Hollywood Biblical Epics: The Podcast
“Hollywood Biblical Epics: The Podcast” includes three parts, divided into five episodes, with a deep-dive focus on the history of biblical and religious films in Hollywood. Narrated by Richard Lindsay and Ryan Parker, it also features three experts on biblical films: David Blanke, Matthew Page, and Adele Reinhartz. In addition to developments in the American film industry from the silent era to the 1960s, the podcast also looks at social and political influences on biblical epic films.
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Part I “Spectacle” (35:04 min), looks at the beginning of biblical films, going back to some of the earliest experimental features based on Passion plays. It traces the formation of the American film industry and the founding of Hollywood, including how biblical films demonstrated the American public was ready for longer, more complex feature films. It covers the great spectacles of silent biblical epics of the early Hollywood studio era—many of which would be remade in the 1940s and 50s as big-budget Technicolor features.
Films discussed in Part I from the Movie Poster Collection:
The Passion Play of Ober-Ammergau (1898) (Other items: 1. 2.
3.)
The Life, Passion, and Death of Jesus Christ (1905) (Other items: 1. 2. 3. 4.)
The Ten Commandments (silent version, 1923) (Other items: 1.)
Ben-Hur (silent version, 1925) (Other items: 1. 2.)
STAY TUNED FOR MORE... beginning April 7, 2025 we will be posting subsequent episodes in this series, including:
Part II “Sex, Violence, and Censorship,” Episodes 1 & 2.
Part III “Biblical Epics and American Postwar Society,” Episodes 1 & 2.
Creators
Richard Lindsay (Writer, Narrator, Producer): Richard Lindsay has a PhD in Religion and the Arts from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, focusing on intersections of theology, film, cultural studies, and sexuality and gender. He is the author of Hollywood Biblical Epics: Camp Spectacle and Queer Style from the Silent Era to the Modern Day. Richard also has a Master of Divinity from Yale University. He has taught courses in religion and film, religion and popular culture, LGBTQIA+ readings of scripture, and communication at the University of San Francisco, the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, and Graduate Theological Union.
Ryan Parker (Writer, Narrator): Ryan Parker is founder and executive director of the Mississippi Film Society, and has worked in Hollywood in film promotion and public relations. Ryan has a PhD in Religion and the Arts from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, with a focus on film and religion, particularly the history of religious cinema and contemporary independent religious films. He is the author of Cinema as Pulpit: Sherwood Pictures and the Church Film Movement, the co-editor of and contributor to Joss Whedon and Religion: Essays on an Angry Atheist’s Explorations of the Sacred. He also has a Master of Divinity from Wake Forest University Divinity School. Ryan has taught courses in religion and culture, and in film studies at Lancaster Theological Seminary, and the University of Mississippi.
Contributors
David Blanke (Biblical Films Expert): David Blanke is a professor of history at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, where he teaches courses on U.S. history since 1865 and modern U.S. popular culture. He has a PhD from Loyola University, Chicago. He is the author of Cecil B. DeMille, Classical Hollywood, and Modern American Mass Culture: 1910-1960, along with numerous other books and papers on U.S. consumer culture, automobility, and commercial film.
Matthew Page (Biblical Films Expert): Matthew Page is an independent scholar who has been specializing in the cinematic adaptation of the Bible for twenty-five years. His book, 100 Bible Films, was published by the British Film Institute in 2022 and was designated as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title by the American Libraries Association. He has also contributed chapters to nine other books on bible and film for both academic and general readers. He is the creator of the Bible Films Blog, which he has maintained since 2006. He has contributed to television and radio programs, as well as numerous podcasts. He has also taught guest lectures in university courses, led sessions for local churches and run short courses on Jesus in film for art house cinemas in the U.K.
Adele Reinhartz (Biblical Films Expert): Adele Reinhartz is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Ottawa, where she is also a Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies. Her main research contributions have been in the areas of ancient Jewish/Christian relations, Religion and Film, and feminist criticism of the Bible. Adele served as the General Editor of the Journal of Biblical Literature from 2012-2019 and as the President of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2020. She was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada in 2005, and into the American Academy for Jewish Research in 2014. In 2021 she won the Konrad Adenauer Prize, which is awarded annually by the Humboldt Foundation in Germany to one distinguished Canadian scholar in any field. In addition to her work on early Christianity and Judaism, Adele has published extensively on the Bible and film, including several books: Scripture on the Silver Screen (2003), Jesus of Hollywood (2007), and The Bible and Cinema: An Introduction (first edition 2013; second, expanded and revised edition 2022). She is currently completing a book on Catholicism in Quebecois cinema.