Terry Lindvall (MHT-054)

Thursday, September 02, 2010



"Film was a primary vehicle in transferring social authority from the Church to the larger, secular culture." —Terry Lindvall Professor Terry Lindvall discusses the advent of moving pictures and how the Church first reacted to them. Lindvall, author of The Silents of God: Selected Issues and Documents in Silent American Film and Religion 1908-1925, explains that movies went from assisting the Church in educating and evangelizing to competing for the time and loyalty of its members on Sundays. When silent pictures first made their debut, they depicted Bible stories, Passion plays, and other moral tales. Churches hailed them as great teachers and preachers and began to show them in-house on Sundays. These viewings encouraged theaters to open their doors on Sundays, eventually drawing people away from churches to the pictures instead.	The Silents of God: Selected Issues and Documents in Silent American Film and Religion 1908-1925 (Scarecrow Press, 2001)

	History and Film Films

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