Center on Religion & the Professions

Improving religious literacy among professionals.

Film and theater

by

About the discipline

Some could argue that the power of drama is similar to that of a religious experience. Good drama transfixes, transports and indelibly changes the individual. Certainly, religious experience itself is rich in drama.

Film

Religion and film: Since movies’ earliest days, films have reflected how society grapples with questions about the existence of God and the meaning of life. Faith’s trials and triumphs make good stories, and Hollywood has long recognized a good story and told it creatively, from “The Ten Commandments” to “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Film is now an essential arena for theological discussion in today’s culture. Economics also contribute to the appearance of religious subjects in movies. The success of “The Passion of the Christ” showed the spending power of the evangelical Christian market and its impact at the box office. Hollywood companies now are raising the stakes and multiplying the titles with movies such as “The Nativity Story,” a mainstream film about the birth of Jesus produced by a secular studio.

Rewarding market: Economic rewards, cultural interest in faith issues and creative challenges have combined to make a great market for making films about spiritual subjects. Those who consume religious themes usually have passionate feelings about the subject, which means a filmmaker presenting these themes should be prepared for adulation from some fronts and condemnation on others. From a creative standpoint, films about religion allow artists to express religious devotion, explore conflicted feelings or examine issues from a new angle, creating contemporary film that can be critical, thought-provoking, surprising, disturbing, paradoxical, comforting and inspiring. A new trend in marketing of religious-themed films is “cross-marketing” to secular and religious audiences. This may mean promotions within congregations, offering advance screenings, and building interest among targeted faith communities before a movie comes out; while also doing traditional media promotion. Some conservative Christians have historically been reluctant to engage in popular culture and have been suspicious of entertainment, but that stance is changing for many.

Issues today: Knowledge of the narratives and symbolism of various faith traditions lends insight to understanding the deeper meanings of films that contain references to them or resemble their thematic structures. As the film-going world goes international, filmmakers can be aware that their films are seen in countries around the world, and they are in turn exposed to international films that contain various languages, terminology, symbolism and religious references. Having a religious literacy broadens literacy in film and other disciplines. Those interested in film will find the markets for religious and secular content have grown closer together. There are opportunities in religious-themed films for secular companies, as well as in the religious market. The expectations of religious groups, many raised on low-budget “church basement” films, are changing to expect higher-production quality products that communicate religious messages but are produced and acted more like mainstream cinema. Opportunities exist in both the making and marketing of both categories of films.

Theater

Religion and theater: Asian theater blossomed between A.D. 350 and 1330 at a time when the cultures of Asia also reached a high point in philosophy and religion, which left a permanent impression on Asian theater. Folk theater and drama in ancient India can be traced to the religious ritualism of the early Vedic civilization, believed to have composed the four Vedas, the foundation of Hinduism and oldest surviving scriptures in the world. The oldest surviving plays from western theater come from ancient Greece, where theater likely evolved from staged religious choral performances. Performed at religious festivals, Greek theater was often concerned with questions about morality and the relationship between mortals, the gods and fate. In the Middle Ages, secular forms of theater existed, but most remembered are liturgical dramas written in Latin and dealing with Bible stories; or vernacular dramas based on the Bible, about the lives of the saints, or that taught moral lessons through allegorical characters representing virtues or faults. Because these plays were designed to teach Catholic doctrine, the Protestant Reformation targeted theater in an effort to stamp out allegiance to Rome. Other critics of theater included the Puritans, who argued that the stage was pagan and representing a religious figure was idolatrous. Theater revolved less around religion in the Renaissance and neoclassical era, but it remained a common thread as it does today.

Modern theater often produces contemporary interpretations of earlier religious texts in order to “speak to our era” the truths and observations of an earlier time. These re-interpretations bring fresh vision and understanding to modern audiences. Examples in theater include Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” which re-envision biblical stories; Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak’s “Godspell,” a musical based on the Gospel of Matthew in a contemporary urban setting; and Arthur Miller’s play, “The Creation of the World and Other Business,” a dramatic comedy based on a nontraditional interpretation of the Book of Genesis.

Artists seek to illuminate that which lies within, shapes and drives human action, and often seek a place where humanity and transcendence come together. They may struggle with their beliefs and explore their fears, the dogma or perceived contradictions through theater. They ask questions and provoke thought. They may incite more conservative representatives of a religious tradition to protest, particularly when traditional religious values are challenged or confronted in an unorthodox way. Examples include: Terrence McNally’s “Corpus Christi,” which contains a gay, Christ-like character and came under critical protest by Christian groups; Gurpreet Kaur Bhatt’s “Behtzi” (Dishonor), a play involving sex and murder in a Sikh temple, which incited vandalism and protest from Sikhs where it was produced; and an interpretation of the Mozart opera, “Idomeneo,” which contained beheading of Poseidon, Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed and was closed after the Berlin criminal agency warned that the production could create “a dangerous scenario with major potential consequences for public security and order.”

Issues today: Those interested in theater could study the role of religion in development of the dramatic arts; the philosophical and aesthetic characteristics of religious plays; the social, cultural and political role of religious plays; and the relationship between these “passion plays” and contemporary theater. Funding for productions can be both supported or withdrawn based on response from religious communities to creative content. The artistic community also faces questions of where to stand on freedom of speech issues, what constitutes freedom of speech, when it is worth defending and at what cost. Artists are constantly striving to find new ways to express the human experience, which has been directly and indirectly influenced by religion. Today’s audience has an appetite for religious themes, both ones that reinforce spiritual commitment and ones that provoke thought.

Articles

Books

  • Hollywood Under Siege: Martin Scorsese, the Religious Right, and the Culture Wars. Thomas R. Lindlof. University Press of Kentucky, 2008.
  • Cinema and Sentiment: Film’s Challenge to Theology. Clive Marsh. Paternoster, 2004.
  • Cinéma Divinité: Religion, Theology And The Bible In Film. Eric S. Christianson, Peter Francis and William R. Telford (eds.). SCM Press, 2005.
  • Religion, Ritual, Theatre (revised lectures and reworked papers from conference April 27-29, 2006 at the University of Copenhagen). Bent Holm (ed.). Frankfurt am Main; Berlin; Bern; Wien [u.a.]: Lang, 2009. – 266 S.: Ill., graph. Darst.
  • Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue. Robert K. Johnston. Baker Academic, 2007.
  • Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies. Roy M. Anker. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005.
  • Drama and Religion in English Provincial Society: 1485-1660 by Paul Whitfield White. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  • Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age. Christopher Deacy and Elisabeth Arweck (ed.). Ashgate, 2009.
  • Theatre and Religion on Krishna’s Stage: Performing in Vrindavan. David W. Mason. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
  • Film as Religion: Myths, Morals, and Rituals. John C. Lyden. NYU Press, 2003.
  • Religion and film: An Introduction. Melanie Jane Wright. L.B. Tauris, 2007.
  • A Jesuit Off-Broadway by James Martin SJ. Loyola Press, 2007.
  • Chinese Shadow Theatre: History, Popular Religion and Women Warriors. Fan Pen Li Chen. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007.

Case studies

  • Cinema and Sentiment: Film’s Challenge to Theology. Clive Marsh. Paternoster, 2004.
  • Cinéma Divinité: Religion, Theology And The Bible In Film. Eric S. Christianson, Peter Francis and William R. Telford (eds.). SCM Press, 2005.
  • Religion, Ritual, Theatre (revised lectures and reworked papers from conference April 27-29, 2006 at the University of Copenhagen). Bent Holm (ed.). Frankfurt am Main; Berlin; Bern; Wien [u.a.]: Lang, 2009. – 266 S.: Ill., graph. Darst.
  • Religion and ritual in rural India: a case study in Kumaon. Tribhuwan Kapur. Abhinav Publications, 1988.
  • Ng, Teng-Kuan. “‘Now My Eyes Have Seen You’: A Comparative Study of Secret Sunshine and the Book of Job.” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture. Vol. 23, No. 2 (July 2011): 166-81.

Codes of ethics

Journals

More links

Professional associations and faith groups

Recent research

  • Chansky, Dorothy. “North American Passion Plays.” The Drama Review. 50, no. 4 (2006): 120-45.
  • Cobb, Michael. “God Hates Cowboys (Kind Of).” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 13, no. 1 (2007): 102-5.
  • Edgar, David. “Shouting Fire: Art, Religion and the Right to Be Offended.” Race and Class. 48, no. 2 (2006): 61-76.
  • Henley, Paul. “Spirit Possession, Power, and the Absent Presence of Islam: Re-Viewing Les Maîtres Fous.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 12, no. 4 (2006): 731-61.
  • Lawrence, Amy. “Constructing a Priest, Silencing a Saint: The PCA and I Confess (1953).” Film History. 19, no. 1 (2007): 52-72.
  • Middlemas, Jill. “Ecclesiastes Gone ‘Sideways.’” Expository Times. 118, no. 5 (2007): 216-21.
  • Spector, Judith A and Katherine V. Tsiopos Willis. “The Aesthetics of Materialism in Alan Ball’s American Beauty.” Midwest Quarterly. 48, no. 2 (2007): 279-96.
  • van Zoonen, Liesbet, Farida Vis and Sabina Mihelj. “YouTube interactions between agonism, antagonism and dialogue: Video responses to the anti-Islam film ‘Fitna’.”New Media & Society. Vol. 13, No. 4 (June 2011).
  • Wax, Jeff. “Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen.” Theatre Journal. 58, no. 4 (2006): 716-7.
  • Yelle, Robert A. “To Perform, or Not to Perform? A Theory of Ritual Performance Versus Cognitive Theories of Religious Transmission.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion. 18, no. 4 (2006): 372-91.

Syllabi