The theological power of film: embodiment, time, and the work of Andrei Tarkovsky

Thesis

This thesis contributes to the interdisciplinary study of theology and film. It recognises that the prevailing methodologies in this study seldom prioritise questions about the formal properties of cinema as an artistic medium, and so overlook several productive and substantial questions for the theologian: What theology and theological practice does cinematic art give rise to? What are the perceptual and affective potentials of film for theology, and what, if anything, is theological about the cinematic medium itself? In condensing and synthesising these inquiries, I offer this central research question: What is the theological power of film? By prioritising these questions, this thesis engages in theological-cinematic analysis which aims to render a properly theological account of the medium of film. This account constitutes a shift away from the ‘textual’ analysis of film, towards an ‘experiential’ analysis of the art form itself. As such, this is not a matter of ‘applying’ theological concepts to film. Rather, ‘the theological power of film’ designates the medium’s power to express, signify, prime and perform certain conceptual and theological practices. In this way, the film experience is the proper subject of an inquiry into the theological power of film, and so this thesis adopts a phenomenological method, drawing on a major project of recent cinematic theory: film-phenomenology. Foregrounding the body in the film experience through the Merleau-Pontian concept of the body-subject, I argue for an understanding of cinema as a haptic and somatic medium of perception-cum-expression. The embodied nature of the art form also reveals the distinct temporality of film, for our embodied being in the world is indissolubly connected with our being in time. The films and writings of Andrei Tarkovsky emerge as the fulcrum of my response, as his work becomes a singular illustration of the theological power of film.

Authors: Lorenz, J

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Andrei Tarkovsky; Theology; Philosophy of Religion; Embodiment; Time; Film Theory; Phenomenology
• Subjects: Theology; Motion picture film; Religion; Phenomenology and art