Teaching Religion and Film

In a culture increasingly focused on visual media, students have learned not only to embrace multimedia presentations in the classroom, but to expect them. Such expectations are perhaps more prevalent in a field as dynamic and cross-disciplinary as religious studies, but the practice nevertheless poses some difficult educational issues -- the use of movies in academic coursework has far outpaced the scholarship on teaching religion and film. What does it mean to utilize film in
religious studies, and what are the best ways to do it?

In Teaching Religion and Film, an interdisciplinary team of scholars thinks about the theoretical and pedagogical concerns involved with the intersection of film and religion in the classroom. They examine the use of film to teach specific religious traditions, religious theories, and perspectives on fundamental human values. Some instructors already teach some version of a film-and-religion course, and many have integrated film as an ancillary to achieving central course goals.
This collection of essays helps them understand the field better and draws the sharp distinction between merely "watching movies" in the classroom and comprehending film in an informed and critical way.

(Oxford)

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"This book is a gold mine for faculty who teach religion and film. Full of theoretical and practical resources for effective teaching, it opens exciting avenues for exploration. These thoughtful essays provide wonderful questions and suggestions for expediting discussion of the inevitably complex knots of race, gender, class, values, and ethnicities raised so forcefully by movies. Teaching Religion and Film contributes greatly to refining a relatively new and exciting field." --Margaret R. Miles, author of Seeing and Believing: Religion and Values in the Movies<br> "There is currently no other guide that offers such challenging and important approaches to understanding pedagogical concerns for teaching religion and film. This compilation of works from ground-breaking authors in the field analyzes the distinctiveness of film and its religious dimensions, not only from a theological approach to religion, but from other cultural frames of reference which manifest themselves in movies. Timely and comprehensive, this book offers a much needed, authoritative, and wide-ranging set of pedagogical tools not just for the teacher but for anyone who wishes to understand the complex characteristics of film and religion." --Rubina Ramji, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia, and Film Review Editor for the Journal of Religion and Film<br>

(Oxford)

INTRODUCTION: TEACHING RELIGION AND FILM. GREG WATKINS (STANFORD UNIVERSITY); 1. What Are We Teaching When We Are Teaching Religion & Film? William L. Blizek (University of Nebraska at Omaha) and (Michele Desmarais University of Nebraska at Omaha); 2. Teaching Religion and Film: A Fourth Approach. Conrad Ostwalt (Appalachian State University); 3. Teaching Biblical Tourism: How Sword and Sandal Films Clouded My Vision. Alice Bach (Case Western Reserve University); 4. Designing a Course on Religion and Cinema in India. Gayatri Chatterjee; 5. Buddhism, Film, and Religious Knowing: Challenging the Literary Approach to Film. Francisca Cho (Georgetown University); 6. The Pedagogical Challenges of Finding Christ-Figures in Film. Christopher Deacy (University of Kent); 7. Film and the Introduction to Islam Course. Amir Hussain (Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles); 8. Is it all about Love, Actually?: Sentimentality as Problem and Opportunity in the Use of Film for Teaching Theology and Religion. Clive Marsh (University of Nottingham); 9. Women, Theology and Film: Approaching the Challenge of Interdisciplinary Teaching. Gaye Williams Ortiz (Augusta State University); 10. Seeing Is Believing, but Touchings the Truth: Religion, Film, and the Anthropology of the Senses. Richard M. Carp (Appalachian State University); 11. There Is No Spoon? Teaching The Matrix, Post-Perennialism, and the Spiritual Logic of Late Capitalism. Gregory Grieve (University of North Carolina, Greensboro); 12. Teaching Film as Religion. John Lyden Dana College in (Blair, Nebraska); 13. Filmmaking and Worldmaking: Re-Creating Time and Space in Myth and Film. S. Brent Plate (Texas Christian University); 14. Introducing Theories of Religion through Film: A Sample Syllabus. Greg Watkins; 15. Touching Evil Touching Good. Irena S. M. Makarushka (Towson University); 16. Teaching Ethics with Film: A Course on the Moral Agency of Women. Ellen Ott Marshall (Claremont School of Theology); 17. Searching for Peace in Films about Genocide. Jolyon Mitchell (Edinburgh University)

(Oxford)