Holy Dung: Comic Signs of Consubstantiality in Martin Luther Films
Journal Title: Religions - Year 2016, Vol 7, Issue 3
Abstract
One problem with the religious sub-genre of Hagiographic films is that they frequently romanticize, sentimentalize, or idealize the lives of saints. Our purpose is to excavate three major film biopics on the life of Protestant reformer Martin Luther and demonstrate where the use of excremental humor humanizes him. Such coarse embodied humor invites a consubstantial identity of a holy man with his secular audience. Where laughter is present, saints are not elevated to being “more spiritual than God.” The use of excremental humor gives weight, or the gravity of earth, to the transcendent, bringing the holy down into the everyday. We argue that it is the comedy in the life of Luther that makes him more authentic, showing how film can communicate the presence of God in earthen vessels.
Authors and Affiliations
Terry Lindvall and Morgan Stroyeck
Keywords
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- EP ID EP25517
- DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7030020
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