Screening Divinity

Lisa Maurice is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Classical Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. She has published on ancient education, Plautine comedy and her research now primarily focuses on classical reception. She is the author of The Teacher in Ancient Rome (Lexington, 2013) and of many articles, and is the editor of three volumes in the Brill Metaforms series on the reception of the ancient world in popular culture.

Screening Divinity offers a good mix of recent, popular, mainstream, and lesser known screen texts, both films and television series/miniseries/films, and emphasizes that while there is a correlation between secularism and the negativity of portrayals in recent years, the number of screen productions is clearly not lagging. Maurice offers good and ample illustrations, and her language and writing style make this an accessible and enjoyable read that will be of benefit to scholars, lay people, and undergraduates.

• Acknowledgements; List of IllustrationsChapter One: Screening Divinity: IntroductionChapter Two: AnthropomorphismChapter Three: Physiology and the Physical Appearance of the Divine (1): The Patriarchal King Figure and the DevilChapter Four: Physiology and the Physical Appearance of the Divine (2): Screening the Olympian Males and JesusChapter Five: Gendering the Divine (1): Greek Goddesses on ScreenChapter Six: Gendering the Divine (2): Holy Female Figures in the Judeo-Christian FilmChapter Seven: Human-Divine Interactions on ScreenChapter Eight: Blurring the Boundaries: Apotheoses and DeicidesPostscript: Some Concluding ObservationsFilmography; Bibliography; Index