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Bob Dylan and the Spheres of Existence shows that existential questions lie at the heart of Bob Dylan's songwriting—a point that will developed with the help of renowned Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. One of the focal points of Kierkegaard's authorship is the journey towards authentic selfhood. Famously, he thematizes this journey in terms of existential “spheres”—the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. Whereas the aesthetic involves a preference for immediacy, the ethical has to do with achieving a sense of personal identity by way of living for enduring commitments and values. Yet, higher than both of these stages is the religious, which initially concerns the immanent human quest for eternal life but, for Kierkegaard, ultimately comes to rest in God's transcendent self-revelation in Jesus Christ. This book argues that Kierkegaard's theory can help us deepen our understanding of and relation to Dylan's art. Just as Kierkegaard presupposes existential “movement” and transformation, so is Dylan celebrated for his shifting personae and philosophical variance. But this is not mere aesthetic dabbling on Dylan's part. On the contrary, his diverse “masks” and voices encourage his audience to engage the worldview being presented, albeit in such a way that religious faith is identified as humanity's source of ultimate meaning.

Historical Dictionary of Kierkegaard's Philosophy, Second Edition chronicles the life and thoughts of the great Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55). What makes this volume essential is its extensive scope: it provides a glossary of concepts, persons, and places related to Kierkegaard's authorship, from “Absolute” to “Hans Christian Ørsted.” This is done through a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 200 cross-referenced entries oncepts, persons, and places related to the life and work of Søren Kierkegaard. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about this subject.

Scorsese and Religion concerns the religious vision of the great American filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Not only will this volume explore the foundation of Scorsese's interest in religion—namely, his relation to the Catholic Church—but it will also highlight the religious breadth of Scorsese's corpus. Ultimately, this book demonstrates that Scorsese's cinematic “re-presentation” of reality brings together various religious influences (Catholicism, existentialism, Buddhism, etc.) and topics such as violence, morality, nihilism, and so on. The overarching claim is that Scorsese, who indeed once claimed that his “whole life” had been “movies and religion,” cannot be properly understood without reflecting on the ways in which his religious interests are expressed in and through his art.

Terrence Malick is one of the most important and controversial filmmakers of the last few decades. Yet his renown does not stem from box office receipts, but rather from his inimitable cinematic vision that mixes luminous shots of nature, dreamlike voiceovers, and plots centered on enduring existential questions. Although scholars have thoroughly examined Malick's background in philosophy, they have been slower to respond to his theological concerns.This volume is the first to focus on the ways in which Malick integrates theological inquiries and motifs into his films. The book begins with an exploration of Malick's career as a filmmaker and shows how his Heideggerian interests relate to theology. Further essays from established and up-and-coming scholars analyze seven of Malick's most prominent films – Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven (1978), The Thin Red Line (1998), The New World (2005), The Tree of Life (2011), To the Wonder (2012), and Knight of Cups (2015) – to show how his cinematic techniques point toward and overlap with principles of Christian theology. A thorough study of an iconic filmmaker, this book is an essential resource for students and scholars in the emerging field of religion and film.

Søren Kierkegaard wrote that Pietism is'the one and only consequence of Christianity'. Praise of this sort - particularly when coupled with Kierkegaard's significant personal connections to the movement in Christian spirituality known as Pietism - would seem to demand thorough investigation. And yet, Kierkegaard's relation to Pietism has been largely neglected in the secondary literature. Kierkegaard, Pietism and Holiness fills this scholarly gap and, in doing so, provides the first full-length study of Kierkegaard's relation to the Pietist movement. First accounting for Pietism's role in Kierkegaard's social, ecclesial, and intellectual background, Barnett goes on to demonstrate Pietism's impact on Kierkegaard's published authorship, principally regarding the relationship between Christian holiness and secular culture. This book not only establishes Pietism as a formative influence on Kierkegaard's life and thinking, but also sheds fresh light on crucial Kierkegaardian concepts, from the importance of'upbuilding'to the imitation of Christ.