Protestants on Screen: Religion, Politics and Aesthetics in European and American Movies

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.

Table 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 & 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).

Review :
While Roman Catholicism's influence on film is well known, the corresponding influence of Protestantism is frequently ignored. This volume remedies that through attention to the ways in which Protestant themes and representation are expressed in films, as well as how Protestant filmmakers and audiences have contributed to the art form and its reception. A must read for anyone interested in the multiple ways in which Protestantism and film have interacted over the last century! In Protestants on Screen, an impressive transatlantic group of scholars offers engaging insights into the pivotal role of diverse Protestants groups have played in challenging, reforming, and promoting the film industry. Blending history and case studies, this volume advances the scholarship of religion and film and furnishes an indispensable foundation for future study. 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. Where this book succeeds is in highlighting the diversity and many fruitful areas that can be explored further around this topic, as well as providing a range of essays that will be of interest to both specialist and general readers.