Description
Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2003
Film as Religion argues that popular films perform a religious function in our culture. Like more formal religious institutions, films can provide us with ways to view the world and values to confront it. Lyden contends that approaches which interpret films only ideologically or theologically miss the mark in understanding their appeal to viewers. He develops an alternative method which shows how films can be understood as representing a "religious" worldview in their own right.
Lyden surveys the state of the study of religion and film, offering an overview of previous methods before presenting his own. Rather than seeking to uncover hidden meanings in film detectable only to scholars, Lyden emphasizes how film functions for its audiences?the beliefs and values it conveys, and its ritual power to provide emotional catharsis. He includes a number of brief cases studies in which he applies this method to the study of film genres-including westerns and action movies, children's films, and romantic comedies-and individual films from The Godfather to E.T., showing how films can function religiously.
About the Author
John C. Lyden is the Liberal Arts Core Director and Professor of Liberal Arts at Grand View University. He is the author of Film as Religion, Second Edition: Myths, Morals, and Rituals (NYU Press 2019), and the editor of the Journal of Religion & Film as well as the Routledge Companion to Religion and Film, among other books.
Reviews
"A very important book. Lyden urges respect for how films actually function for people who watch them. He lays out an insightful and compelling case for considering film-watching a religious activity. In so doing, he offers a major challenge to all those who discuss culture, religion and theology today." -- Clive Marsh,co-editor of Explorations in Theology and Film
"John Lyden has entered into the arena of Religion and Film books with an extremely adept contender. His review of the literature on existing approaches to religion and film should be required reading by film enthusiasts and theologians alike. What his conclusions offer in terms of a new approach are solid, convincing and most promising for the future of the field." -- Tony S. L. Michael,co-chair, Religion, Film and Visual Culture, AAR
"Lyden offers perceptive criticisms of some of the most influential ways of talking about myth." * Crisis Magazine *
". . . offers several new perspectives on this increasingly popular and gradually more critical area. It also is wellsuited for the religious studies classroom. Lydens writing is clear, and he nicely describes some of the more difficult theories of religion in ways that are accessible to undergraduates. In fact, the next time I teach my course "Myth and Ritual on Film" I will assign Film as Religion because of its analogizing methods of showing how film does indeed function as religion in contemporary U.S. culture." * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *
"Lydens book is well-written, insightful, and especially engaging for anyone who loves movies." * Religious Studies Review *
Book Information
ISBN 9780814751817
Author John C. Lyden
Format Paperback
Page Count 289
Imprint New York University Press
Publisher New York University Press
Weight(grams) 408g
