Film and Faith

Modern Cinema and the Struggle to Believe

In this edited volume twelve scholars of philosophy, political theory, and theology consider the role of religious ideas in several modern films. The authors explore how these films grapple with themes such as sin and judgment, grace and reconciliation, and the confrontation of good with radical evil.

Film and Faith: Modern Cinema and the Struggle to Believe explores religious themes in contemporary film with a focus on recent depictions of religion’s continuing manifestations in a secularizing age. The contributors are students of philosophy, political theory, and theology; examine religious and philosophical ideas in commercially and artistically important modern films. They offer a scholarly yet accessible considerations of contemporary films exploring the problem of faith in the modern world. The approach is balanced: sympathetic but not uncritical, reflecting a complexity in the minds of the contributors themselves. While they are religious believers, nonetheless established scholars trained in mainstream academic disciplines. The chapters cover cinema that are important in different ways, and that represent different genres: from the art films of Terrence Malick to the more conventional but serious dramas of the Coen brothers and Frank Capra, to popular action blockbusters like the Dark Knight and the Marvel films. Drawing on these cinematic works, the authors explore religious themes that remain salient even in a time when religion seems to be in decline: themes such as sin and judgment, the experience of grace and reconciliation, and confrontation with radical evil.