Religious Studies 3900/4900 [Core 10]
RELIGIOUS STUDIES SEMINAR: RELIGION AND FILM
Spring 2005

"Religion and film" is now a popular category of books and college courses, but the significance of the category is far from clear. Under this rubric we might wish to examine film treatments of recognized religious subject matter, like The Ten Commandments or the Ramayana, perhaps to see how true to the subject matter they can be; or to look for definite religious structures in films that aren't overtly religious, like karmic bondage or sainthood, as a way of revealing the universal relevance of such structures; or to find out how films treat issues of human existence that are also prominent in religious teachings, like the nature of good and evil; or to see how a work of film art can achieve a meaning or realization comparable in impact to the meanings or realizations that matter most for religious devotion; or to see how traditional ideas about the religious value of art apply to this newest and most pervasive art form. And each of these more specific-looking inquiries is actually vastly complex because so many different kinds of film and so many different kinds of religion can come into play, whichever question we are asking.

The purpose of this seminar is to explore as many "religion and film" questions as we productively can in order to form a long-term study agenda for film and religion in relation. We are betting that this kind of study will significantly increase our understanding of how film works and what religion is.

Our readings will be drawn from various sources including these required texts:

Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, ed., Art, Creativity, and the Sacred
Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing About Film, 5th ed.
Margaret Miles, Seeing and Believing. Religion and Values in the Movies

Assigned films will be on reserve in the library (VHS or DVD) and may be viewed there. Sometimes they will be available from local video rental stores as well. We may on occasion arrange for screenings of assigned films in other venues.

The ingredients of the seminar, and of the course grade, are daily participation and serving several times as a recorder of class minutes (10%), weekly writing (30%), designing and conducting a course unit in partnership with another student (20%), and making a course book (40%). Assignments and grading are explained below.

SCHEDULE subject to revision by announcement in class and/or e-mail

Jan. 10 Organization of course. The triangle Religion - Art - Culture: refining our concepts and questions.

Jan. 12 Theses on religion, art, and culture.
READ in Art, Creativity, and the Sacred (ACC) chaps. 1 (Kandinsky), 3 (Laub-Novak), 4 (DeStaebler), 20 (Martland)

Jan. 17 Theses on religion, art, and culture, cont.
READ ACC chaps. 14 (Eliade), 15 (Gilkey)
VIEW and REVIEW Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?

Jan. 19 Art and fundamental theology.
READ ACC chaps. 17 (O'Meara), 18 (Tillich)

Jan. 24 Film analysis.
READ Corrigan, chaps. 1-3 & pp. 84-92
VIEW and REVIEW Intolerance (D. W. Griffith)

Jan. 26 Civil religion in film: Eisenstein, Riefenstahl, Capra.
READ Bellah and Richardson on civil religion (handout)

Jan. 31 Religious meaning from space.
VIEW and REVIEW Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg)
READ from Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks, and Jung, Flying Saucers (handout)

Feb. 2 The cultural approach: Margaret Miles's project.
READ Miles, Seeing and Believing, pp. ix-25, 182-193

Feb. 7 Miles's project, cont.
VIEW one of the films Miles discusses in chaps. 2-8 and REVIEW her discussion of that film

Feb. 9 Cheesy or worthwhile? Issues of artistic and religious evaluation.
READ from Brown, Good Taste, Bad Taste, and Christian Taste (handout)

Feb. 14 The aesthetic approach: Paul Schrader on the "transcendental style"
READ Schrader, from Transcendental Style in Film (handout)
VIEW Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson) and REVIEW the application of Schrader's thesis to that film

Feb. 16 Schrader's own film work
VIEW Raging Bull (Scorsese)

FEB. 18: DUNBAR LECTURE
Eleonore Stump, "A Philosopher Looks at Evil"
7:00 p.m. AC 215, reception following

Feb. 21 Documentary film as radical ethics.
VIEW and REVIEW Night and Fog (Resnais)
READ religious interpretations of the Holocaust (handout)

PART TWO: STUDENT-LED

Feb. 23 & 28 TBA

FEB. 24: "AN EVENING WITH MADAME F"
Claudia Stevens performs music of Auschwitz
7:30 p.m., Recital Hall, reception following

MARCH 1: SUMMERS LECTURE [required attendance]
James A. Sanders, "A Bible Reality Show"
11:30 a.m., Recital Hall, lunch discussion following

Mar. 2 & 7 TBA

Mar. 9 & 14 TBA

MARCH 11: FRIDAY FORUM [required attendance]
John Gibson, "Faith and Film"
12:30 p.m., AC 215

Mar. 16 & 28 TBA

Mar. 21-25 SPRING BREAK

Mar. 30 & Apr.11 TBA [this assumes we take off Apr. 4 & 6 for comps]

Apr. 13 & 18 TBA

Apr. 20 Conclusion. TBA

Course book due by end of finals week.

Devotional filmmaking
The Song of Bernadette (King)
The Passion of the Christ (Gibson)
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pasolini)
The Message [story of Muhammad] (Akkad)
Ramayana video series
Little Buddha (Bertolucci)

Secular replacement for traditional religion
The Battleship Potemkin and October (Eisenstein)
Triumph of the Will (Riefenstahl)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Capra)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
Woodstock (Wadleigh)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg)

Critique of religion
Viridiana (Buñuel)
The Mission (Joffé)
Destiny (1998) (Chahine)

Religious belief
Sergeant York (Hawks)
Diary of a Country Priest (Bresson)
Lilies of the Field (Nelson)
The Apostle (Duvall)
The Mission (Joffé)
The Rapture (Tolkin)
Frailty (Paxton)
The Believer (Bean)

Absence of meaning, "dark night of the soul"
The Seventh Seal (Bergman)
Through a Glass Darkly/Winter Light/The Silence (Bergman)
La Dolce Vita (Fellini)
L'Avventura and Red Desert (Antonioni)
Last Tango in Paris (Bertolucci)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (Weir)
Nostalghia (Tarkovsky)
Himatsuri [Fire Festival] (Yanagimachi)
Mishima (Schrader)
Memento (Nolan)

Sacred tradition-secular experience connections
On the Waterfront (Kazan)
Requiem for a Heavyweight (Nelson)
The Ten Commandments--Prologue (DeMille)
Ran (Kurosawa)
Koyaanisqatsi (Reggio)
Baraka (Fricke)
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (Bae)
Jesus of Montreal (Arcand)
Decalogue II, V (Kieslowski)

This world seen from an otherworldly perspective
Wings of Desire (Wenders)
It's a Wonderful Life (Capra)

Sanctity
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
Diary of a Country Priest (Bresson)
Ikiru (Kurosawa)
Breaking the Waves (von Trier)
Gandhi (Attenborough)

Well-meaning
Intolerance (Griffith)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Wise)
Dosti (Bose)
Philadelphia (Demme)
Amistad (Spielberg)

Thrilling (tremendum et fascinans):
Wonder
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg)
Contact (Zemeckis)
Horror
The Exorcist (Friedkin)
The Alien films (Scott, Cameron, et al.)

Comedy
Love and Death (Allen)
Dogma (Smith)
Life of Brian (Jones)
Enlightenment Guaranteed (Dörrie)
An Everlasting Piece (McEvoy)

An arguably religious style of filmmaking
Diary of a Country Priest and others by Robert Bresson
Stalker and others by Andrei Tarkovsky
The Wind Will Carry Us . . . and others by Abbas Kiarostami

Pilgrimages, journeys of transformation
Easy Rider (Hopper)
Thelma and Louise (Scott)
Parallel Lines [a personal documentary] (Davenport)

Leadership, visionary and community-making or -sustaining
Gandhi (Attenborough)
Whale Rider (Caro)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Forman)

Martyrdom
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
Himatsuri [Fire Festival] (Yanagimachi)
Braveheart (Gibson)

Personal identity as deeply inscribed by tradition and/or community
Full Metal Jacket (Kubrick)
The Pillow Book (Greenaway)

Quality of personal relationships
Last Tango in Paris (Bertolucci)
The Piano (Campion)
Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick)

Epiphanies and decisive encounters
2001 (Kubrick)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg)
Contact (Zemeckis)
Mrs. Dalloway (Gorris)
The Hours (Daldry)

Points of contact between the ordinary and the extraordinary:
"Uplifting"
Like Water for Chocolate (Arau)
Chocolat (Hallström)
Babette's Feast (Axel)
"Disturbing"
Jacob's Ladder (Lyne)
Stalker (Tarkovsky)

Heaven and hell
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg)
Jacob's Ladder (Lyne)
The Rapture (Tolkin)
Dead Man (Jarmusch)
What Dreams May Come (Ward)

Evil and trauma
Day of Wrath (Dreyer)
Judgment at Nuremberg (Kramer)
Rosemary's Baby (Polanski)
A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick)
The Exorcist (Friedkin)
The Night Porter (Cavani)
Seven Beauties (Wertmuller)
Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
Sophie's Choice (Pakula)
Ran (Kurosawa)
Schindler's List (Spielberg)

Suffering, loss, death
Bobby Deerfield (Pollack)
The Deer Hunter (Cimino)
A Taste of Cherry (Kiarostami)
The Piano (Polanski)

Sacred history/Zeitgeist
The Battleship Potemkin and October (Eisenstein)
Sergeant York (Hawks)
Gandhi (Attenborough)
Forrest Gump (Zemeckis)
Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg)

Myth
Space is the Place (Coney)
Star Wars (Lucas)
Pocahontas (Gabriel & Goldberg)
The Matrix (Andy & Larry Wachowski)

Providence
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Stuart)
The Truman Show (Weir)

Maya: appearance is not reality
Dark City (1998) (Proyas)
The Matrix (Andy & Larry Wachowski)

Animation
Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away (Miyazaki)
Fantasia--"Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria" (Disney & Ferguson)
Fantasia 2000--the whales; the Firebird (Brizzi & Hunt)

Documentary
Night and Fog [the Holocaust] (Resnais)
Shoah [the Holocaust] (Lanzmann)
A Veiled Revolution [on Muslim women and modest dress] (Gaunt)
To Find Our Life [the Huichol peyote hunt] (Furst)
Parallel Lines [Americans after 9/11] (Davenport)

SOME RELEVANT RELIGIOUS ISSUES

The character of life in the physical world, in itself and in relation to other possible modes of life
The relation between the beautiful and the divine
The relations between imagination, devotion (piety and/or faith and/or love), and reason
How the content of religion is affected by aesthetic expression; the spiritual potentialities (including dangers) of images, sound, narrative
The relative roles of religion and art in establishing reality and good and evil; how religion as support of culture relates to religion as critique of culture
How the psychology of religion relates to the psychology of aesthetic experience, and film experience in particular
How the sociology of religion relates to the sociology of film

GUIDELINES: PREPARING CLASS MINUTES

1. For the benefit of everyone in the class, make a concise record of the main points and questions of a class session. On average, something like five or six points, all fitting onto one page (with single-space typing), would be best. Do not aim for perfect or complete minutes--aim for useful ones.

2. This is your own portrait of the class and you should exercise your own judgment about what to include and what to leave out. But you should also feel free to check your notes and recollections with fellow class members and/or the instructor.

3. Give printed copies to all class members as they arrive at the next class meeting. There may be some discussion of the minutes. Don't be offended if changes or additions are suggested.

WEEKLY WRITING

Each Monday you will turn in a 500-600 word review (that's two pages typed) of the film and religious issue that are featured for that week. Making use of the vocabulary and tools of analysis that the seminar provides, you will try to become a master of the religious studies film review, a unique genre, in your own way.
You may skip one week's writing without penalty.

Together with a student partner (or two), you will determine what the seminar will read, view, and discuss in a two-class sequence, normally a Wednesday on which issues are introduced and a following Monday by which a featured film has been seen by all. You will consult with the instructor to relate your interests to the seminar's needs and to identify appropriate materials. Each of these components should significantly expand our awareness of religious phenomena and ideas about how religion works as well as our awareness of the kinds of film that exist and how film works.

THE COURSE BOOK

Your course book should include the following parts:

1. An 8-10 pp. introductory essay that will lay out, for readers who are coming for the first time to the question "What might religion and film most significantly have to do with each other?", a program of thinking about it. It will explain the question and why it matters. It will provide some sort of map of the issues that are to be confronted. Most importantly, it will indicate how these issues can be addressed--what sorts of analysis will be helpful, what sorts of evidence will be needed, and what sorts of answer will be helpful.

2. An 8-10 pp. film essay that puts into practice the ideas (about "religion and film" inquiry) and subject matter (films and aesthetic/social/metaphysical/religious issues) that you find most important.

3. A 2-3 pp. epilogue in which you speak directly to the question, "What is religion?" drawing conclusions specifically from the work we have done in the seminar.

4. SENIORS HAVE TO DO ONE MORE THING, TO SATISFY THE CORE 10 REQUIREMENT:

A 6-8 pp. reflection on your intellectual growth during your time at Millsaps, taking account of (a) the larger experience of liberal learning and the goals set for all Millsaps students, e.g. in the liberal arts abilities targeted by your previous Core courses, and (b) the more specialized experience of the religious studies major. How, in particular, does our investigation of the phenomena of scripture affect your understanding of the possibilities of enlightenment and empowerment you now see in oral and written communication?

[See specifications for the Frank and Rachel Ann Laney Award on p. 12]

You may turn in a draft of all of your course book, or some portion of it, to the instructor at any time to get a preliminary evaluation and suggestions.

GRADES

The course book will be letter-graded; weekly writings will receive a - (unsatisfactory), \/ (satisfactory), or + (very good), depending on the thoughtfulness they show and, as appropriate, clarity of communication. Your record as of midterm will be interpreted by a midterm letter grade for which you will receive a rationale. In general, "A" means doing all assigned work carefully, thoughtfully, and successfully; "B" means a good overall record; "C" reflects a mixture of good work, unsuccessful work fairly attempted, and unsatisfactory work; "D" reflects a significant portion of work undone or a dominant portion done unsatisfactorily; and "F" is worse.

SOME COURSE POLICIES

1. Class Attendance. Being in class, being engaged with the work of the class, and behaving courteously are all expected. One discourtesy to avoid is coming into class late. Better late than never, definitely; but lateness counts as half an absence.
One percent of the course grade will be lost for each absence from class for any reason, beginning with the third absence. (For example, someone who missed class 7 times would lose 5% of the course grade, or half a letter grade.) The reason for this: our in class inquiry is a crucial and irreplaceable part of the substance of the course.

2. Late papers. Written assignments turned in late will lose a letter grade or equivalent. Homework may not be turned in more than one week after its due date. No work of any kind will be accepted after the last day of final examinations. Exceptions to this policy will only be granted to the victims of unforeseeable and uncontrollable circumstances.

3. Plagiarism. Using the words or ideas of others without acknowledgement that is, passing them off as your own is a fraudulent practice called plagiarism. Plagiarized work will receive no credit and may result in expulsion from the class.

4. Incompletes. An "Incomplete" grade for the course will only be given to students who, due to unforeseen and uncontrollable circumstances, find themselves unable to complete course requirements during the term and can reasonably be expected to complete them within a few weeks after the term's end. The "Incomplete" must be requested and appropriately justified before the end of final examinations.

5. Disabilities. Students with disabilities should contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to discuss their individual needs for accommodations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Religious and theological aesthetics--general
Brown, Frank Burch. Good Taste, Bad Taste, and Christian Taste. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
_______. Religious Aesthetics. A Theological Study of Making and Meaning. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
Leeuw, Gerardus van der. Sacred and Profane Beauty. The Holy in Art. Trans. David E. Green. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963.
Monti, Anthony. A Natural Theology of the Arts. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.
Thiessen, Gesa E., ed. Theological Aesthetics [an anthology of classic writings]. London: SCM, 2004.

Film aesthetics--general
Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. Film Art. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.
Braudy, Leo, and Marshall Cohen, eds. Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. 5th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing about Film. 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2004.
DeNitto, Dennis. Film: Form and Feeling. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.

Religious films
Baugh, Lloyd. Imaging the Divine. Jesus and Christ-Figures in Film. Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1997.
May, John R., ed. New Image of Religious Film. Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1997.
Reinhartz, Adele. Scripture and the Silver Screen. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003.

Theological interpretations of popular films
Aichele, George, and Richard Walsh, eds. Screening Scripture. Intertextual Connections between Scripture and Film. Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 2002.
Johnston, Robert K. Reel Spirituality. Theology and Film in Dialogue. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000.
Lyden, John C. Film as Religion. Myths, Morals, Rituals. New York: New York University Press, 2003.
Marsh, Clive, and Gaye Ortiz, eds. Explorations in Theology and Film. Movies and Meaning. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997.
Martin, Joel W., and Conrad E. Ostwalt, Jr., eds. Screening the Sacred. Religion, Myth, and Ideology in Popular American Film. Boulder: Westview, 1995.
Stone, Bryan. Faith and Film. Theological Themes at the Cinema. St. Louis: Chalice, 2000.

Religious studies/cultural studies interpretations of films
Boyd, James W., Ron G. Williams and Tetsuya Yishimura. "Himatsuri: A Cinematic Perspective on Shinto." http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/JHTI/Himatsuri_site/
Lyden, John. Film as Religion. New York: New York University Press, 2003.
Miles, Margaret. Seeing and Believing. Religion and Values in the Movies. Boston: Beacon, 1997.
Plate, S. Brent, ed. Representing Religion in World Cinema. Filmmaking, Mythmaking, Culture Making. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Film experience as religious experience
Bandy, Mary Lea, and Antonio Monda, eds. The Hidden God. Film and Faith. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2003. (Contains 49 short essays on distinguished films of religious interest as well as Nathaniel Dorsky's important lecture "Devotional Cinema.")
Lyden, John. Film as Religion. New York: NYU, 2003.
Schrader, Paul. The Transcendental Style in Film. Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.

Studies of particular issues
Cunneen, Joseph. Robert Bresson. A Spiritual Style in Film. New York: Continuum, 2003.
Plate, S. Brent, and David Jasper, eds. Imag(in)ing Otherness. Filmic Visions of Living Together. Atlanta: American Academy of Religion, 1999.
Sanders, Teresa. Celluloid Saints. Images of Sanctity in Film. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2002.
Schneider, Kirk J. Horror and the Holy. Wisdom-Teachings of the Monster Tale. Chicago: Open Court, 1993.