Helene Slessarev-Jamir is a professor of urban studies at Claremont School of Theology in California. She is an expert on anti-poverty policies and is writing a book on faith-based social justice work.

The Rev. Richard Cizik is president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good. He seeks to bring evangelical Christians, researchers and policymakers together to work on issues such as climate change, economic justice and national security.

Gregory A. Robbins, University of Denver religious studies professor, has taught the course “Jesus on the Silver Screen.”

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 […]

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 […]