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Fall Schedule Announced for Westminster/Wesleyan Lifelong Learning Institute
"God on the Big Screen" is one of nine courses offered this semester
University News | September 12, 2019
By Laynee H. Timlin
View the Westminster/Wesleyan Institute full schedule for fall 2019
Professor of Communication Terry Lindvall’s new book, "God on the Big Screen: A History of Hollywood Prayers from the Silent Era to Today," was recently released by New York University Press. The subject of his book, which explores what happens when film history meets church history through the ritual of prayer, is one of the nine topics that will be presented this fall in courses offered through the Westminster-Canterbury/Virginia Wesleyan Lifelong Learning Institute.
The Institute is a unique partnership between the two organizations that was formalized in 2017. Since that time, non-credit courses have been offered each semester to members of Westminster-Canterbury on the Chesapeake Bay, a Virginia Beach life-care community for active retirees. The courses are taught by Virginia Wesleyan faculty.
Lindvall, who is also the C.S. Lewis Endowed Chair in Communication and Christian Thought at VWU, will present the subject matter from his book on November 11, using visuals such as a PowerPoint presentation and video clips. He’s quite familiar with this audience as he has taught courses for the Institute each semester since its inception, offering classes on topics such as “Studies in the Early Church” and “Humor in Scripture.”
This fall, his presentation will focus on moments of prayer as they have been represented in Hollywood movies since the silent era, prayers that appear unexpectedly in films like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Frankenstein, Amistad, Easy Rider, Talladega Nights, and Alien 3, as well as in religiously inspired classics such as Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments.
Lindvall notes that “God on the Big Screen” describes the way prayer is presented in film during each historical period, telling us a great deal about America’s broader relationship with religion.
“In writing this book, I’ve tried to connect church history with film history, bringing together the sacred and the secular,” said Lindvall. “When I first started teaching a course in theology and film, I looked to see what rituals and emblems or tropes really connected these two worlds. The one thing I found was that prayers dot all the landscapes of film for the last century.”
He noted that the prayers in the early days were often associated with women and children, and he thought that this was a pattern that may repeat throughout his research. It wasn’t. He found that both men and women pray; those both young and old pray; people of all races pray; and, with many different kinds of prayers.
“I began to realize that prayers in film teach people how to pray more than prayers in church, because in the last 20 years people have been going to movies more than they have been going to churches.”
Lindvall explains that this subject dates back to an old quote from British painter and poet Dante Rossetti who said, “It was art that first taught us to pray when we folded our hands together and closed our eyes.” He believes that art teaches us how to be religious, whether we have a relationship with God or not.
His inspiration for this subject and the book actually began in 2003 when he was asked to fill in for Roger Ebert, who was to be the main presenter at the Virginia Film Festival at the University of Virginia. When Ebert had to cancel due to illness, Lindvall was called upon to put together a presentation. He created a visual presentation of prayers in film clips. He says that the subject matter was very popular and so well-received that he decided to apply for a grant from the Louisville Foundation to further research and investigate how prayers have appeared throughout human history, and identify just what those prayers meant.
That research lead to the publication of “God on the Big Screen: A History of Hollywood Prayers from the Silent Era to Today.” A second grant has provided Lindvall with the resources to adapt the book into a feature documentary film that will be directed and produced by two of his former students, Greg Frances and Vickie Bronaugh. VWU Professor of Communication Stu Minnis has created the trailer for the film, “Cries of the Heart,” which is scheduled to be released in January 2021.
Lindvall looks forward to sharing his research and the material in his book with the members of Westminter-Canterbury this fall. He expects a rich dialogue to follow.
“It’s exciting to engage with this attentive audience,” said Lindvall. “They’ll bring up films that I have neglected, films that they remember and share, reliving their own experiences with prayer in film, making us all the wiser.”
A book signing will follow the course presentation.
What’s next? Lindvall says his next book, written with VWU colleague Craig Wansink, Professor of Religious Studies, and illustrated by a 90 year-old cartoonist, has also just been released. “Old Men of the Bible” will no doubt be much like his other works, and like Lindvall himself-- scholarly, hilarious and fun!
Fall 2019 Westminster/Wesleyan Courses include:
Course 1: Democracy in America: Reconsidering the Founders’ Design in our own Time
Presented by: Dr. Timothy G. O’Rourke (Ph.D., Duke, Political Science) is Vice President Emeritus at Virginia Wesleyan University
Course 2: In the Very Beginning: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in the Garden of Eden
Presented by: Dr. Craig Wansink, Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at VWU
Course 3: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: His Life and Works
Presented by: Dr. Benson P. Fraser, Westminster-Canterbury Fellow for Religious Studies and Lifelong Learning
Course 4: Early Comedy Teams
Presented by: Dr. J. Dennis Bounds, Adjunct Professor at Virginia Wesleyan University
Course 5: Cult Film Class: Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Presented by: Dr. Kathy Merlock Jackson, Professor of Communication at Virginia Wesleyan University
Course 6: God on the Big Screen: A History of Prayers in Hollywood Films from the Silent Era to Today
Presented by: Dr. Terry Lindvall, Virginia Wesleyan’s C.S. Lewis Endowed Chair in Communication and Christian Thought
Course 7: The French Revolution: Lessons in Democracy
Presented by: Dr. Sara Sewell, Executive Director of The Lighthouse: Center for Exploration and Discovery, Executive Director of the Quality Enhancement Plan and Professor of History
Course 8: Christ and Culture
Presented by: Dr. Benson P. Fraser, Westminster-Canterbury Fellow for Religious Studies and Lifelong Learning
Course 9: Stories of Faith
Presented by: Dr. Benson P. Fraser, Westminster-Canterbury Fellow for Religious Studies and Lifelong Learning