Page - 119 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/02

Teemu Taira Reading Bond Films through the Lens of “Religion” Discourse of “the West and the Rest” ABSTRACT “Religion” has been absent from the study of James Bond films. Similarly, James Bond has been absent from studies on religion and popular culture. This article aims to fill the gap by examining 25 Bond films through the lens of “religion”. The analysis suggests that there are a number of references to “religion” in Bond films, although “religion” is typi- cally not a main topic of the films. Furthermore, there is a detectable pattern in the films: “religion” belongs primarily to what is regarded as not belonging to “the West” and “the West” is considered modern, developed and rational as opposed to the backward, exotic and “religious” “Rest”. When “religion” appears in “the West”, it is seen positively if it is related to Christianity and confined to the private sphere and to the rites of passage. In this sense, representations of “religion” in Bond films contribute to what Stuart Hall named the discourse of “the West and the Rest”, thus playing a role in the maintenance of the idea of “the West”. This will be demonstrated by focusing on four thematic ex- amples from the films: mythical villains, imperialist attitude to “religion” outside “the West”, “religion” central in the plot (voodoo and tarot), Christianity in “the West”. This article also provides grounds for suggesting that reading Bond films through the lens of “religion” contributes to both Bond studies and studies on religion and popular culture. KEYWORDS Religion, Film, James Bond, Popular Culture, the West, Discourse, Representation, Myth, Colonialism, Imperialism, Christianity, Secular, Rationality BIOGRAPHY Teemu Taira is Senior Lecturer in Study of Religion, University of Helsinki, and Docent in Study of Religion, University of Turku. He is co-author of Media Portrayals of Religion and the Secular Sacred (2013, with Kim Knott and Elizabeth Poole) and author of four monographs (in Finnish) and he has published several articles about religion, media, popular culture, atheism and methodology of religious studies in edited volumes and journals such as Method and Theory in the Study of Religion and Journal of Contempo- rary Religion and Religion. See http://teemutaira.wordpress.com. DOI: 10.25364/05.05:2019.2.7 Reading Bond Films through the Lens of “Religion” | 119www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 119–139