Religion, Film, and Ecological Catastrophe

How can film and popular culture help us think through ecological crises in religious and theological terms?

In this book, Brett David Potter contends that film can help viewers come to grips with the spiritual implications of living in this new epoch defined by climate crisis. Across eight chapters, Potter pairs ecological insights gathered from ancient religious stories and rituals with examples from contemporary Western films in the science fiction genre and beyond. By tracing religious and literary themes such as the tree of life, the great flood, the barren desert, and the revenge of the creatures, Potter asserts that the use of religious metaphor, imagery, and allegory remain prevalent within climate cinema. Providing particular attention to the visual and literary metaphors of apocalypse presented across Hollywood, and their origins within global faith communities, Potter asserts that religious narratives become a shared touchstone for how cinema imagines and depicts the end of the world. This prominence of religious imagery in Hollywood opens up key insights on the current role that religion and faith plays in our society and how viewers grapple with the realities of ecological and climate crisis.