Insights from Filmmaking for Analyzing Biblical Narrative

Book excerpt: In this volume, Gary Yamasaki develops an innovative approach to biblical narrative, exploring the way stories are treated in filmmaking, and using that as a model for analyzing biblical stories. In our culture, the voluminous exposure we have to movies has resulted in our being conditioned to experience cinematic stories in a particular manner: for example, seeing them as events rather than objects, and the story worlds of movies as distinct from the real world. However, biblical stories are not typically viewed through this cinematic-story lens, making our analysis of biblical narrative out of step with what has become our natural mode of experiencing stories. This book demonstrates how fresh interpretive insights emerge when we read biblical stories like we watch movies. Each volume in the new Insights series discusses discoveries and insights gained into biblical texts from a particular approach or perspective in current scholarship. Accessible and appealing to today’s students, each Insight volume will discuss (1) how this method, approach, or strategy was first developed and how its application has changed over time; (2) what current questions arise from its use; (3) what enduring insights it has produced; and (4) what questions remain for future scholarship.