Abstract

In his previous Quodlibet articles, Anton Karl Kozlovic explicated the religious films fears associated with: satanic infusion, graven images and iconographic perversion, cinematic sinfulness, and being sacrilegious, criticising or devaluing the faith. In this latest instalment, he explores the religious film fears of abandoning orthodoxy, paganisation and the ascendancy of post-Christian culture. Utilising humanist film criticism as the guiding analytical lens, the critical film and religion literature was briefly reviewed and the popular Hollywood cinema selectively scanned to reveal the religionist fears of abandoning orthodoxy, paganisation, and the rise of post-Christian culture. Various pro-film justifications, defences and other counter-arguments were proffered and copiously illustrated with inter-genre exemplars to assuage the anxious. It was concluded that “the movies” are a precious extra-ecclesiastical resource-cum-entertainment that can engage, educate and enlighten audiences, and so should not be pedagogically squandered during the post-Millennial period. Further research into the emerging interdisciplinary field of religion-and-film was recommended