sacred and the cinema, The

By Sheila J. Nayar

Book Description

What transforms a film into a sacred experience? For decades, scholars and spiritual seekers have wrestled with this profound question, often dismissing certain genres while elevating others as authentically transcendent.

Sheila J. Nayar challenges these conventional boundaries in this thought-provoking exploration of spirituality and cinema. Rather than simply categorizing films as sacred or secular, she invites readers to examine how our own ways of understanding shape what we perceive as genuine spiritual expression on screen.

Drawing from an expansive range of cinematic traditions, from Hollywood's grand religious epics to Hindu mythological films and internationally acclaimed works known for their transcendental qualities, this study reveals the hidden forces that influence our encounters with the divine through visual storytelling. Nayar suggests that our judgments about authentic sacred cinema may reflect more about our particular modes of perception than about the films themselves.

The book offers both scholarly insight and accessible wisdom for anyone curious about the intersection of spirituality and visual media. By tracing the development of sacred film studies as an academic field, Nayar provides readers with essential context for understanding how we've come to view certain cinematic expressions as more spiritually valid than others.

This illuminating work encourages a more open and nuanced approach to recognizing the sacred wherever it may appear on screen.