Salvation from Cinema ─ The Medium is the Message

Salvation from Cinema offers something new to the burgeoning field of "religion and film": the religious significance of film technique. Discussing the history of both cinematic devices and film theory, Crystal Downing argues that attention to the material medium echoes Christian doctrine about the materiality of Christ’s body as the medium of salvation. Downing cites Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu perspectives on film in order to compare and clarify the significance of medium within the frameworks of multiple traditions. This book will be useful to professors and students interested in the relationship between religion and film.

Crystal Downing teaches film adaptation, critical theory, and nineteenth-century British literature at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. In addition to her first three books, which apply poststructuralist insight to issues of faith, Downing has published numerous essays on film in journals such as Religion and the Arts, Film and History, Books and Culture, Literature/Film Quarterly, andThe Cresset.