Media and Religion


Book Description

This volume considers the mediation of religion in the context of global relations of power, culture, and communication. It takes a nuanced, historical view of emergent religions and their mediation in various forms. The wide range of chapters provides valuable insight into particular contexts while also offering connections to other cases and contexts. Together, they form a snapshot of religious evolution in the media age.




Arts and Preaching


Book Description

In our highly sensory and interactive age, how might drawing upon various arts—music, film, architecture, dramatic performance, painting, fashion, and more—expand the aesthetic experience and mode of preaching? This book presents a critical, practical answer to the question. As our society becomes more visually oriented, art-seeking, and body-positive, the practice of preaching is likewise challenged to demonstrate the mind-body, word-visual, and artistic proclamation of the Sacred (after all, isn’t the writing of the Bible itself highly art-full and aesthetic?). In this book, Sunggu A. Yang, a seasoned preacher and experienced teacher of preaching, encourages preachers to utilize their unique artistic talents as critical sources of theological and homiletical imagination and as hermeneutical-perspectival tools to aid their rigorous exegetical process of interpreting Scripture, eventually toward artistic-holistic sermon composition and delivery. A sample syllabus, included in the appendix, will greatly assist any preaching instructor who wants to offer a creative course on arts and preaching.




Encyclopedia of Religion and Film


Book Description

Comprising 91 A–Z entries, this encyclopedia provides a broad and comprehensive introduction to the topic of religion within film. Technology has enabled films to reach much wider audiences, enabling today's viewers to access a dizzying number of films that employ diverse symbolism and communicate a vast array of viewpoints. Encyclopedia of Religion and Film will provide such an audience with the tools to begin their own exploration of the deeper meanings of these films and grasp the religious significance within. Organized alphabetically, this encyclopedia provides more than 90 entries on the larger religious traditions, the major film-producing regions of the globe, the films that have stirred controversy, the most significant religious symbols, and the more important filmmakers. The included topics provide substantially more information on the intersection of religion and film than any of the similar volumes currently available. While the emphasis is on the English-speaking world and the films produced therein, there is also substantial representation of non-English, non-Western film and filmmakers, providing significant intercultural coverage to the topic.




Film, Lacan and the Subject of Religion


Book Description

In their study of religion and film, religious film analysts have tended to privilege religion. Uniquely, this study treats the two disciplines as genuine equals, by regarding both liturgy and film as representational media. Steve Nolan argues that, in each case, subjects identify with a represented ‘other' which joins them into a narrative where they become participants in an ideological ‘reality'. Finding many current approaches to religious film analysis lacking, Film, Lacan and the Subject of Religion explores the film theory other writers ignore, particularly that mix of psychoanalysis, Marxism and semiotics - often termed Screen theory - that attempts to understand how cinematic representation shapes spectator identity. Using translations and commentary on Lacan not originally available to Screen theorists, Nolan returns to Lacan's contribution to psychoanalytic film theory and offers a sustained application to religious practice, examining several ‘priest films' and real-life case study to expose the way liturgical representation shapes religious identity. Film, Lacan and the Subject of Religion proposes an interpretive strategy by which religious film analysts can develop the kind of analysis that engages with and critiques both cultural and religious practice.




The Bible in Motion


Book Description

This two-part volume contains a comprehensive collection of original studies by well-known scholars focusing on the Bible’s wide-ranging reception in world cinema. It is organized into sections examining the rich cinematic afterlives of selected characters from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament; considering issues of biblical reception across a wide array of film genres, ranging from noir to anime; featuring directors, from Lee Chang-dong to the Coen brothers, whose body of work reveals an enduring fascination with biblical texts and motifs; and offering topical essays on cinema’s treatment of selected biblical themes (e.g., lament, apocalyptic), particular interpretive lenses (e.g., feminist interpretation, queer theory), and windows into biblical reception in a variety of world cinemas (e.g., Indian, Israeli, and Third Cinema). This handbook is intended for scholars of the Bible, religion, and film as well as for a wider general audience.




McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry: Volume 9


Book Description

The McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry is an electronic and print journal that seeks to provide pastors, educators, and interested lay persons with the fruits of theological, biblical, and professional studies in an accessible form. Published by McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, it continues the heritage of scholarly inquiry and theological dialogue represented by the College’s previous print publications: the Theological Bulletin, Theodolite, and the McMaster Journal of Theology.




Pro-Life Pulpit


Book Description

Over one million unborn children are intentionally aborted every year in North America. Voiceless and helpless, their blood cries out. Will those of us who serve as pastors and preachers respond from our pulpits? Silence is not an option. We cannot keep quiet while thousands of our neighbors, made in the image of God, are being led to the slaughter every day. But neither should we condemn and vilify those who are complicit in their deaths. A truly pro-life pulpit ministry opposes the injustice of abortion with truth, courage and understanding. Tears mingled with hope, overflowing with grace. After all, the Christian faith is rooted in the good news of a Messiah who was once an embryo. Nine months before he was born, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and for the next forty weeks he lived and grew in the womb of an unwed teenaged mother. He is at the heart of our preaching, and this book will show you how to confront the sin of abortion by proclaiming the God who became abortable in order to save sinners.




The Case for Heaven


Book Description

Bestselling and award-winning author Lee Strobel interviews experts about the evidence for the afterlife and offers credible answers to the most provocative questions about what happens when we die, near-death experiences, heaven, and hell. We all want to know what awaits us on the other side of death, but is there any reliable evidence that there is life after death? Investigative author Lee Strobel offers a lively and compelling study into one of the most provocative topics of our day. Through fascinating conversations with respected scholars and experts--a neuroscientist from Cambridge University, a researcher who analyzed a thousand accounts of near-death experiences, and an atheist-turned-Christian-philosopher--Strobel offers compelling reasons for why death is not the end of our existence but a transition to an exciting world to come. Looking at biblical accounts, Strobel unfolds what awaits us after we take our last breath and answers questions like: Is there an afterlife? What is heaven like? How will we spend our time there? And what does it mean to see God face to face? With a balanced approach, Strobel examines the alternative of Hell and the logic of damnation, and gives a careful look at reincarnation, universalism, the exclusivity claims of Christ, and other issues related to the topic of life after death. With vulnerability, Strobel shares the experience of how he nearly died years ago and how the reality of death can shape our lives and faith. Follow Strobel on this journey of discovery of the entirely credible, believable, and exhilarating life to come.




23 Minutes in Hell


Book Description

New York Times Best Seller and Over 1 million copies sold! Over 750 5-Star reviews Wiese’s visit to the devil’s lair lasted just twenty-three minutes, but he returned with vivid details etched in his memory, capturing the attention of national media, including the Christian Broadcasting Network, Daystar Television Network, Trinity Broadcasting Network, the Miracle Channel, Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural!, Sean Hannity’s America, Charisma News, and many others. Awaken to the realities of hell, the afterlife and the urgency to live for Christ in your short time here on earth.. Bill Wiese experienced something so horrifying it continues to captivate the world. He saw the searing flames of hell, felt total isolation, smelled the putrid and rotting stench, heard deafening screams of agony, and experienced terrorizing demons. Finally the strong hand of God lifted him out of the pit. This expanded anniversary edition includes more than 150 Bible verses referencing hell for further study. Also included is the new section, “Wrestling With the Big Questions” where Bill answers these and many others questions: Why do some people who have a near-death experience see a bright light? Will those who never heard about Jesus go to hell? Is hell eternal, or are those in hell simply annihilated?