Celluloid Jesus—Beyond the Text-Centric Paradigm

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce a Special Issue of Religions that reimagines the intersections between film and media studies and the representations/interpretations of the figure of Jesus.

Conventionally, theoretical work in religion and media studies has approached Biblical films as “texts” to be exegeted, with the analysis being focused on the issues of text, intertext, interpretation, and translation from scripture to the screen. Recent shifts in film theory and aesthetics, however, have emphasized an embodied perspective that takes into consideration the text, production, and reception of cinema as a holistic process punctuated by sights, sounds, symbols, and practices of religious significance.

For this Special Issue, we invite contributors to go beyond text-centric paradigms. We welcome articles that highlight the concept of “media flow” (e.g., transmedia and intermedia connections between manga, anime, TV, film, streaming, and music, among others) and its ties to “expanded cinema” approaches in film and media studies (e.g., cinema’s interrelations with theatrical or art installation spaces). In short, we aim to widen our definition of the religious “film” alongside these new movements in allied fields.

Altogether, within the context of our Special Issue, consideration for the cinematic “life cycle” reveals how images of Jesus transform as they migrate out of the text and into lived media spaces, performing different and/or similar functions for audiences and social groups. While “bodily” or “spatial” turns in religious/theological studies—so-called material approaches—are arguably de rigueur, we aim to widen the horizons of inquiry in film/cinema studies by encompassing the visual and aural, sensory and imaginal, digital and technological dimensions of the religious/cinematic experience.

We also aim to expand our comparanda by prioritizing connections to global cinema. In his famous 2020 Oscar acceptance speech, Bong Joon-ho said that vast, unknown worlds of cinema await those who can overcome the “one-inch tall barrier of subtitles”. Beyond the well-trodden territories of Euro-American depictions of Jesus of Nazareth—from Monty Python to Martin Scorsese, from Robert Powell to Jim Caviezel—Western audiences and scholars are still coming to terms with the scope of media and artistic representations outside of Hollywood. Consequently, they/we have yet to fully entertain the prospect that an “image of Jesus” need not perpetuate the visual rhetoric of Jesus as white, physically idealized, or even religious per se. Therefore, we invite projects that analyze the use of Biblical allegory to present narratives about religious, social, or political martyrs, colonial subjects, or persecuted/misunderstood figures or peoples. This approach can include cinema itself, as well as those associated with its production (e.g., Pasolini). We are also open to projects that consider other biblical figures utilizing these same approaches.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]) or to the Religions editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purpose of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer-review process.

Suggested Bibliography

Altman, Rick. 2000. Film/Genre. London: British Film Institute.

Burnette-Bletsch. Rhonda, ed. 2016. The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film. 2 Vols. Handbooks of the Bible and Its Reception 2. Berlin: De Gruyter Press.

Castelli, Elizabeth. 2014. “Introduction: Translating Pasolini Translating Paul.” Translator’s Introduction to Pier Paolo Pasolini, Saint Paul: A Screenplay, xv-xlii. London: Verso Books.

Copier, Laura, and Caroline Vander Stichele, eds. 2016. Close Encounters between Bible and Film: An Interdisciplinary Engagement. Semeia Studies 87. Atlanta: SBL Press.

Dennison, Stephanie, and Song Hwee Lim, eds. 2006. Remapping World Cinema: Identity, Culture, and Politics in Film. London and New York: Wallflower Press.

Lyden, John. [2003] 2019. Film as Religion: Myths, Morals, and Rituals. 2nd Edition. New York: New York University Press.

Nagib, Lúcia, Chris Perriam, and Rajinder Dudrah, eds. 2011. Theorizing World Cinema. New York: Routledge.

Plate, S. Brent, ed. 2015. Key Terms in Material Religion. London and New York: Bloomsbury.

Plate, S. Brent. [2009] 2017. Religion and Film: Cinema and the Re-Creation of the World. 2nd Edition. New York: Columbia University Press.

Promey, Sally, ed. 2014. Sensational Religion: Sensory Cultures in Material Practice. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Rees, A. L., Duncan White, Steven Ball, and David Curtis, eds. 2011. Expanded Cinema: Art, Performance, Film. London: Tate Gallery Publications.

Reinhartz, Adele. 2007. Jesus of Hollywood. New York: Oxford University Press.

Stam, Robert. 2019. World Literature, Transnational Cinema, and Global Media: Towards a Transartistic Commons. London and New York: Routledge

Youngblood, Gene. [1970] 2020. Expanded Cinema. 50th Anniversary Edition. New York: Fordham University Press.

Walsh, Richard, ed. 2021. The T&T Clark Handbook of Jesus and Film. New York: T&T Clark.

Walsh, Richard, and Jeffrey L. Stanley. 2021. Jesus, the Gospels, and Cinematic Imagination: Introducing Jesus Movies, Christ Films, and the Messiah in Motion. New York: T&T Clark.

Dr. Chan Sok Park
Dr. Robyn Faith Walsh
Dr. Teng-Kuan Ng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• religion and film
• religion and visual and material culture
• Jesus
• biblical studies
• film studies
• media studies
• world cinema