A lecture and documentary screening at Hope College on Thursday, Nov. 14, will explore the portrayal of religion and prayer across the history of film.
Dr. Terry Lindvall, who is the C.S. Lewis Endowed Chair of Communication and Christian Thought at Virginia Wesleyan University, will present the lecture “Souls for Sale: When Christians Ruled the Silent Screens” at 4 p.m. in the Fried-Hemenway Auditorium of the Martha Miller Center for Global Communication.
The documentary film “Hollywood, Teach Us to Pray” will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Knickerbocker Theatre. The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer period with Lindvall, who was a co-producer of the film.
The public is invited to both events. Admission is free.
The lecture will focus on the silent-film era. As described in the presentation’s abstract, “In a curious and unexpected trip through time, Professor Terry Lindvall opens early 20th century archives to find treasures where churches found a universal language of faith, sin, and grace in silent movies. Souls were saved with movies, but then souls were sold for the pleasures of the screen.”
The film “Hollywood, Teach Us to Pray” offers a journey through American film history, surveying how people of all races, genders, ethnic groups, ages, economic statuses, and spiritual conditions talk, shout, whisper, haggle, cry, sing and wrestle with God. The documentary highlights the inclusion of prayers in movie narratives as turning points in the plot (“The African Queen”); spiritual weapons (“Election”); cultural markers (“It’s a Wonderful Life”); dramatic tour de forces (“Bad Times at the El Royale”); comedy (Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and “Talladega Nights”); westerns (“Pale Rider” and “Rooster Cogburn”) and traces of transcendence (“The Tree of Life”). It includes interviews with directors like Robert Benton, Michael Schultz and David Anspaugh; critics like Justin Chang and Leonard Maltin; and religious personalities like Father James Martin, Professor Robert Johnston and Sister Helen Prejean.
Lindvall is a C.S. Lewis scholar and expert in American film and media who is interested in how theology and film can intersect. He is the author of several books including, “Surprised By Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis.” He has served as a U.S. Army Reserve chaplain, has taught at Wheaton College and The College of William and Mary, and has served as president of Regent University. Lindvall earned his Master of Divinity degree at Fuller Seminary and Ph.D. at the University of Southern California.
The lecture and screening are co-sponsored by the college’s Department of Religion and Cultural Affairs Committee.
To inquire about accessibility or if you need accommodations to fully participate in the event, please email accommodations@hope.edu. Updates related to events are posted when available at hope.edu/calendar in the individual listings.
The Knickerbocker Theatre is located in downtown Holland at 86 E. 8th St., between College and Columbia avenues. The Martha Miller Center for Global Communication is located at 257 Columbia Ave., at the corner of Columbia Avenue and 10th Street.