When Jesus Came to Hollywood
()
About this ebook
'When Jesus Came to Hollywood' investigates how movies have helped shape our perceptions of Jesus. Take a close look at some of the dozens of interpretations of Jesus, from the sugary Victorian to the angst-ridden postmodern. The New Testament has provided rich fare for moviemakers for well over a century now. While France led the way in early religious movies, Hollywood soon took over and has remained the single most important producer of Jesus-movies ever since.
Author Leslie Kendall highlights the strange relationship between church and Jesus-movies: As religion has declined in significance in Western society, particularly since the mid-20th century, so the number of Jesus-movies has grown and grown. On average, a movie ‘starring’ Jesus has been made every two years for a century-plus, but the majority of them have been produced since 1950. Whatever deep collective psychology is at work here, it is clearly true that Hollywood is not about to give up on Christianity – it’s too rewarding at the box office for that! Whatever your take on Jesus is, you’ll get some surprises in When Jesus Came to Hollywood.
Leslie Kendall
With a career in journalism behind me, I'm now doing what I always wanted to do – writing about subjects that interest me rather than subjects that interest editors. These include religion, philosophy, feminism, language and history. I'm married to Erica and we have two grown-up daughters. We live in the town of Shrewsbury, in the beautiful English county of Shropshire. I rebelled against mainstream Christianity years ago and have since studied alternative understandings of Christianity and the relation between it and other world faiths. As part of this I'm studying for a degree with Oxford Brookes University, majoring in religion and philosophy. I start work soon on my dissertation, which will explore the relationship between God and the Self, specifically the way we have moved over recent centuries from belief in a God ‘out there somewhere’ to an inner, existential understanding of deity. Future ebooks will pick up on some of the themes to be developed, including the question of whether we have become so self-referential in spiritual matters that we have discarded God. Other areas I hope to write about include the role of women in shaping postmodern society’s understanding of itself.
Related to When Jesus Came to Hollywood
Related ebooks
Hollywood Jesus: A Small Group Study Connecting Christ and Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBehind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film, and Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Talk to a Movie: Movie-Watching as a Spiritual Exercise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe British New Wave: A certain tendency? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMovie-Made Jews: An American Tradition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJohn Hughes FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Man Behind the Movies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBigger than Ben-Hur: The Book, Its Adaptations, and Their Audiences Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sports Film: Games People Play Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMeaning at the Movies: Becoming a Discerning Viewer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Christian Popular Culture from The Chronicles of Narnia to Duck Dynasty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHollywood & God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alexander Bakshy on Film, 1913-1935 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Stand-Up Comic Sits Down with Jesus: A Devotional? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod-Breathed: Exploring How the Bible Is Written Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFilm & Religion: An Introduction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJewish Humor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsApproaching the End: Imagining Apocalypse in American Film Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5After the Election: Prophetic Politics in a Post-Secular Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSensational Movies: Video, Vision, and Christianity in Ghana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom Street to Screen: Charles Burnett's <i>Killer of Sheep</i> Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIf Not Empire, What? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfrican Video Movies and Global Desires: A Ghanaian History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedia, Religion, History, Culture: Selected Essays from the 4Th Elon University Media and Religion Conference Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIs Satan, the Devil, a Supernatural Being Fallen from Heaven? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaking Choices in Christ: Moving Beyond Self Destructive Choices and Behavior Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComic Book Movies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBollywood: Gods, Glamour, and Gossip Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5True Hollywood Blockbuster: The Making of Divine Heroes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSuperheroes on World Screens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Industries For You
Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5YouTube Secrets: The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Following and Making Money as a Video I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Uncanny Valley: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sweet Success: A Simple Recipe to Turn your Passion into Profit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary and Analysis of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals 1: Based on the Book by Michael Pollan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGrocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5YouTube 101: The Ultimate Guide to Start a Successful YouTube channel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel Without an Outline: WMG Writer's Guides, #6 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary and Analysis of The Case Against Sugar: Based on the Book by Gary Taubes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Artpreneur: The Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Sustainable Living From Your Creativity Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Reckoning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Best Story Wins: How to Leverage Hollywood Storytelling in Business & Beyond Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for When Jesus Came to Hollywood
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
When Jesus Came to Hollywood - Leslie Kendall
When Jesus Came to Hollywood
by Leslie Kendall
(copyright 2012 Leslie Kendall)
Smashwords Edition
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Choose Your Jesus
Chapter 3 The Silent Days
Chapter 4 Mid-century revival
Chapter 5 Existential Jesus
Chapter 6 Whose Jesus?
Chapter 7 Anachronism
Chapter 8 Case studies
Chapter 9 What can we really say about Jesus?
Chapter 10 Christian themes
Chapter 11 Deficient Jesus
Chapter 12 Jesus, women and sex
Chapter 13 Jesus and divinity
Chapter 14 What would Superman do?
Chapter 15 Violence
Chapter 16 Conclusion
Chapter 17 Sources and Filmography
Chapter 1 Introduction
Sometimes you have to wonder if God looks at us and thinks My word, they’ve changed!
Just a few centuries ago we knew our place, and we went to church and did what the clergy told us was required to keep God happy. Now we don’t much care whether God is happy or not and in much of the Christian
world regular church attendance is down to a small fraction of the adult population. There are numerous reasons for this, and one of them is the movies. And, of course, television which feeds us an endless diet of movies. Whether the churches like it or not, modern men and women are not buying into traditional expressions of faith any more. They think for themselves, but what images do they see when they think about God and Jesus? The idea behind this ebook is to look in a non-academic way at what Hollywood has done with Jesus. I think I can safely promise a few surprises!
Chapter 2 Choose your Jesus
Our perception of the Almighty and our relationship with him/her/it has been changed forever in the 130 or so years that films have been around. Vast numbers of other things went on as well in that time, of course, which have also contributed enormously to our unprecedented views about God - not least being two World Wars, numerous regional conflicts, the Great Depression, and (on a happier note) a much better educated society and more leisure time than ever before in history. But when it came to filtering information and perceptions – most importantly, perceptions – through to the general public, it was the movies that were at the centre of shaping our understanding and our emotions.
Now when it comes to romance or adventure or comedy, that’s generally fine, but when it comes to God, the stakes are a bit higher. From the start Hollywood saw everything as fair game for a movie subject, including the Almighty. So just how has God fared as a movie star? Of course, when we talk about God we are talking about something we can’t see. But we can see representations of the central character in Christianity, Jesus. After all, the main claim of the world’s biggest religion is that 2,000 or so years ago God was incarnated as the man Jesus and lived and taught in Israel. For Hollywood – and to a lesser extent European film-makers – that was perfect. And since Cecil B Demille’s silent and unequalled epic The King of Kings in 1928 Jesus has been a regular visitor to the silver screen.
Jesus-movies are a sub-genre of religious cinema, which is not restricted to Christianity or to a particular culture. Most societies explore aspects of their relationship with God, however