Religion and Film 2019

In the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Jonathan Z. Smith discusses his view on the absolute wonder of imagination. I relate this to the movie Big Fish as Edward Bloom stretches the wonder of imagination through fantastical creatures in his storytelling to his son William. The idea of the wonder of imagination I think expands our understanding on events and actions that we normally don't think go deeper. Similarly, we use this technique of expanding our imagination through this class by discussing the movies in depth before and after. We are then opened up to new ideas as a group that we didn't previously think about as if we were watching the movie by ourselves. This groupthink has enhanced my think and my wonder of imagination as Smith describes. 

In the Idea of the Holy, Otto can be quoted saying this "  The analogy is with the feeling arising from moral transgression. They are too we practiced a kind of self deprecation which is clear and familiar and perfectly intelligible to us when we esteem ourselves guilty of a bad action and action itself is morally evil. Evil of the action ways upon us and deprives of our self respect. We accuse ourselves and remorse sets in." In this, we can see the seperation between us and the divine. For God, he does not make mistakes as a human might do.  Humans, when they see themselves make a mistake that they would see as morally wrong, or as even morally evil, we feel down on ourselves, because we know that we can do and be better. These mistakes can be anything from committing a crime, to yelling at a friend. However, they are important to see because they put it in perspective that we are not God. While God is omnipotent and omniscient, we are not. Meaning, that he knows all and w...

In the Idea of the Holy, towards the end of the book, it talks about Jesus and his miracles, specifically the ones where he brings someone back to life. During this, Otto talks about Jesus's power coming from his commitment to the people that he was with and his mission from God. However, it does not speak specifically as to what the mission from God is. For most, this mission can be one of two things, either the spreading of the Gospel's good news, or to die on the cross for the payment of sins of the world. If one is to look at Jesus's mission as simply the spreading of the Gospel and the good news of God, then we put up a lot of Christian views to question. This however is the view of Muslims and many other people that do not identify as Christian. They see Jesus as simply a great profit, teacher, and deliverer of a message from God that emphasizes the love of God instead of legality. His teachings also show that connection with other humans and showing the same love t...

How does someone reconcile their pacifist beliefs with a desire to aid their fellow man in the bloodiest war of all time? The dynamic between a distaste for killing and a global warzone is placed at the forefront of Mel Gibson’s film Hacksaw Ridge (2016) . This film focuses on the true story of a young Desmond Doss, a staunch pacifist and conscientious objector in World War II. He does not use his pacifist beliefs, based in Desmond’s adherence to the Biblical commandment “Thou shalt not kill,” to try and get out of serving in the war, but instead he wants to serve as combat medic. His religious beliefs are put to the test as soon as he begins his journey, as he is ostracized by his fellow soldiers and commanders for refusing to even handle a rifle. After an attempt to have him discharged based on psychiatric reasons fails, his commanders put him through grueling, menial labor to convince Desmond to leave on his own accord. But he powers through, refusing to compromise his beliefs no ma...

While some films hope to add to the religious narrative of sacred text in a meaningful, impactful way, as was the case in Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) , others simply want to subvert it for the flippant humor it creates. This is the case with many works by British comedy troupe Monty Python, whose films like Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Life of Brian (1979) take Christian tradition and sacred text and turn it into farce and satire, utilizing it for laughs. These films became notorious for their seemingly anti-religious rhetoric and their irreverent view of Christian narratives, especially Life of Brian , which focused on a Jewish man by the name Brian Cohen who is born in the manger next door to Jesus, leading to many mistaking him as the messiah. This film was banned entirely in Norway and Ireland and was protested by many religious groups. It was a critical and commercial hit in the United States though, the film in highly regarded as one of the bes...

Lyden, John C. “Whose Film Is It, Anyway? Canonicity and Authority in ‘Star Wars’ Fandom.”  Journal of the American Academy of Religion , vol. 80, no. 3, 2012, pp. 775–786. In a 2001 census, 70,000 people in Australia identified their religion as Jediism. This was not a phenomenon singular to Australia, but one that has swept the world as the Star Wars films have firmly entrenched themselves within pop culture and become a global phenomenon. Description of yourself as a Jedi may sound like a joke that some fans of the films said in place of saying they were not religious, but as John C. Lyden details in this work, the fan culture surrounding these films often reflects that of religious followers. Lyden looks to ideas like communal identity, a system of belief and values, myths and rituals as hallmarks of religious practice, and Star Wars fan culture as well. (775) The moral themes in Star Wars films, based in eastern religious practices, have them been lifted by many in the w...

In 1945, Italy really wanted the world to forget they were ever a fascist country. Though Mussolini had ruled for 21 years up until 1943, Italians took the opportunity to focus on the years of 1943 to 1945, when Nazi occupied Italy due to Italy’s attempt to leave the Axis powers. Though Italy had been fascist for over two decades, they utilized these two years of fascist oppression to crate a narrative of themselves as victims. The very first film released in post-war Italy did exactly this. Rome: Open City, directed by Roberto Rossellini, was a fresh look at the destruction of World War II, filmed in the real rubble of the destroyed city. This film shows the entire city of Rome banding together to fight the Nazis, but puts a special focus on the role of the Catholic church in this fight. Rome: Open City focuses on Don Pietro, a pious catholic priest, who by the end of the film has died for this cause. This story was an important one for Italians to construct and ties catholic marty...