Screening Divinity

'What happens when theology meets the box office? Jesus, Zeus, Athena, Moses, Hera, Aphrodite and the Virgin Mary - no book has ever tackled a cast list like this before. In this unique study, Lisa Maurice deftly exposes the challenges and the compromises in representing divine figures whether they be Christian, Jewish or Pagan.'
Alastair Blanshard, The University of Queensland
Examines screen portrayals of the deities of Classical Mythology and the Bible
How can we depict a deity on screen? How do we present the frequent immorality of the Greek gods while still maintaining an element of divinity? How do we interpret the deities of Judaism and Christianity in the modern Western world? From Le Tonnerre de Jupiter (1903) to The Ten Commandments (1956) to Troy, Fall of a City (2018), Lisa Maurice examines the whole history of screen portrayals of gods - covering Greek mythology, the Biblical God and Jesus - from the beginning of cinema to the present day.
Engaging with recent scholarship on film, particularly film and theology as well as classical reception, this new work considers the presentation of these gods through examination of their physical and moral characteristics, as well as their interaction with the human world, against the background of the social contexts of each production.
Lisa Maurice is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Classical Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
Cover image: Immortals, Tarsem Singh, 2011 © Relativity Media
Cover design: Stuart Dalziel
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edinburghuniversitypress.com
ISBN 978-1-4744-2573-5
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