Screening The Sacred

Joel W. Martin is associate professor of American studies and religious studies at Franklin and Marshall College. He is the author of Sacred Revolt: The Muskogees' Struggle for a New World. Conrad E. Ostwalt Jr. is associate professor of religious studies at Appalachian State University. He is the author of After Eden: The Secularization of American Space in the Fiction of Willa Cather and Theodore Dreiser. Joel W. Martin is associate professor of American studies and religious studies at Franklin and Marshall College. He is the author of Sacred Revolt: The Muskogees' Struggle for a New World. Conrad E. Ostwalt Jr. is associate professor of religious studies at Appalachian State University. He is the author of After Eden: The Secularization of American Space in the Fiction of Willa Cather and Theodore Dreiser.

• Preface -- Introduction: Seeing the Sacred on the Screen -- Theological Criticism -- Shall These Bones Live? The Problem of Bodies in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and Joel Coen’s Blood Simple -- Angels in the Primum Mobile: Dimensions of the Sacred in William Kennedy’s Ironweed, Novel and Film -- The Christian Allegorical Structure of Platoon -- Hollywood and Armageddon: Apocalyptic Themes in Recent Cinematic Presentation -- Mythological Criticism -- Star Wars: A Myth for Our Time -- With Eyes Uplifted: Space Aliens as Sky Gods -- Evolution of “The New Frontier” in Alien and Aliens: Patriarchal Co-optation of the Feminine Archetype -- Ideological Criticism -- Redeeming America: Rocky as Ritual Racial Drama -- From Revelation to Dream: Allegory in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet -- Women Spoken For: Images of Displaced Desire -- Conclusion: Religion, Film, and Cultural Analysis