Page - 104 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/01

104 | Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/1, 103–105 biblical references in their oeuvre. “Voices from the Margins”, the concluding part of the second volume of the Handbook, contains articles on key issues in the interaction of religion, film and society, such as antisemitism, ethnicity and slavery, imperialism and questions of gender. The 56 chapters collected in the two volumes provide an encompassing in- troduction to the field of cinema and the Bible. Although most of the authors are from Anglo-American academic institutions, voices from other countries are also included, which is refreshing and opens up the field to new perspectives and approaches. The Handbook can easily be used as a source of inspiration for classes on film and religion in the study of religion or for introducing the influ- ence of biblical texts on cinema within exegetical studies. Furthermore, it offers a huge number of sources and examples for approaching core topics in system- atic theology or in the history of Judaism and Christianity. Nevertheless, the value of this work goes beyond its introductory charac- ter. Reading across the articles, one becomes aware of its innovative impact on different aspects in the field of film and religion. First, the Handbook offers accurate analyses of the tight relation between film production and the trans- mission process of the Bible. From this perspective, the history of cinema can be reconstructed by following the stages and modes of re-enacting, dealing with, transforming, challenging, questioning or alienating biblical narratives, figures or symbols. Film brings the Bible in dialogue with different genres, narrative structures and techniques, and in doing so contributes to spreading the motifs of the religious traditions linked to this sacred text. Furthermore, cinematic dis- courses on biblical materials encompass variegated interpretations of the bibli- cal tradition: in some cases, film is used to present biblical narrative in a new language, in others, to question and radically criticise religion. Second, a cross-reading illustrates the complexity of reception processes of the biblical narrative given the intermedial character of film production. Refer- ences to the Bible can be anchored in the main narrative structure of a particu- lar work, but they can also be found in the form of selected tropes or symbols. Biblical elements can be presented in dialogues, in the composition of the visual style; they can be referenced by means of quotations from the history of litera- ture, music, arts, theatre, liturgy etc. In many cases, all these procedures are used at the same time. Therefore, not only is film an important medium in the history of the reception of the Bible, but it also offers critical insight into the very process of transmitting and re-reading a sacred text. Third, in comparing the many different ways of conceiving of the reception of the Bible in film represented in the articles collected here, readers of the Handbook are confronted with the fundamental question of how to conceive of the relation between film and religion. The work as a whole shows the limits of considering each element, religion and film, as an independent sphere of so-