Film as Cultural Artifact: Religious Criticism of World Cinema

It is one of the rare attempts to initiate a dialogue between world cinema and world religions, especially from the perspective of culture studies. The book combines scientific methodologies from the field of anthropology, theology and film studies to create a new methodology for religious criticism of film. The author is not only an academic but apparently also has practical experience in filmmaking, which makes his arguments very convincing and authentic . Usually it is difficult for scholars in this field to have access to filmmakers and therefore their writings tend to rely on their own readings of the film. But it is refreshing to see an author personally interviewing the auteur of the film series (Deepa Mehta's 'The Elements Trilogy') and even doing field research in its cultural context.Apart from presenting a new approach to religious criticism of film, the book also offers a hybrid model for understanding the interconnectedness of cultural (functional) and theological (substantive) aspects of religious studies. I find it extremely helpful in reconciling the difference between the "theology" department in seminaries and "religion" department in universities!

In the field of visual anthropology there has always been a stigma against using 'fictional' film as a pedagogical tool. But many postmodernist scholars have successfully made the argument that the so-called 'documentary' genre can be just as fictional as any other type of films. So I am very glad to see that someone has done a scientific study to test the validity of ethnographic information observed from movies that ordinary people watch in movie theaters. I am not particularly keen on the religious angle, but in this day and age, religious data is the most vital part of ethnographic information.