Film and theater

About the discipline

Some could argue that the power of drama is similar to that of a religious experience. Good drama transfixes, transports and indelibly changes the individual. Certainly, religious experience itself is rich in drama. Read More »

Articles

  • Baroque and Classical in Jesuit Theatre by Michael J. Lueger. Journal of Religion and Theatre. 9, no. 1 (2010).
  • “North American Passion Plays” by Dorothy Chansky. The Drama Review. 50, no. 4 (2006): 120-45.
  • “God Hates Cowboys (Kind Of)” by Michael Cobb. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 13, no. 1 (2007): 102-5.
  • “Shouting Fire: Art, Religion and the Right to Be Offended” by David Edgar. Race and Class. 48, no. 2 (2006): 61-76.
  • “Spirit Possession, Power, and the Absent Presence of Islam: Re-Viewing Les Maîtres Fous” by Paul Henley. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 12, no. 4 (2006): 731-61.
  • “Constructing a Priest, Silencing a Saint: The PCA and I Confess (1953)” by Amy Lawrence. Film History. 19, no. 1 (2007): 52-72.
  • “Ecclesiastes Gone ‘Sideways’” by Jill Middlemas. Expository Times. 118, no. 5 (2007): 216-21.
  • “The Aesthetics of Materialism in Alan Ball’s American Beauty” by Judith A. Spector and Katherine V. Tsiopos Willis. Midwest Quarterly. 48, no. 2 (2007): 279-96.
  • “Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen” by Jeff Wax. Theatre Journal. 58, no. 4 (2006): 716-7.
  • “To Perform, or Not to Perform? A Theory of Ritual Performance Versus Cognitive Theories of Religious Transmission” by Robert A. Yelle. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion. 18, no. 4 (2006): 372-91.
  • “Cash Film’s Missing Ingredient: Religion” by Robert Levine. The New York Times, March 4, 2006.
  • “New Jesus film puts race into religion.” CNN.com, Oct. 30, 2006
  • “The Pedagogical Challenges of Finding Christ Figures in Film” by Christopher Deacy. Teaching Religion and Film. Gregory J. Watkins (ed.). Oxford University Press U.S., 2008.
  • “Theatre’s role is to challenge religion” by Dominic Dromgoole. The Guardian, Dec. 20, 2004.
  • “An intense experience in theater of the soul” by Louise Kennedy. The Boston Globe, May 5, 2009.
  • Syrian writer urges ‘legal, economic, media response’ to anti-Islam film.” BBC Worldwide Monitoring, April 7, 2008.
  • “Not everyone in Hindu community laughing over new comedy” by Caroline Alphonso. The Globe and Mail (Canada), June 16, 2008.
  • ‘’God as a woman? It’s not odd at all’: As a self-described liberal Anglican priest, Aled Jones Williams is used to dividing opinions with his views on women priests and homosexuals. But with his new play, re-casting Jesus as woman in the modern-day Middle East, has he gone too far?” by Matt Thomas. The Western Mail, Aug. 1, 2008.
  • “American dramatist confronts issues that we avoid” by Benedict Nightingale. The Times (London), April 4, 2008.
  • “Spritual Films Don’t Have a Prayer in Hollywood” by Christian Toto. Human Events, vol. 65, 13. (2009), pp.583-584.
  • “Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen” by Douglas E. Cowan. Journal of American Culture, 32:3 (2009): 280-281.
  • “Secularism Strikes Back: New Documentaries on Religion and Faight” by Conrad Geller. Cineaste, 34:1 (2008): 14-19.
  • “Decolonising Religion in African Film” by Jolyon Mitchell. Studies in World Christianity, 15:2 (2009): 149-161.

Books

  • Hollywood Under Siege: Martin Scorsese, the Religious Right, and the Culture Wars. Thomas R. Lindlof. University Press of Kentucky, 2008.
  • Cinema and Sentiment: Film’s Challenge to Theology. Clive Marsh. Paternoster, 2004.
  • Cinéma Divinité: Religion, Theology And The Bible In Film. Eric S. Christianson, Peter Francis and William R. Telford (eds.). SCM Press, 2005.
  • Religion, Ritual, Theatre (revised lectures and reworked papers from conference April 27-29, 2006 at the University of Copenhagen). Bent Holm (ed.). Frankfurt am Main; Berlin; Bern; Wien [u.a.]: Lang, 2009. – 266 S.: Ill., graph. Darst.
  • Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue. Robert K. Johnston. Baker Academic, 2007.
  • Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies. Roy M. Anker. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005.
  • Drama and Religion in English Provincial Society: 1485-1660 by Paul Whitfield White. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  • Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age. Christopher Deacy and Elisabeth Arweck (ed.). Ashgate, 2009.
  • Theatre and Religion on Krishna’s Stage: Performing in Vrindavan. David W. Mason. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
  • Film as Religion: Myths, Morals, and Rituals. John C. Lyden. NYU Press, 2003.
  • Religion and film: An Introduction. Melanie Jane Wright. L.B. Tauris, 2007.
  • A Jesuit Off-Broadway by James Martin SJ. Loyola Press, 2007.
  • Chinese Shadow Theatre: History, Popular Religion and Women Warriors. Fan Pen Li Chen. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007.

Case studies

  • Cinema and Sentiment: Film’s Challenge to Theology. Clive Marsh. Paternoster, 2004.
  • Cinéma Divinité: Religion, Theology And The Bible In Film. Eric S. Christianson, Peter Francis and William R. Telford (eds.). SCM Press, 2005.
  • Religion, Ritual, Theatre (revised lectures and reworked papers from conference April 27-29, 2006 at the University of Copenhagen). Bent Holm (ed.). Frankfurt am Main; Berlin; Bern; Wien [u.a.]: Lang, 2009. – 266 S.: Ill., graph. Darst.
  • Religion and ritual in rural India: a case study in Kumaon. Tribhuwan Kapur. Abhinav Publications, 1988.
  • Ng, Teng-Kuan. “‘Now My Eyes Have Seen You’: A Comparative Study of Secret Sunshine and the Book of Job.” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture. Vol. 23, No. 2 (July 2011): 166-81.

Codes of ethics

Journals

More links

Professional associations and faith groups

Recent research

  • Chansky, Dorothy. “North American Passion Plays.” The Drama Review. 50, no. 4 (2006): 120-45.
  • Cobb, Michael. “God Hates Cowboys (Kind Of).” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 13, no. 1 (2007): 102-5.
  • Edgar, David. “Shouting Fire: Art, Religion and the Right to Be Offended.” Race and Class. 48, no. 2 (2006): 61-76.
  • Henley, Paul. “Spirit Possession, Power, and the Absent Presence of Islam: Re-Viewing Les Maîtres Fous.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 12, no. 4 (2006): 731-61.
  • Lawrence, Amy. “Constructing a Priest, Silencing a Saint: The PCA and I Confess (1953).” Film History. 19, no. 1 (2007): 52-72.
  • Middlemas, Jill. “Ecclesiastes Gone ‘Sideways.’” Expository Times. 118, no. 5 (2007): 216-21.
  • Spector, Judith A and Katherine V. Tsiopos Willis. “The Aesthetics of Materialism in Alan Ball’s American Beauty.” Midwest Quarterly. 48, no. 2 (2007): 279-96.
  • van Zoonen, Liesbet, Farida Vis and Sabina Mihelj. “YouTube interactions between agonism, antagonism and dialogue: Video responses to the anti-Islam film ‘Fitna’.” New Media & Society. Vol. 13, No. 4 (June 2011).
  • Wax, Jeff. “Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen.” Theatre Journal. 58, no. 4 (2006): 716-7.
  • Yelle, Robert A. “To Perform, or Not to Perform? A Theory of Ritual Performance Versus Cognitive Theories of Religious Transmission.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion. 18, no. 4 (2006): 372-91.

Syllabi

  • Share, email or print

    EmailPrintShare

  • Jump to a discipline

    Jump to a resource format

  • Translate this page