Luminous: The Spiritual Life on Film

by Mike King

Overview

This book is a comprehensive survey of religion and spirituality on film, covering both popular and arthouse movies. It seeks spiritual and moral depth, finding filmic examples across the world's faiths and sometimes in surprising places where religion has no obvious presence. Over 400 films are drawn on to shed light on issues that confront us in the serious pursuit of spirituality, culminating in the "sixty must-see films for the spiritual life." The examination of spiritual and religious questions is divided across twelve categories:

1. Spiritual Aesthetics, Nature and the Romantic
2. The Esoteric, the New Age and Neoplatonism.
3. Dying, Suicide and Bereavement
4. Ghosts, Angels and the Afterlife
5. Reincarnation and Resurrection
6. Spiritual Chaos and Rubber Reality
7. Wisdom, Teachers, and Disciples.
8. Priests, Monks, Nuns and Spiritual Community
9. Spiritual Practice, Discipline and the Martial Arts.
10. Violence, Compassion, Forgiveness and Atonement
11. East vs. West
12. Secular vs. Spiritual

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780995648043
Publisher:	Stochastic Press
Publication date:	06/19/2018
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	7.01(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

Mike King, formerly a university reader at London Metropolitan University, has written more than 60 scholarly essays, chapters, reviews and articles on the arts, film, religion, science and economics. The author of five books in these fields, he lives in London, England.

Table of Contents

Foreword Linus Roache 1

Preface 3

Introduction 5

1 Spiritual Aesthetics, Nature and the Romantic 23

2 The Esoteric, the New Age and Neoplatonism 36

3 Dying, Suicide and Bereavement 65

4 Ghosts, Angels and the Afterlife 81

5 Reincarnation and Resurrection 92

6 Spiritual Chaos and Rubber Reality 110

7 Wisdom, Teachers and Disciples 123

8 Priests, Monks, Nuns and Spiritual Community 133

9 Spiritual Practice, Discipline and the Martial Arts 148

10 Violence, Compassion, Forgiveness and Atonement 168

11 East vs. West 192

12 Secular vs. Spiritual 208

Conclusions: A Luminous Cinema of the Spirit 237

Filmography 241

Appendix: Sixty Must-See Films for the Spiritual Life 247

Chapter Notes 253

Bibliography 261

Index 265