Page - 39 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 01/01

Methodological Challenges by (New) Media | 39www.jrfm.eu 2015, 1/1, 37–42 But the requirements for perception have changed, especially in the last century. The audio-visual impression is no longer restricted to what is part of our natural environ- ment; in fact, this seems to be only a minor part nowadays. The urban citizen’s envi- ronment is dominated by artificial sounds and images. And although in the vast ma- jority of them are unimportant, they are perceived as essential because they trigger the primal mechanisms that have not changed over the last hundreds of thousands of years. And one more important thing: For the first time in history, humans are able to see and hear the exact same pictures and sounds even though the individuals perceiving them may live in different places and at different times. It is possible to define the basis for the interpretation of the world in an almost normative way by supplying all audiences with the same pictures and sounds, which subsequently become part of their literacy: each picture is interpreted on the basis of pictures that have been seen before. even though a text evokes pictures and other sensorial impressions too, these stay individual and, consequently, different. The text line “They soon found thirteen [barrels] with room enough for a dwarf in each”7 and the movie sequence showing the dwarves climbing into thirteen barrels8 both deal with the same part of Tolkien’s opus; yet they are different. The former evokes an individual imagination; the latter presents an image with a normative claim. The viewer of the film sequence is suspended from making a creative contribution; instead a finished set demands to be accepted as reality, achieving an immediate effect: it shapes the reality of the viewer before any reflexive notion kicks in.9 a CONNeCTiON TO WhaT is UsUally CalleD “reliGiON” it would obviously be inappropriate to summarise only the Western and Middle east- ern traditions of the monotheistic denominations as “religion” per se. Thus it is nec- essary to find a different, more abstract and more general definition. F. Heiler has suggested defining as a religion any notion that includes a personal experience of transcending one´s own contingency towards a different entity that is experienced as a non-me; that allows the individual to realise that others are sharing similar experi- ences and to find ways to express this experience collectively; that enables one to reflect about these experiences systematically and with regard to human existence generally, and that demands a set of behaviours that defines the framework for the actions of the individual based on these terms.10 Basically, heiler sketches the four cornerstones of any “relation to a transcendence” (be it personal or impersonal), 7 Tolkien 2012, 203 (my translation). 8 The Hobbit. The Desolation of Smaug (Peter Jackson, NZ/Us 2013). 9 As James Monaco (2006, 160) wrote, “In this context, film does not suggest anything: It rather makes a declarative statement.” (my translation). 10 heiler 1961, 562–564.