Screening Divinity

Description

Lisa Maurice examines screen portrayals of gods - covering Greco-Roman mythology, the Judeo-Christian God and Jesus - from the beginning of cinema to the present day. Focussing on the golden age of the Hollywood epic in the fifties and the twenty-first century second wave of big screen productions, she provides an over-arching picture that allows historical trends and developments to be demonstrated and contrasted. Engaging with recent scholarship on film, particularly film and theology as well as classical reception, she considers the presentation of these gods through examination of their physical and moral characteristics, as well as their interaction with the human world, against the background of the social contexts of each production. Engaging with recent scholarship on film, particularly film and theology as well as classical reception, Lisa Maurice considers the gods of Greek and Roman mythology alongside the biblical god of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Screening Divinity Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Series Editors’ Preface Acknowledgements 1 Screening Divinity: Introduction 2 Anthropomorphism 3 Physiology and the Physical Appearance of the Divine (1): The Patriarchal King Figure and the Devil 4 Physiology and the Physical Appearance of the Divine (2): Screening the Olympian Males and Jesus 5 Gendering the Divine (1): Greek Goddesses on Screen 6 Gendering the Divine (2): Holy Female Figures in the Judaeo-Christian Film 7 Human-Divine Interactions on Screen 8 Blurring the Boundaries: Apotheoses and Deicides Postscript: Some Closing Observations Filmography Bibliography Index