Page - 121 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

Review: Matthew Rindge, Profane Parables | 121www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 121–123 Theresia Heimerl Matthew Rindge, Profane Parables. Film and the American Dream Baylor University Press, 2016 CONTENT The book Profane Parables assumes a clear twofold thesis: films are parables, and the biblical parables of the New Testament are parables of disorientation that therefore critically question their social context. The author, Matthew S. Rindge, Associate Pro- fessor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University, presents this thesis within the first three pages of the book along with his goal – to demonstrate the functioning of films as parables of disorientation on the basis of three examples. The first main chapter deals with the context of these modern parables, which are critically challenged and hence, according to Rindge’s thesis, become parables of disorientation. The author identifies the “American Dream” as this context, beginning with the statement, “The dominant religion in America is America itself” (p. 5). To substantiate this thesis Rindge juxtaposes the – in his opinion – constitutive elements of religion (i.e. sacred text, sacred symbol, sacred ritual, sacred hymn, sa- cred days, myths of origins, sacred values) in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and finds parallels for each of them in the “Religion America”. He sees the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as equivalent to the holy text, the flag as a sacred symbol, and the Pledge of Allegiance as sacred ritual. The Star-Spangled Banner takes the place of the hymn. With regard to holy days, he mentions several, such as Memo- rial Day, Veterans Day, Presidents Day, and Independence Day. According to Rindge, the narrative about the Pilgrim Fathers, connected to the leitmotif of freedom, cor- responds to the myth of origin. At this point, the author proceeds to a critique of this Religion America and its leitmotif by mentioning its unmasking in the course of countless military interventions abroad in the name of freedom. According to Rindge, sacred value corresponds to the American Dream itself, although he admits how dif- ficult it is to define this concept. The two approaches for the critique of the American Dream quoted in the first chapter are quite well known: racial critique on one hand; a psychoanalytical perspec- tive on the other hand. These two seem to have been chosen rather arbitrarily, with