Film & Television | Harvard Divinity Bulletin

Thinking (and Talking) in an Emergency

In How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2023), crisis and expediency justify violence at the expense of democratic processes. By Russell C. Powell

Mormonism, the ‘Most American’ Religious Other

Mormons continue to be depicted in popular culture as victims, criminals, or disaffected. By Jaxon Washburn

Dune, or the Order of Time

Convergences of messianism, religion, and politics in Frank Herbert’s Dune and Dune Messiah resonate with his time and our own. By Charles M. Stang

Without Why: Religion without Purpose in Pixar’s Soul

Pixar’s Soul asks fundamental questions about existence and challenges the idea that life is reducible to purpose, religious or otherwise. By Matthew C. Kruger

Fully Fleshed Out: Religion, Womanhood, and Blackness in Contemporary Media

Positive, complex representations of black women’s religious experience in Queen Sugar and Being Serena. By LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant

Jewish Identity and Biblical Exposition in Darren Aronofsky’s Films

Evaluating the use of ancient Jewish modes of interpretation in Aronofsky’s mother! and Noah. By Eric X. Jarrard

Where Silence Lives

The documentary In Pursuit of Silence creates a space for a long overdue conversation about the nuanced subject of silence. By Timothy L. Gallati

Nostalgia Awakens

Star Wars: The Force Awakens anticipates and addresses the concerns of a nostalgic audience. By Robert Hensley-King

Three Films Depict Sinhalese Buddhism

In three Sinhalese Buddhist movies, Theravada religion and culture is vividly narrated, interpreted, and reimagined. By Chipamong Chowdhury

Girls and Sarah Coakley, Through a Theological Lens of Desire

Examining the relationship between desire and transformation in two disparate works: Girls and Sarah Coakley’s God, Sexuality and the Self: An Essay “On the Trinity.” By Peter Boumgarden