Page - 167 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/02

Russell C. Powell Narrative and Experiment, Religion and Politics in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life ABSTRACT While Terrence Malick’s 2011 film The Tree of Life is ordinarily analyzed in light of its Christian—and implicitly Augustinian—theological rationale, I argue here for the impor- tance of analyzing The Tree of Life for its connection to the Emersonian artistic herit- age. In so doing, I elucidate the film’s unique political vision, a vision that emphasizes experimentalism and is allied with American avant-garde cinema. That vision, further- more, carries with it an awareness of the differences and historical conflicts between the Augustinian and Emersonian traditions in American politics, as well as insights into these two political strains’ prospects for rapprochement, particularly in regard to how avowed religionists and secularists might cooperate on contemporary environmental concerns KEYWORDS Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life, Religion, Politics, Augustinian Theology, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emersonianism BIOGRAPHY Russell C. Powell is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He recently earned his doc- torate from Princeton Theological Seminary. His writing, research, and teaching focus on modern American religious thought and environmental studies. Powell is currently work- ing on a monograph that reassesses the religion, ethics, and politics of John Muir, the renowned nineteenth-century American conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club. INTRODUCTION Whereas many heretofore have considered the import and implications of the Christian theological resonances of Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (US 2011), I want to consider the political vision of Malick’s film.1 Malick, I will demon- 1 See, e. g., Leary 2011, Leithard 2013, Barnett/Elliston 2016, Handley 2016, and Larsen 2017. DOI: 10.25364/05.05:2019.2.9 Narrative and Experiment, Religion and Politics in The Tree of Life | 167www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 167–185