Paul V. M. Flesher and Robert Torry, a Bible scholar and an English professor at the University of Wyoming, created this book from notes for a course on religion and film. They begin by introducing their method and using it to analyze How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1967 and 2000). They go on to discuss two dozen films (plus many more mentioned in passing) under four rubrics: the Cold War, films about Jesus, a miscellaneous category, and world religions. Their book does not have a clear overarching argument; it also lacks an index and bibliography (each chapter lists suggested readings, some of which function like footnotes). However, one can discern major themes.

Half the space in the four key sections treats films with biblical settings: Quo Vadis (1951), The Robe (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), King of Kings (1961), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and The Passion of the Christ (2004). A secondary emphasis is on science fiction. Torry and Flesher discuss When Worlds Collide (1951), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977); they also put the latter two in dialogue with The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976).

Methodologically, the book blends plot summaries with efforts to relate films to their cultural-historical contexts—including contexts that are not overt and self-evident (as, for example, when plots about ancient Rome carry meanings about the Cold War). This approach is surely valuable, and the authors introduce it effectively. Of course, any set of priorities implies other roads not taken; in this case, the authors do little to place their material within film history, analyze film techniques, or reflect on audience reception. They state that the filmmakers' intentions are irrelevant to their approach. Importantly, they give little attention to multiple or conflicted contexts of reception—they typically seek one or two contextual factors (often quite abstract) reflected in filmic themes. This is not the sort of introduction that surveys a range of methods; it analyzes the plots of selected Hollywood films and considers how these plots relate to the contexts that Flesher and Torry posit as most salient.

The most important of these contexts are (1) discourses about Communism and atomic bombs in U.S. dominant culture during the Cold War era, especially as this relates to (2) well-worn arguments about how Protestant millennialism fits together with American exceptionalism (that is, the idea that the U.S. has a special divine mission). The authors see the wise alien Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still and the plot of The Ten Commandments as championing tougher anti-Communist policies; they see a contrast between Jesus and Barabbas in King of Kings dramatizing rising interest in peacemaking in a Cold War context. As they track the fortunes of exceptionalist ideology (citing Robert Bellah), Flesher and Torry interpret Roman emperors and Egyptian pharaohs as stand-ins for Soviets; neither Western colonialism nor gender plays much role in their analysis of the Cold War. After chapter 5, discussion of these issues fades, but it echoes—notably in suggestions that the “directionless” (135) Christ of Jesus Christ Superstar and the demons of The Exorcist reflect the erosion of exceptionalist confidence and that Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the baseball nostalgia of The Natural (1984) and Field of Dreams (1989) symbolize faith in God and exceptionalism.

Equally important is Flesher and Torry's emphasis on how films rework biblical texts. They recall the tradition of creating targums, or translations of scripture from Hebrew to Aramaic that translate words literally but also add material to clarify and embellish the text, with enough scope to introduce new meanings. The authors demonstrate the value of approaching biblical films as a variation on this method, in which “targumic” additions address emerging cultural concerns. By extension, the authors' broader propensity to focus on how films rework tradition informs their discussion of other films. At times they give considerable attention to the sort of abstract exposition of doctrine featured in religious studies survey texts, even when this weakens their analysis of cultural contexts during the years when the films were screened. For example, their contextualization of The Last Temptation of Christ gives far more attention to early Christian disputations about Trinitarian theology than to U.S. culture in the 1980s.

Insofar as any single argument unifies the book, it is an effort to bring the analytical threads I have noted—the Cold War, exceptionalism, and targumic reworking of scripture—into dialogue with the above-mentioned films about the Bible, science fiction, and baseball. Although the argument is not systematic, most chapters address at least one or two of these things.

The remaining pages, including four of the last five chapters and sizable parts of earlier sections, are more of a grab bag. Among the key contexts they posit are a challenge to orthodox belief within modernity (with special attention to psychological interpretations of religious claims) and growing religious diversity (through immigration—the authors give limited attention to race). One chapter discusses Agnes of God (1985) and The Apostle (1998), stressing their psychological dimensions and approaches to forgiveness. Another treats the representation of Buddhism in Little Buddha (1993) and ideas from the Bhagavad Gita in The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000). Two chapters discuss Jewish identity in the context of modernity and the Holocaust (using The Chosen [1982] and The Quarrel [1991]), and the relation between Islam and “fanaticism” in Destiny (1997) and My Son the Fanatic (1997). Flesher and Torry say little about the role of Jews in the history of Hollywood. Their chapter on Islam moves outside Hollywood entirely, thus sidestepping films like Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Malcolm X (1992), and others that reference Islamic terrorists or the Israel-Palestine conflict. They reason that “films dealing knowledgably with Islam are not yet made in the American market” (280).

As they do all this, Flesher and Torry offer many stimulating observations and generally make workmanlike contributions. Their relatively weak scholarly apparatus and sometimes oversimplified arguments about context will limit the book's value for researchers; these factors plus the lack of a clear overall argument may also limit its value in classrooms. However, for some courses its blend of analytical simplicity and relatively broad scope may be an advantage—providing a lucid and accessible, if sometimes contestable, starting point for further discussion.