Discovering World Religions at 24 Frames Per Second

Discovering World Religions at 24 Frames Per Second takes students beyond the written page, offering an exploration of religious traditions through the study of feature films and focusing mainly on Eastern traditions. Biographical sketches of directors whose films tend to focus on a particular religious tradition are also included, such as Zhang Yimou, Hayao Miyazaki, Deepa Mehta, and Akira Kurosawa.

This book provides the necessary background information on the various religions before looking at how their ideas can be understood not through texts but through the cinematic medium. To keep the conversation fresh, most of the films used in the book were made within the last decade, including Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Wooden Man's Bride, The Great Yokai War, Fight Club, Spirited Away, and Jacob's Ladder.