The Bible Onscreen in the New Millennium: New Heart and New Spirit

The Bible Onscreen in the New Millennium:
New Heart and New Spirit

Edited by Wickham Clayton

Manchester University Press (2020)
296 pages - Hardback
ISBN 978-1526136572
Publication Date: 13/1/2020

I've been meaning to post about the forthcoming publication of the latest book to feature an essay of mine. "The Bible Onscreen in the New Millennium: New Heart and New Spirit" will feature 14 essays by various film scholars on the biblical epics to have emerged since The Passion of the Christ in 2004. I'm particularly pleased that it's being published by Manchester University Press whose book "Biblical Epics" by Bruce Babington and Peter William Evans is one of the seminal works in this field.

My chapter is called "The Nativity Re-Born: Genre and the Birth and Childhood of Jesus" and in it I discuss various Nativity films released since The Passion and how they have stayed true to or innovated with the conventions of the genre. As well as the link with MUP it's also pleasing to be contributing to a book compiled with cinema scholars in mind rather than those approaching the theological angle. It's nice to have contributed to both.

The book is already available to order online. In the meantime, you can read a little more about the book at the Manchester University Press website, and I have posted a list of the contributions below.

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The Bible Onscreen in the New Millennium: New Heart and New Spirit

Introduction - Wickham Clayton
Part I: Producing Biblical Film and Television
1-Battle over the Biblical Epic: Hollywood, Christians and the American Culture Wars - Karen Patricia Heath
2-Depicting 'Biblical' Narratives: A Test Case on Noah - Peter Phillips
3-Special Effects and CGI in the Biblical Epic Film - Andrew B. R. Elliott
4-The Phenomenon of Biblical Telenovelas in Latin America - Clarice Greco, Mariana Marques De Lima and Tissiana Nogueira Pereira

Part II: Modern Narratives and Contexts in Adapting the Bible
5-Mythic Cinema And the Contemporary Biblical Epic - Mikel J. Koven
6-The Nativity Re-Born: Genre and the Birth and Childhood of Jesus - Matthew Page
7-Convince Me: Conversion Narratives in the Modern Biblical Epic - Chris Davies

Part III: Critical Readings and Receptions
8-Controversy And the 'Culture War': Exploring Tensions Between the Secular and the Sacred In Noah, the 'Least Biblical Biblical Movie Ever' - Becky Bartlett
9-'Can Anything Good Come Out Of Southern California?'* (*Hyperlink to John 1:46): The Christian Critical Reception of Elliptical Jesus Narratives - Wickham Clayton
10-Examining the Digital Religion Paradigm: A Mixed-Method Analysis of Online Community Perception of Epic Biblical Movies - Gregory P. Perrault And Thomas S. Mueller

Part IV: Culture And Representation
11-The Devil and the Culture Wars: Demonising Controversy in The Last Temptation of Christ and The Passion Of The Christ - Karra Shimabukuro
12-Ben-Her(?): Soft Stardom, Melodrama, and the Critique of Epic Masculinity In Ben-Hur (2016) - Thomas J. West III
13-The Biblical-Trial Film: Social Contexts in L'Inchiesta and Risen - Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns and Emiliano Aguilar
14-'Squint Against the Grandeur': Iconoclasm and Film Genre in The Passion of the Christ and Hail, Caesar!