Graduate Program
Communication Studies
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Semester of Degree Completion
2006
Thesis Director
Shane Miller
Thesis Committee Member
Melanie Mills
Thesis Committee Member
Olaf Hoerschelmann
Abstract
This project argues that film has the capacity to function as cinematic scripture for Christian audiences. Cinematic scripture means that films are authoritative for audiences the same way that written scripture is. In The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, this new form of scripture works as equipment for living by encouraging Christian audiences to go to war against evil through the structure of the film's biblical themes of bifurcation, redemption, and millennialism. This culmination of the rhetorical vision of war comes from three fantasy themes that emerge when Christian Internet writers describe how they use the films: repentance, strength, and evangelism. From the example of The Lord of the Rings, two functions of cinematic scripture surface as authoritative texts: the films are canonical and militant. Because the films are militant, they foster a dangerous message from scripture that is zealously nationalistic at the expense of prophetic realism.
Recommended Citation
Yergensen, Brent, "Cinematic scripture: The structure and usage of The Lord of the Rings as equipment for living" (2006). Masters Theses. 766.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/766
