both the children-of-the-media and religion scholarship. Further research into the emerging interdisciplinary field of religion-and-film and its pedagogic application was recommended. |
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| ISSN: | 2047-7058 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the academic study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/arsr.2006.19.1.35 |