Imaging Religion in Film / New Approaches to Religion and Power (PDF)

GAIL HAMNER Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University, USA.

'Hamner offers religious studies, cultural studies, and philosophical studies something new and important: a theory of cinema, politics and religion as they coalesce in the production and reception of film. The book is more than the sum of its parts. Hamner crafts her argument wisely and well to argue for film viewing as a pedagogy of the self with profound implications for ethics and politics. Intelligent, thoughtful, and beautifully written.' - Ellen T. Armour, Vanderbilt Divinity School

'This is a profoundly beautiful, original book. By taking seriously the sensual the visual, auditory, and tactile dimensions of film, Hamner ushers us into new ways of experiencing the religious in film. This is not a book about religious stories. Nor is it another book about religious imagery in film. Instead, by attending to what she calls 'ordinary transcendence,' Hamner makes religious feeling compelling. And she shows us how to see it in all kinds of films from Hollywood blockbusters to small critically acclaimed works of international cinema. This critically informed and astonishingly lyrical book promises to change the ways we think, teach, and write about religion and film in the 21st century.' - Laura S. Levitt, Professor of Religion, Jewish Studies, and Gender, Temple University

'Hamner's book blazes an entirely new trail that finally succeeds in linking up a post-secular religious discourse with core and uncompromising materialist politics inspired by Foucault, Deleuze, and Peirce. But what you get here is not your standard boring versions of these thinkers warmed up like last-nights leftovers, but an original, refreshing, and satisfying thesis about the materialist power of film as such! Hamner's book is precisely what Walter Benjamin was gesturing toward in his insights about film and subjectivity. Hamner has invented an entirely new take on film.' - Creston Davis, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Rollins College

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