Meet the Faculty

Terrence Lindvall (Terry)

C.S. Lewis Endowed Chair in Communication and Christian Thought
Professor of Communication

Degrees Held

B.A., Vanguard University
M. Div., Fuller Seminary
Ph.D., University of Southern California

Office Location: 107 Robert Nusbaum Center, Clarke Hall
Phone: 757-455-3277
Email: tlindvall@vwu.edu
Department/s:
- Communication
- Religious Studies

About

Lindvall occupies the C. S. Lewis Chair of Communication and Christian Thought at Virginia Welseyan College, since 2006. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, his MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary, and his BA in Literature/Biology from Vanguard University; he has taught at Azusa Pacific University, Wheaton College, and Regent University. He was also a Visiting Professor at Duke University School of Divinity and the Walter Mason Fellow in Religious Studies at the College of William and Mary. He also slummed as a former president of Regent University for four years where he was called "Peck's Bad Boy."

Publications

• God on the Big Screen: A History of Prayers in Hollywood Films from the Silent Films to Today (New York University Press, 2019)
• Old Men of the Bible: Reflections on Faith and Aging with Craig Wansink and cartoonist John Lawing (Smyth/Helwys Publishers, 2019)
• “Recasting Snow White: Parodic Animated Homages to the Disney Feature” in Snow White (eds. Chris Holliday and Chris Pallant) (forthcoming Bloomsbury Press, 2019).
• “Studying Silence in Popular Culture” with Kathy Merlock-Jackson. Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy (Summer, 2019), 24-37 http://journaldialogue.org/
• “Green Cartoon Images Have Consequences: Ecological Power of Short Animated Films” with William Brown in animation: an interdisciplinary journal (November 2019)
• “Blurred Laughter: How Disney and Pixar Animated Films Teach Children to
Laugh like Animals” in Our Animals/Ourselves: The Blurred Line between Human and Animal in Popular Culture (forthcoming McFarland, 2020)
• “Laugh/Laughter: Christianity” and “Laugh/Laughter: Film” Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 15 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2017)
• Divine Film Comedies: Biblical Narratives and Sub-Genres of Film Comedy with Dennis Bounds and Chris Lindvall (Routledge Press, 2016)
•God Mocks: A History of Religious Satire from the Hebrew Prophets to Stephen Colbert (New York University Press, 2015) Religious Communication Association 2016 Book of the Year
• A Mirror for Fools: An Illustrated Alphabet of Religion and Satire (with John Lawing illustrator) (Koehler Press, 2015)
• “The Word Made Gag: Biblical Reception in Film Comedy” with Chris Lindvall Biblical Reception in Film (ed. Rhonda Burnette-Bletsch)(De Gruyter Press, 2016)
• “From Herod to the Crib: The Sacred Story in Thanhouser’s The Star of Bethlehem” The Bible and the Moving Image (ed. David Shepherd) (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
• “Holy Dung: Comic Signs of Consubstantiality in Martin Luther Films” in Religions (February 2016) with Morgan Stroyeck. http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/7/3/20/html
• “Embalmed Images: C. S. Lewis and the Art of Film” Inklings (Spring 2015) with Ben Fraser
• “History of Film Comedy” and “Types of Film Comedy” in Encyclopedia of Humor Studies (ed. Salvatore Attardo) (Sage Publications, 2014), 520-528
• “Religion and Film” in Oxford Bibliographies in Cinema and Media Studies (ed. Krin Gabbard) (Oxford University Press, 2013)
• The Girl Who Couldn’t Laugh with Caroline Lindvall (Newington-Cropsey Foundation, 2012)
• "A History of Evangelicals in North American Film Culture" Evangelical Christians and Popular Culture Volume 1 (ed. Robert H. Woods, Jr) (Praeger, 2013), 1-20
• Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C. S. Lewis revised (HarperCollins, 2012)
• Celluloid Sermons: Emergence of the Christian Film Industry with Andrew Quicke (New York University Press, 2011)
• Windows of Faith: Literature and the Longing for God (ed.) (Bedford Select, 2010)
• C. S. Lewis: His Life, His Loves: 4-part DVD Series (Atlanta: CSI, 2010)
• “Assessing Predictions of Relational Prayer Theory II: Media and Interpersonal Inputs, Public and Private Prayer Processes, and Spiritual Health” with Jim Baesler, Journal of Southern Communication (Spring 2011)
• “God in the Saddle: Silent Western Films as Protestant Sermons” Australian Religious Studies Review (Spring 2009)
• “Silent Film and Religion” John Lyden (ed.) Encyclopedia of Religion and Film (Routledge, 2009)
• Opening the Doors: Faith and Literature (ed.) (Boston: Beford/St. Martin Press, 2008)
• “Local Television Evening News” State of the Region: Hampton Roads 2008 (ed. James V. Koch) (Old Dominion University, 2008), 47-58
• "Cinema Virtue, Cinema Vice: Religion, Race, and Moving Picture Exhibition in Norfolk, Virginia, 1906-1922" (eds. George Potamianos and Kathryn Fuller) Beyond the Bowery: Cinema and Mass Entertainment in Small-Town America from its Origins through the Multiplex (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008)
• "Sundays in Norfolk: Toward a Protestant Utopia through Film Exhibition in Norfolk, Virginia, 1910-1920" in Going to the Movies: Hollywood and the Social Experience of Cinema (ed. Melvyn Stokes), (University of Exeter Press, 2008)
• “Film: From Church Reels to Digital Video” Understanding Evangelical Media: The Changing Face of Christian Communication (ed. Quentin Schultze) (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008)
• Sanctuary Cinema: Origins of the Christian Film Industry (New York University Press, 2007) Religious Communication Book of the Year Award (RCA, 2008)
• Johnston, Robert K. (ed) “Hollywood Chronicles: Toward an Intersection of Church History and Film History” Reframing Theology and Film (Baker Academic Press, 2007), 126-144
• With Brown, William and Keeler John “Audience Responses to The Passion of the Christ” Journal of Media and Religion 6: 2 (2007), 87-107
• "O Cristão e a Cultura da Mídia de Entretenimento" Texto de Terrence R. Lindvall e Matthew Melton Adaptado pelo Setor de Educação Cristã http://www.efn.org/~hkrieger/church.html (2006)
• “Film and Religion: A Review of the Literature, History and Theology” Communication Research Trends 24: 1 (2005), 1-42
• “Film and Religion: A Review of the Literature, Criticism and Pedagogy” Communication Research Trends 23: 4 (2004), 1-44
•The Mother of All Laughter: Sarah and the Genesis of Comedy (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2003)
•The Silents of God: Selected Issues and Documents in Silent American Film and Religion, 1908-1926 (London: The Scarecrow Press, 2001)
•Zaskoczeni smiechem (Warsaw: Instytut Wydawnicszy Pax, 2001)
• "Images Have Consequences: The Impact of the Visual on the Word” in Charles Ess (ed.) Critical Thinking and the Bible in the Age of New Media (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2004)
• "Religion in the Marketplace of Silent Film" Mars Hill Tapes (Charlottesville, VA: Ken Myers Interview, February 2002)
• "The Organ in the Sanctuary: Silent Film and Paradigmatic Images of a Suspect Clergy" in Dane S. Claussen (ed.) Sex, Religion and Media (Boulder, Colorado: Rowman and Littlefield, February 2002).
• "The Late Great Planet Hollywood: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Popular Culture" Christianity and the Arts (Fall 1999), 31-34.
• "Darker Shades of Animation: African-American Images in the Warner Bros. Cartoons." Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation (ed. Kevin Sandler) (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, February 1998)
• "Les References au Cinema dans le Dessin Anime" in Cartoons and the Movies, edited by Jayne Pilling (Paris: Dreamland, 1997), 21-34
• “Spectacular Transcendence: Abundant Means in the Cinematic Representation of African-American Christianity" Howard Journal of Communication (September 1996) Religious Communication Article of the Year (RCA, 1997)
• Surprised by Laughter: C.S. Lewis and the Comic Spirit (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997)

Publications

Featured in VWU News

Publisher's Desk: New Books by Terry Lindvall

VWC religious studies and communication professor brings religion, history and humor to recent trio of works

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Students and faculty share their thoughts on gratitude in time for Thanksgiving