Sacred subtexts and popular film: a brief survey of four categories of hidden religious figurations

Abstract

Sacred subtexts have had a long and honourable history in popular cinema, but they have not always been easily recognised by audiences. The critical literature was reviewed and four taxonomic categories of subtexts were identified, selected, and explicated herein, namely: (a) Christ-figures, (b) New Testament-figures, (c) Old Testament/Hebraic figures, and (d) Buddhist parallelism. An ad hoc survey of these subtextual religious figurations proved to be numerous, complicated, and insightful. As an act of applied cinema, their pursuit is useful for a post-millennial religious education tailored for the video generation. Further research into what pop culture's cinematic sages are saying about contemporary religiosity was recommended, whether as an academic pursuit or a Christian duty to scrutinise the signs of the times (Matt. 16_3).