Imag(in)ing Jesus in the Universal or Particular

Cross-Cultural Bible Film Reception of The Lumo Project: The Gospel of Mark and Son of Man

Victoria Olaide Omotoso

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2025
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780567709806
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

This volume is a critical exploration of cross-cultural Bible film reception presented through an analysis of the responses of UK and South African audiences to The Lumo Project: The Gospel of Mark (2014) and Son of Man (2006). Victoria Olaide Omotoso places emphasis on audience reception and highlighting the non-Western experience of biblical films by examining the responses of audiences from different cultural contexts to identical media, with a cross-cultural audience discourse facilitated by cultural dynamics: fidelity to the (biblical) text, ethnicity, music, and gender. By examining historic and cinematic debates, audience responses and filmmaker responses, Omotoso explores the ethnicity of Jesus, theological contexts and implications, and the presentation of Jesus in an androcentric world.

Omotoso adopts the concepts of universality and particularity as frameworks to determine the ways through which the filmmakers attempt to identify their cinematic visions and locations. She defines universality as a phenomenon through which the filmmaker seeks to place the narrative within a trans-cultural frame for a global audience; in contrast, her definition of particularity is envisioning a unitary and specific cultural context for the narrative. By exploring fidelity to the text, the ethnic identity of Jesus, musical contexts, masculinity and female agency, the universal and particular are shown as complex, contested, and shifting concepts within the process of cross-cultural audience reception, which frequently destabilizes the intentions of the filmmakers.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• Introduction
• Part I
• Chapter 1 Let’s Start at the Very Beginning: Audiences, Methods and Approaches
• Chapter 2 Lights, Camera, Lumo: Exploring the Lumo Project’s Context and Ideology
• Chapter 3 Divinity to Dust: Unearthing Son of Man
• Part II FIDELITY TO THE SOURCE TEXT
• Chapter 4 Loyal to the Letters: Fidelity to The Source Text and History
• Chapter 5 Reel Talk: Filmmakers’ Responses to Fidelity to The Source Text
• Chapter 6 Pages, Picture and People: The Audience Response to Fidelity to the Source
• Part III THE ETHNICITY OF JESUS
• Chapter 7 Casting Christ: Constructions of the Ethnic Identity of Jesus in the Lumo Project and Son of Man
• Chapter 8 Filming the Face of Jesus: Diverse Interactions Filmmakers’ Responses to Ethnicity
• Chapter 9 The Spectators’ Lens: Cross-Cultural Audience Responses to Ethnicity
• Part IV THE MUSIC
• Chapter 10 Sonic Scripture: Music and Soundscape in the Lumo Project and Son of Man
• Chapter 11 Rhythms of Reflection: Filmmakers’ Responses to Music in The Lumo Project and Son of Man
• Chapter 12 Tuning into the Divine: Cross-Cultural Audience Responses to The Music of the Lumo Project and Son of Man
• Part V GENDER AND REPRESENTATION
• Chapter 13 Reclaiming Narratives: Gender Representations of Masculinity and Female Agency
• Chapter 14 Unveiling Perspectives: The Cross-Cultural Audience Reception of Gender Representations
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index of Biblical References
• Index of Names
• Index of Subjects
• Copyright