Sárospataki Füzetek 18. (2014)
2014 / 4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Rácsok Gabriella: Vallás, értelemtalálás, értelemalkotás, mediatizáltság
Vallás, értelemtalálás, jelentésalkotás, mediatizáltság Abstract Religion, Finding and Making Meaning, Mediatisation By means of a functional definition of religion the religious functions of film can be described as well.1 The cultural-anthropological, sociological, psychological and theological approaches to religion make it possible to describe religion partly as a human need to find and make meaning. Due to the subjective turn, this process takes place mostly outside the traditional institutional religion; and media as a communicative channel, language and environment play a critical role in it. Modern electronic media have confirmed the need for experience and being drawn into - and the audiovisual medium of movies seems to have played a key role in this. Consequently, the mode of communication has become dominant in what content the audience is open to perceive and to receive. Setting out from an existential (or hermeneutic) function of religion the religious function of film can be explored: both represent and interpret reality, both tell such authoritative (orientating) symbolic stories that communicate worldview and ethos, form moods and motivations in the receiver / viewer, and both have ritual dimensions. All these, of course, do not answer the question what makes a film religious. To answer this it seems useful to distinguish between understanding the plot of a film (ars intelligendi) and assigning abstract (e.g. religious, ideological, psychological) meaning to a film (ars explicandi), since meaning is revealed by the two combining. In this multi-level process of understanding and interpreting, the viewers / audience play a central role. The meaning of a particular film is ultimately born in the viewer, (s)he constructs meaning, and cannot receive it ready-made. Cinematic storytelling seems to be a suitable narrative mode for (postmodern persons: it corresponds most closely to their rhythm of life, makes entertainment (stepping out of everyday reality into the realty of imagination) easy, and allows for individual interpretation. ’ This study is part of a chapter of my dissertation (Film as a Means in Missions in Today's Changing Religiousity) defended in 2013. The remaining chapters of the dissertation deal with the following themes: 1) Today's Changing Religiosity; 3) Theology and Film; 4) The Evaluation of Media and Movies from the Point of View of Mission in International Documents; 5) Theological Approaches to Culture - Influential 20th Models. Sárospataki Füzetek 18. évfolyam | 2014 | 4 89
