Salvation from Cinema

Crystal Downing teaches film adaptation, critical theory, and nineteenth-century British literature at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. In addition to her first three books, which apply poststructuralist insight to issues of faith, Downing has published numerous essays on film in journals such as Religion and the Arts, Film and History, Books and Culture, Literature/Film Quarterly, and The Cresset.

Introduction: Toward a Union of Medium and Message. Part I: Theories of Film Salvation. Chapter 1: Let There Be Enlightenment: Salvation from Religion and Film. Chapter 2: Light from Light: Seeing Cinema Constellations. Chapter 3: Gazing at the Stars: Nudity on Screen. Chapter 4: Breaking the Fourth Wall: Salvation from the Screen. Part II: Salvation from Film Theory. Chapter 5: Enlightenment as Mass Deception: Certain Tendencies in Film Theory. Chapter 6: The Gift of Salvation: Derrida and Holocaust Cinema. Chapter 7: Seeing Cinema Differently: Salvation from C. S. Peirce. Chapter 8: From Delusion to Deleuzean Cinema: Salvation from Hugo.