Screen and the Sacred City

How does a film's setting not only shape how we engage with its depiction of urban life but also of religion and theology? This edited collection offers a theological reflection on film, focusing on the role of "the city." Calvin D. Ullrich, Khegan M. Delport, Marthinus J. Havenga and their contributors offer theological reflections on film, illuminating traditional theological features which appear across city-focused cinema. Gathering contributions from a variety of theological experts working predominantly at the intersection of theological systematics, culture, and political ethics, the volume incorporates a variety of films where "the city" can become the object of and the object for vivified theological interest.Across three sections, Ullrich, Delport, Havenga and their contributors discuss both theological implications in cinema depicting both real life and fictional cities. Within this context, "the city" becomes understood as an aesthetic backdrop, a theological metaphor/imagination, and an un/livable communal and atomized location/space. Through this multi-leveled approach, the essays herein ask critical questions about the role "the city" has in shaping not only a film's viewing experience, but the religious and theological queries it engages.