Page - 139 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/02

Book Review: Komm und sieh | 139www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/2, 139–142 Jochen Mündlein Book Review Inge Kirsner, Komm und sieh Religion im Film. Analysen und Modelle Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2020, 164 pages, ISBN: 978-3-658-30130-9 In her new book, Inge Kirsner, professor of practical theology at the Uni- versity of Tübingen, considers how religious film might be interpreted at the beginning of the 21st century. After a short introduction, the volume is divided into two parts. The first part offers a broad overview of leading motifs and themes from the Christian-Jewish tradition – such as sacrifice and redemption – that can be found in films. Kirsner sees these elements as contributing to the existential character of filmic interpretation which emerges from films’ adaptation of these themes and motifs to human life. This view is illustrated in the second part of the book by practical sugges- tions for liturgical events. In Kirsner’s opinion, going to the cinema is similar to attending a church service, for both interrupt everyday life: “Idealerwei- se kommen wir aus dem Kino anders heraus, als wir hineingegangen sind” (Ideally we emerge from the cinema as different from when we entered it, 4). She describes film watching as an experience which addresses basic ex- istential questions about being human. In the analyses that follow, films are then interpreted theologically, using images, motifs, and figures from the Christian Bible, and in relation to the viewer’s life. The volume can thus be positioned between film analysis and theological hermeneutics. The title of the book conveys this threefold message from the beginning. “Komm und sieh” refers to the title of a film, Come and See (Idi i smotri, Elem Klimow, SU 1985). It also, however, reiterates the condensed revelatory knowledge of Jesus as the messianic savior found in a statement made by the apostle Phil- ip (John 1:46). And it can also be understood as an urgent invitation to read this book, and as an offer to relate motifs and themes from Christian tra- DOI: 10.25364/05.7:2021.2.8