Explorations in Theology and Film

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Explorations in Theology and Film

• Beyond the Jesus of History
• Jesus of Montreal

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William R. Telford

• Jesus Christ Movie Star The Depiction of Jesus
  in the Cinema
• In Explorations in Theology and Film. Clive Marsh
  and Gaye Ortiz, ed.
• Blackwell Publishing Malden, Mass., 1997.

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Allegory, Analogy, and Intertextuality

• What is allegory?
• What is analogy?
• What is intertextuality?
• Note what events in the film imply a symbolic
  interpretation of key actions of Jesus in the
  Gospels.

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Jesus Movie Typology

• Biopic
• Musical
• Allegory

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Seven Christ-types

• The patriarchal Christ
• The adolescent Christ
• The pacific Christ
• The subversive Christ
• The mystical Christ
• The musical Christ
• The human Christ

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Four Challenges to Presenting Jesus on the big
screen

• the Hollywood star system
• Jesus the leading man
• presentation of Jesus as both fully human and
  fully divine
• Controversy (127-130)

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Christ Figures

• Superman
• The Shawshank Redemption
• E.T.
• There is no way one can equate the life of
  Christ with the story of ET, but there are
  serious parallels in the story which are
  difficult to ignore ET was also a pre-existent
  entity, his early life was hidden from us, he
  came to little children, he suffered a death and
  resurrection and ascended to his original home.
  More significantly, his was a message of
  unconditional love, much like that seen in the
  crucified Christ (Ortiz quoted in Telford,
  123-124)