Theology and the Practice of Meaning-Making

Abstract

Theological enquiry today has to take account not only of the texts people use to make meaning but also the practices by which people 'consume' texts (theological or otherwise). Linking with Stewart Hoover's research on media-consumption in religion, this article investigates how film-watching and cinema-going offer insights for contemporary theology. Affectivity, attentiveness, escape/entertainment, imagination and the sharing of experience are explored not merely as ways in which theology is like cinema-going, but as contexts in which the content of theology begins to develop.