re: Best religious movies you've seen?

Left Behind

Kirk Cameron FTW!

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Shawshank Redemption

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Apocalypse Now

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What is so religious about these two movies ?

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What is so religious about these two movies ?

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Gosh... obviously you haven't read any Tillich

One of the principle reasons humans are a religious animal is that we are self-aware. We know we exist, but we don't know why we exist. We know we want something from life, but we don't know why. Much of religion attempts to explain why. Why we exist. Why we yearn for more. The fundamental question of being is the heart of religion.

Movies that deal with that question of being are religious. That's not to say that because movies, or art, deal with religious symbols that religion can be replaced by movies or art. The cinematic arts express and attempt to describe the same sort of questions and situations as religion, and thus, arts can be a helper, a tool, for religion.

How then is a movie like Shawshank Redemption religious? Although religious imagery is used throughout, the most stirring scene is the rain scene after the escape. Here we see a rebirth, a washing away of the old and the creation of the new. It is art and religion because this scene is a symbol, something that points beyond itself and opens up to the soul something new. In itself, it is merely rain falling on a feces-covered man. But the symbolism of the event points to a deep existential truth: the different stages of our lives require rites of passage, rites which occur in the, as the Japanese philosophers have said, the engawa, the in-between, the eternally now where time is not chronological. For Christians, this rite is baptism and the Eucharist. For Andy, his redemption comes through the rain.

The Nativity Story (2006).

I cry every time.

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Jesus Camp by a mile. It shows religion being perverted by those in power. The kids are brainwashed with christianity. It's a must see. I feel so bad for those children who never got to make decisions on their own without organized religion twisting their minds.

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first movie that came into my mind...

Ditto. A Man for All Seasons.

2 pages and no love for Dogma?

Bruce Almighty?

or Evan...

It's about our being on earth and how to live. By your own definition it's religious.