Page - 136 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/01

Stefanie Knauss Book Review Mathew P. John, Film as Cultural Artifact: Religious Criticism of World Cinema Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017, 148 pages, ISBN: 978-1-5064-2169-8 An interdisciplinary endeavor, Mathew P. John’s study Film as Cultural Artifact attempts to draw on methods and theories of cultural anthropology and the- ology in order to analyze film’s role in intercultural dialogue and deepen the theological understanding of religion in film. The use of an integrated method- ological framework including theological critique, ethnographic fieldwork and anthropological analysis, he argues, will allow for “a more holistic reading of re- ligion from world cinema” (1). The author applies his theoretical and methodo- logical insights to analysis of the Elements trilogy by Deepa Mehta, in particular the last film of the trilogy, Water (CA/IN 2005). The author begins with a discussion of the parallels between film and religion as “narrative[s] of culture” (9) that are world- and meaning-making. Religious criticism of film will pay attention to the role of religion in the meaning-making processes in which the film engages, with a specifically theological approach being explicit about the normative elements of such critical analysis and about the transcendental horizon in which the analysis takes place. Film thus becomes a potential space of God’s revelation in and to culture, whose movements the analyst follows in an open, dialogical attitude which begins with analysis of the film qua film, presupposing a mutual critique and enrichment throughout the dialogical encounter. While these first two chapters are firmly grounded in previous research in the field of film and theology, in chapter three John offers an innovative con- tribution in the combination of this theological approach with anthropological and ethnographic methodologies that push further the understanding of how film and religion interact as cultural meaning-making narratives. John describes films as cultural documents available to ethnographic studies: “a fictional story is being performed to create visual representations of culture” (35). Cultural exe- gesis, the methodology developed by John, then looks at film in order to under- stand and interpret culture. Specifically, the author works with a combination DOI: 10.25364/05.4:2019.1.10 136 | Stefanie Knauss www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1