Abstract
During this second century of the age of Hollywood, popular films are making even deeper in-roads into contemporary culture as they continue to evolve from toy to tool to become a universal form of entertainment and education. Although 'the movies' are a fundamental part of the modern religious quest and have significantly aided society in the spiritual exploration, interpretation and construction of its meaning, they are often dismissed as escapism and overlooked as a serious site for study within both secular and ecclesiastical institutions. This is regrettable and a gross waste of a comparatively inexpensive, readily accessible and valuable artistic resource that is already enthusiastically embraced by the video-cum-Internet generation. Furthermore, these proverbial children-of-the-media do not automatically deride popular films as inherently shallow, brain-deadening or philosophically anaemic, as also attested by the ever-increasing publications in the emerging interdisciplinary field of religion-and-film (aka sacred cinema, spiritual cinema, holy film, cinematic theology, cinematheology, theo-film, celluloid religion, film-and-faith, film-faith dialogue).
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 259-261 |
Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | Australian Religion Studies Review |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 3 |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2008 |