Covering the historical period from 1908 to 1925, this study showcases pamphlets, magazine articles (from both religious and film periodicals), sermons, and other discourse that chronicle an early vision of church/photoplay cooperation and its subsequent dissolution with the advent of growing suspicion, Hollywood scandals, Sabbatical reform movements, and alternative communication technologies. This collection of documents challenges the enduring fiction that the Church was hostile to the moving picture at its inception; rather, the Church sought to appropriate its potential for evangelism, education, and social reform. Divided into four chronological sections, the study traces the process of religious response to film as a prophetic vision, a series of great debates, the articulation of film as a handmaiden to church work, and the great divorce of church and cinema, culminating in a religious posture and emphasis on rigid censorship rather than creative dialogue.

About the Author
Terry Lindvall is the Distinguished Chair of Visual Communication in the College of Communication and the Arts at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Reviews
Of course the anthology can only include a fraction of the literature available-but never mind; the absolutely stupendous bibliography...is almost 50 pages. * CHOICE *



Book Information
ISBN 9780810839540
Author Terry Lindvall
Format Hardback
Page Count 440
Imprint Scarecrow Press
Publisher Scarecrow Press
Weight(grams) 671g
Dimensions(mm) 223mm * 178mm * 36mm