FILM 230: Film and Religion

Religion echoes humanity’s spiritual search for meaning and truth while film projects humanity’s deepest hopes and fears on-screen. But what happens when the two worlds of religion and film overlap and engage one another in conversation? This course examines film as a window for contemplating religious meaning in contemporary culture; it focuses on how filmmakers have borrowed from religion to articulate various cultural and aesthetic ideas, concerns, and stories. This course examines explicit and implicit religious film narratives, using a broad cross-section of genres- from Jesus’ movies to secular sci-fi flicks -and a wide range of denominational lenses and imaginations. The course combines film screenings and discussion with accompanying readings and lectures.