American Religious and Biblical Spectaculars

(Hardback)

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This book explores why spectacular films involving biblical figures or set in biblical times have been a staple of film-making since talkies began. Forshey looks at these films, and suggests that the underlying purpose was to mediate between a monistic scientific world view and a dualistic religious world view, and between secular and religious ethics. Forshey discusses how filmic, political, religious, and cultural history influenced film-makers of these spectaculars. The first chapter differentiates between religious spectaculars and biblical spectaculars. Following are chapters in early religious films and others on how the post-war and cold war led to a struggle to define the righteous nation. The chapters on biblical spectaculars examine films in which sex and social responsibility was a paramount concern ("Samson and Delilah", "David and Bathsheba"). The 1960s were dominated by films about Jesus, searching for an ethical system for a world undergoing rapid social change. One entire chapter is devoted to Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments", the epitome of the form, followed by chapters on John Huston's "The Bible" as a culmination of the form, and a final one on how television rethought spectaculars and how Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" drew the battle lines between humanistic Christians and evangelical Christians. "American Religious and Biblical Spectaculars" may appeal to scholars of film, religion, and popular culture.

Reviews

.,."a welcome contribution to a field largely ignored in film and cultural studies...a strong introduction to biblical and religious spectaculars, both as film and religious texts...a fine introduction not only for general readers but also for students of religion, film, and cultural studies."- Critical Review of Books in Religion
...a welcome contribution to a field largely ignored in film and cultural studies...a strong introduction to biblical and religious spectaculars, both as film and religious texts...a fine introduction not only for general readers but also for students of religion, film, and cultural studies.- Critical Review of Books in Religion
Forshey has provided a distinguished contribution to the slim literature on film and religion, taking the viewer beneath the surface of the films and the society that produced them.-Christian Century
The concern for understanding the relationship between religion and popular culture is not a new one. But Forshey's is the first major study of the religious spectacular. His in-depth analysis explores: its aesthetic norms, role in civil religion, the way it illustrates the struggle with modernity and the scientific world view, and the praise and condemnation it generated in the religious community. American Religious and Biblical Spectaculars will serve as a major source for students of popular film genres, social critics examining the way movies gives expression to social tensions and attitudes, and to sociologists of religion interested in civil religion and cultural forms of Christianity.-Journal of American Culture
This is a fascinating and useful study of a neglected but important topic. Advanced undergraduate; graduate; faculty; general.-Choice
..."a welcome contribution to a field largely ignored in film and cultural studies...a strong introduction to biblical and religious spectaculars, both as film and religious texts...a fine introduction not only for general readers but also for students of religion, film, and cultural studies."- Critical Review of Books in Religion
"Forshey has provided a distinguished contribution to the slim literature on film and religion, taking the viewer beneath the surface of the films and the society that produced them."-Christian Century
"This is a fascinating and useful study of a neglected but important topic. Advanced undergraduate; graduate; faculty; general."-Choice
"The concern for understanding the relationship between religion and popular culture is not a new one. But Forshey's is the first major study of the religious spectacular. His in-depth analysis explores: its aesthetic norms, role in civil religion, the way it illustrates the struggle with modernity and the scientific world view, and the praise and condemnation it generated in the religious community. American Religious and Biblical Spectaculars will serve as a major source for students of popular film genres, social critics examining the way movies gives expression to social tensions and attitudes, and to sociologists of religion interested in civil religion and cultural forms of Christianity."-Journal of American Culture

Author Bio

GERALD E. FORSHEY is Professor of Humanities at Richard J. Daley College, City Colleges of Chicago. He also teaches courses on religion in film and television at Garrett-Theological Evangelical Seminary. Dr. Forshey is an ordained United Methodist Minister, and has extensively studied both film and religious history.