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).

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

Erin Runions is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Pomona College in California. She is a specialist in the Hebrew Bible, which she reads from the perspective of cultural studies and gender and sexuality studies. She has written about the connections between scripture and film.

George Aichele, professor of philosophy and religion at Adrian College in Adrian, Mich., has written about connections between scripture and film, and about culture, entertainment and the Bible. He’s not so much interested in “Bible movies” that focus on overtly religious or theological themes. He’s interested in the points where biblical text, images, languages and […]

Donald A. Hagner is a professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and an expert on Jewish-Christian relations and the history of the two communities.

Stephen T. Davis is emeritus professor of philosophy at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. He contributed an essay titled “Crucifying Jesus: Antisemitism and the Passion Story” to the collection After ‘The Passion’ is Gone: American Religious Consequences. He is the editor of Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy.