Posted on Monday, March 10, 2008
Rennie Greenfield, a student in Westminster College's Lifelong Learning Program, received a grant from the Heinz Collaborative Research Fund to present "The Celluloid Campfire: Implicit Religion and Film" at the 31st Conference on Implicit Religion and Contemporary Spirituality May 9-11 at Denton Hall in Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
In the abstract for the paper, Greenfield explains, "While the last 15 years have seen a wealth of scholarship into the overt portrayal of institutional religions in the cinema, almost nothing has been written about the potential of the film medium itself to produce an experience that is implicitly religious. Cinema theaters constitute a sacred space in which films like American Beauty and Pan's Labyrinth, in both substance and function, offer secular and religious audiences alike a symbolic narrative that can provide models of our lived experience and models for future behavior. I argue that film both fulfills Clifford Geertz's definition of religion as a cultural system and also all of Ninian Smart's dimensions of the sacred. My paper illustrates the homologies between the artistic modes of communication found in traditional religious institutions and those found in the cinema."
Dr. Bryan Rennie, Westminster College associate professor and Vira I. Heinz chair in religion, serves as Greenfield's adviser and will accompany him to the conference.
Dr. Rennie said, "This is not an undergraduate conference, but normally features speakers at the postdoctoral level (college and university professors) from all over the world. It is a genuinely international event and is a great honor and opportunity for Rennie Greenfield."
According to tradition, the aim of the conference is to bring together researchers from various disciplines interested in the role and manifestations of religion outside the realm of established religious institutions.
Greenfield majors in the history and philosophy of religion and resides in Poland, Ohio.
Contact Dr. Rennie at (724) 946-7151 or e-mail brennie@westminster.edu for additional information.
