God in Film

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Joan Osborne’s “One of Us” reached Number 4 on the Billboard Charts when it was released in 1995. The hit song anthropomorphized God with the following lyrics: “What if God was one of us; Just a slob like one of us; Just a stranger on the bus; Tryna make his way home?” The singer wonders what God would look like, how God might answer questions, and challenges us to wonder about the question we might ask. In this class, we will explore how movies have depicted God and faith, while assessing the effect that the culture had on these movies. We will discuss the ways in which God is portrayed, including whether the incarnation of God on the screen is plain on its face, or somewhat obscured. Are good and evil scrambled, questionable, and confusing? Or are they clearly delineated? How do people respond to the presence of God among them? Is the response reflective of our movement to being “spiritual” and not “religious”? And as the ticket holder, are we so removed from being a theologically literate society that we even recognize when God is in the cast?