Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Religious Music and Entertainment

2022-09-20T16:09:47-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Impossible and Healing through Service

Last updated on: September 20, 2022 at 4:09 pm By Zachary Miller

JA Bayona’s 2012 epic dramatizes the experience of the real-life Belón family (named the Bennet family in this film) as they were caught in the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. Maria and her oldest son, Lucas, are swept away from Henry, the father, as well as the two youngest, Simon and Thomas. In a movie like this, the tension obviously floats on whether or not this loving family is going to find each other by the end, but it’s... Read more

General Christian

Ministering

Mortality

Movies

2022-08-30T21:03:03-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

How to Train Your Dragon and Kindness as Strength

Last updated on: August 30, 2022 at 9:03 pm By Zachary Miller

In the years leading up to Christ’s birth, the intellectuals of the day anticipated the coming of the Son of God who would free them from their chains. The savior they anticipated was an angelic warrior king who would rain fire on the Romans and break their chains with an awesome display of might. This is one of the reasons why the Pharisees and Sadducees of the day missed it when he came as a humble carpenter, wandering among the... Read more

General Christian

2024-07-09T16:38:59-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Don’t Look Up and Prophets

Last updated on: July 9, 2024 at 4:38 pm By Zachary Miller

A few weeks ago, we looked at “A Face in the Crowd” as an exploration of false prophets and how they work. Today, we’re going to take a more sympathetic look at prophets, or at least people who operate in a prophetic capacity. The scientists in Netflix original “Don’t Look Up,” for example, are charged with a mission of biblical proportions to warn the world of imminent destruction, only to find that their message isn’t appealing enough to compete with... Read more

General Christian

2022-12-20T16:34:16-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Moulin Rouge! and Freedom

Last updated on: December 20, 2022 at 4:34 pm By Zachary Miller

When we talked about Chicago, I noted how that film displays the allure of sin as something empowering and freeing. Likewise, when we talked about A Face in the Crowd, I mentioned how false prophets use rhetoric of liberation to sell their counterfeit gospel. I guess you could say that there’s something similar at work in Baz Lurhman’s 2001 masterpiece, Moulin Rouge. This jukebox musical sells something like manufactured emancipation, but the film also offers a glimpse of what it... Read more

General Christian

2022-08-16T14:56:15-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Moana and Divine Intervention

Last updated on: August 16, 2022 at 2:56 pm By Zachary Miller

As I slowly but surely make my way through gleaning the religious metaphors across every film in the Disney animated canon (I’m coming for you, The Black Cauldron!), 2016’s Moana finds its way onto the docket. It might be really fun to just spend 500 words going over Moana’s little Moses moment in the climax, but I think that there’s an even deeper conversation to be had with this film. Like many movies of quality before it, Moana finds itself... Read more

General Christian

Animated

Divinity

Movies

2022-08-16T14:55:56-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Leon: The Professional and Goodness in a Fallen World

Last updated on: August 16, 2022 at 2:55 pm By Zachary Miller

Like many of the films we discuss here, there are a lot of internal contradictions with Luc Besson’s Leon: The Professional that make it an unusual item of study for religious overtones. For one thing, it’s a very violent movie. The world these characters inhabit isn’t one where goodness abounds. Just so, it’s against this kind of moral desolation that glimmers of Christlike light really shine through, and that’s worth talking about. At the start of Leon: The Professional, Matilda... Read more

General Christian

2024-07-09T16:36:46-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Notorious and Goodness

Last updated on: July 9, 2024 at 4:36 pm By Zachary Miller

I mentioned in my piece on Rust and Bone that one of the hidden graces of film, and storytelling in general, is that it allows us to see others as God sees them. This is true even of characters that we might deem “ungodly” on first glance, like the daughter of a Nazi traitor. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 film, Notorious, follows Alicia Huberman, a woman fallen from grace after her father is convicted as a Nazi traitor. After her father’s trial,... Read more

General Christian

2022-10-29T17:45:11-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Stranger Things and Faith

Last updated on: October 29, 2022 at 5:45 pm By Zachary Miller

As I eagerly await the final episodes of Stranger Things 4, and as I, too, find myself suddenly inducted into the Kate Bush fandom, I inevitably reflect on my relationship to the Netflix juggernaut. As with most pop culture powerhouses, the hype surrounding Stranger Things has been described as “religious.” Normally that term is thrown into the discourse separate from its spiritual context, but here at Sublime Cinema, we know that most pieces of entertainment can be described as such... Read more

General Christian

2025-08-19T15:40:53-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Jurassic Park and True Godliness

Last updated on: August 19, 2025 at 3:40 pm By Zachary Miller

Well, Jurassic World: Dominion comes out really soon, so naturally I’ve been thinking about the 1993 classic these last few weeks. Like, more than usual. I’d imagine many of us will be revisiting the series over the next little bit, if we have not started already. So why not take a moment and review the film, and why not do it through a spiritual lens? Because the movie’s religious overtones are at once up and front while also buried under... Read more

General Christian

2024-04-09T19:31:09-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“IT” and Strength through Faith

Last updated on: April 9, 2024 at 7:31 pm By Zachary Miller

In my piece on “Black Swan,” I confessed that growing up, R-rated films were a sort of forbidden zone for me. By nature, they featured content that felt incompatible with someone devoted to following Christ. One film degree later, I’ve softened this particular stance, as I mentioned. But I won’t deny that I still wrestle with what exactly healthy film viewership looks like. Media leaves traces on our psyche, for better or worse. Prudence in media consumption is a necessity,... Read more

General Christian

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does the Greek word 'Kurios' mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Redeemer King Messiah Lord

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Action Movies Animated Christ Classical Film Divinity Faith Finding God Goodness Happiness Heaven Horror Films International Film Judging Love Ministering Mortality Movies Musicals Religion Repentence Rom-Coms Sin Trials Truth TV Shows Uncategorized Valiance Worth

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 March 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 October 2023 August 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Religious Music and Entertainment