Film and Theology Books

Over the last few years a number of good books on theology and film have been published. I love films and I enjoy trying to interpet and understand them beyond mere entertainment. The books below are all serious attempts to bring theology and film into conversation and understand how theology can interpret film.

___ Explorations in Theology and Film (eds. Clive Marsh and Gaye Oritz, 1997, Blackwell)
___ Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue (Robert K. Johnston, 2000, Baker)
___ Alien Sex: The Body and Desire in Cinema and Theology (Gerard Loughlin, 2004, Blackwell)
___ Cinema and Sentiment: Film's Challenge to Theology (Clive Marsh, 2004, Paternoster)
___ Cinema Divinite: Religion, Theology and the Bible in Film (eds. Eric Christianson & et al, 2005, SCM)
___ Flickering Images: Theology and Film in Dialogue (eds. Anthony Clarke and Paul Fiddes, 2005, Smyth & Helwys)

Comments

[Tractor Girl]

Another one you might want to try is Screen Christologies: Redemption and the Medium of Film, (Christopher Deacy, 2001, University of Wales Press).

[Jason]

Another one definitely worth mentioning is Useless Beauty: Ecclesiastes Through the Lens of Contemporary Film, also by Robert Johnston, Baker Academic, 2004. There, he develops further the genre of theological consideration of film by focusing on the book of Ecclesiastes, creating (almost) a commentary on the book through the medium of film criticism. A good read, I think, and it helped me to think through and better appreciate both Ecclesiastes and a number of films.

[Árni Svanur]

This is a good list of books, I agree about Screen Christologies, that's a good one. Robert Johnston has also written a book called Reel Spirituality. It's a general introduction on theology and film which gives a good overview of the field.