Charlotte Durham, BA Communication & Media 

God at the Movies: A Presence of Biblical Narratives in Today’s Cinema

Would you believe me if I said God is at the movies? Can we see reflections of Jesus’ life on the big screen? These big questions can often stir up feelings of apprehension or unease at their magnitude, but what if I told you it didn’t have to be that hard? Would you be willing to understand some of the implications the movies we watch have on our lives?

This presentation will position itself at the nexus of Film and Theological studies, and give consideration to the applications and implications this has on readings of cinematic discourses within wider present-day sociocultural contexts. With consideration to narrative theories bound by a formalist paradigm, I will show how the grand Biblical narrative is revealed in Propp’s theory of narrative units and how this lens can shape our understanding of movies. To support understanding of this complex inter-disciplinary exchange,I will reflect on the narrative of Toy Story 4 and demonstrate how this lens helps us to surpass denotative readings of the films in exchange for an understanding that encourages us to pursue something more.