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Saving the World and Healing the Soul
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781498219501 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wipf & Stock Publishers |
| Publication date: | 05/01/2017 |
| Pages: | 192 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.44(d) |
About the Author
Kurt Blaugher has been teaching theater in a liberal arts curriculum for thirty years. He has engaged with theologians and theological analysis for nearly as many years by teaching within Mount St. Mary's strong, interdisciplinary core curriculum. Recently, he has written on ways that dramatic narrative and theatrical performance shape moral perspectives: "Stirring Hearts and Minds," in Where Justice and Mercy Meet (2013).
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 The Hero, the World, and the Soul 1
Film Synopses and Popular/Critical Reception
The Bourne Series 7
Nolan's Batman Trilogy 12
The Twilight Saga 19
The Hunger Games Series 26
Chapter 2 Bourne's Identity 32
Appendices
Bourne 4: Jason Bourne 57
The Sympathetic Serial Killer 60
The Moral, and Religious World of Jason Bourne 63
Chapter 3 Batman's Quest 66
Appendices
The Stuff of Romance and Why Rachel Has to Die 91
Aristotelian Virtue and Batman's Moral Quest 94
Chapter 4 Bella's Ascension 97
Appendices
The Good Guys: The Cullens Are Good Americans 123
Nineteenth-Century Romanticism and the Moral World of the Twilight Saga 124
Chapter 5 Katniss's Rebellion 127
Appendices
The Hero and the Heroine: Are Their Quests Different? 157
The Moral World of The Hunger Games 160
Chapter 6 How It All Ends 162
Film Bibliography 175
Index 179
What People are Saying About This
"This book goes much deeper than analyzing The Jason Bourne movies, Christopher Nolan's Batman series, Twilight, and the films based on the Hunger Games books. McCarthy and Blaugher reveal how our expectations about courage, heroism, and salvation are determined by these films. More importantly, they give readers reasons to hold onto ideas of hope, justice, and love in our overly complex world. This is required reading for students of cultural studies, film studies, gender studies, philosophy, psychology, religious studies, and theology."
—Jacob L. Goodson, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Southwestern College
"This engaging volume points to the power of stories and the hero's journey in these unstable and uncertain times. Though not always favorites among critics, the films profiled herein have caught the public's imagination by serving as windows into basic questions of our humanity and providing touchstones for a society searching for order and meaning. Through attention to romance, love, redemption, and the hero's quest to navigate the forces of good and evil, Saving the World and Healing the Soul makes a compelling case for the action blockbuster as a religious narrative for the twenty-first century."
—Ann W. Duncan, Associate Professor of Religion, Goucher College; coeditor of The Universe Is Indifferent: Theology, Philosophy, and Mad Men
"Compelling, accessible, provocative, and always entertaining, Saving the World and Healing the Soul shows us how goodness and truth and humanity are always as close as a theater (or tablet screen) near you. In their super-engaging treatment of films like The Hunger Games and The Dark Knight Rises, the authors serve us by both dealing with films people actually watch, and helping us know how to watch them, a treat even better than buttered popcorn."
—Jonathan Tran, Baylor University; author of The Vietnam War and Theologies of Memory