Andrew Flescher, religion professor at California State University, Chico, has taught a course on religion and film that looks at religion and self in contemporary American society; religion, redemption and recovery; and religion and ethnicity. He also directs the Center for Applied and Professional Ethics, where he focuses on religion, ethics and society. He is the author […]

Paul V.M. Flesher, University of Wyoming professor of religious studies, teaches a course on religion and film. He and Robert Torry are co-authors of Film and Religion: A Textbook (2007). He is also an expert on Judaism of the Rabbinic period and early synagogues.

Amir Hussain is professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He is a former editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. His research focuses on Islam in North America, with additional expertise in religion and music, religion and literature, religion and film and Islam and Christian-Muslim relations.

Richard Hecht, religious studies professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, has taught a course about religious themes in American films.

Anthony Burke Smith, associate professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton, is author of The Look of Catholics: Portrayals in Popular Culture from the Great Depression to the Cold War. He has written about the cultural and political role of Catholics in movies, television and photojournalism in debates about American identity.

Roy Anker, a longtime professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., is the author of Beautiful Light: Religious Meaning in Film. He has also written about religion and the films of M. Night Shyamalan and the use of artificial intelligence in the films of Steven Spielberg.

The Rev. Richard C. Stern, homiletics professor at St. Meinrad School of Theology in St. Meinrad, Ind., is co-author of the book Savior on the Silver Screen (Paulist Press, 1999).

Frances Flannery is the director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Terrorism and Peace (CISTP) and an associate professor of religion at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. Her current area of study is apocalypticism and its link to terrorism. She also teaches courses on the Hebrew Bible, world religions, religion and mysticism in […]

Ted Trost, University of Alabama American religions professor, has taught a course about religious themes and rituals in popular film.