Salvation in Celluloid

Theology, Imagination and Film

By Robert Pope

 

 

This book challenges prevailing arguments in theology and film which rely largely on the ability to draw analogies between films and biblical stories or cinematic narratives and theological imagery. The main argument focuses on the role played by the imagination in knowledge and suggests that it holds the key to unlock the debate about theology and film. The book outlines the imagination’s noetic function, which makes a creative connection between experience, thought, ideas and memory, and its ontological function which allows those connections to affect the way life is lived and thus even to create reality. When theological categories become the normative paradigm in the imagination, it can be argued that these connections are made theologically. Equally, film, as a means of inspiring the imagination, can be interpreted theologically because the governing paradigms in the imagination are theological. A corollary of this, argued in the book, is that this allows film to be film, thus giving it a theological value it in its own terms. As a result of this analysis of the imagination and its potential to contribute to theological debate, the book makes a specific and original contribution to the debate about theology and film.

 

Reviews

 ‘Religious insight, theological substance, cultural awareness and philosophical acumen are here blended to an unusual degree.’ Alan P. F. Sell

‘Salvation in Celluloid provides a shrewd critical introduction to the field and also makes its own distinctive Barth-influenced contribution to the debate.’ Suzanne McDonald, Calvin College, Grand Rapids



Contents of Salvation in Celluloid


London and New York: T & T Clark, 2007, 208 pages
ISBN: 056703206X