Portrayals of God in popular media
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Portrayals of God in
popular media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit information ...
have varied from a white-haired old man in '' Oh, God!'' to a woman in '' Dogma'', from an entirely off-screen character to a figure of fun. According to trinitarian Christianity, Jesus Christ is God, so
cultural depictions of Jesus The depiction of Jesus in pictorial form dates back to early Christian art and architecture, as aniconism in Christianity was rejected within the ante-Nicene period.Philip Schaff commenting on Irenaeus, wrote, 'This censure of images as a Gnos ...
in film and television are also portrayals of God.


Religious views on portraying God

Islam and Judaism both prohibit pictorial representations of God. However, television and
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
cinema emerged from a largely Christian tradition—that whilst it shared the prohibition on
idolatry Idolatry is the worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were God. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the A ...
was more relaxed about religious
iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
—and the many cultural depictions of God in that tradition that preceded the invention of television and cinema. Whilst even the humorous portrayals of God are rarely irreverent, portraying God is not without controversy. The animated television series '' God, the Devil and Bob'' portrayed God as being a beer-swilling, ex-hippie character who closely resembled The Grateful Dead guitarist
Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...
, which raised objections from fundamentalist Christian groups in the United States, causing the show to be pulled from broadcasting in the United States after just 3 episodes (although the entire series was broadcast in the United Kingdom). One of the last films that British activist
Mary Whitehouse Constance Mary Whitehouse (; 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permiss ...
campaigned against was Irvine Welsh's '' The Granton Star Cause'', which portrayed God as drunken and abusive. Ironically, the campaign backfired, only serving to advertise the film more widely.


Casting and acting the role of God

The role of God is a difficult one to play, and also a difficult one to cast. The casting of
Alanis Morissette Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with tw ...
as God in ''Dogma'' was influenced by the singer's own public dialogue with her faith, as expressed in her songs. Ella Shohat observes that God is a "rare challenge" for actors, raising the questions of how a
method actor Method ( grc, μέθοδος, methodos) literally means a pursuit of knowledge, investigation, mode of prosecuting such inquiry, or system. In recent centuries it more often means a prescribed process for completing a task. It may refer to: *Scien ...
could possibly prepare for the part, and what possible personal feelings or experiences an actor could draw upon in order to portray a character that is
omniscient Omniscience () is the capacity to know everything. In Hinduism, Sikhism and the Abrahamic religions, this is an attribute of God. In Jainism, omniscience is an attribute that any individual can eventually attain. In Buddhism, there are diffe ...
, omnipotent, and the creator of the universe. God has largely been cast as white and male, Freeman and Morissette being exceptions to this, that line up alongside William Keighley's 1936 film ''
The Green Pastures ''The Green Pastures'' is a play written in 1930 by Marc Connelly adapted from ''Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun'' (1928), a collection of stories written by Roark Bradford. The play was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930. It had th ...
'', where all characters, including God, are played by African American actors ( Rex Ingram in the case of what the movie calls "De Lawd"). The opening prologue of that film included what amounted to a disclaimer, to make the movie palatable to the white audiences in the United States of the time, asserting that: A similarly unusual piece of casting can be found in Lars von Trier's 1996 movie ''
Breaking the Waves ''Breaking the Waves'' is a 1996 psychological drama film directed and co-written by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier and starring English stage actress Emily Watson as her feature film acting debut. Set in the Scottish Highlands in the early 197 ...
'', where God is both a woman and identical to the movie's (human) protagonist. Whilst in silent movies, the voice of God was simply an on-screen written caption, in the talkies, God's voice has presented a particular casting challenge, in biblical epics especially, since vocal intonation and accent carry with them implications of class, gender, and race. Although in both the Bible and the Qur'an God speaks, that voice is nowhere described. A filmmaker thus faces a choice about the voice to use, with no scriptural guidance to work from. This conflicts with the filmmaker's perceived task, in the case of biblical epics, of presenting scripture without interpretation or exegesis. In biblical epics and similar movies, God's voice is generally cast to provide a sense of authority. It is deep, resonant, and masculine, and usually the American English of Southern California (sometimes with a touch of British English). One unique approach, used by the movie '' Switch'', was to have God as two voices, one male and one female, speaking simultaneously. Director
John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
provided the voice of God in his 1966 epic '' The Bible: In the Beginning''.


Different portrayals

God has in fact been portrayed in movies ever since the days of silent cinema, in biblical epics, experimental films, everyday dramas, and comedies. A cantankerous animated God instructs
King Arthur King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a ...
and his knights with their mission in the 1975 comedy ''
Monty Python and the Holy Grail ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' is a 1975 British comedy film satirizing the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) an ...
''. Robert Mitchum portrayed a cigar-smoking, American, God in Frédéric Fonteyne's 1992 comedy ''
Les Sept péchés capitaux ''Les Sept péchés capitaux'' is a 1962 French film composed of seven different segments, one for each of the seven deadly sins, each being by different directors and featuring different casts. At the time it served as a showcase for rising dire ...
''. A suicidal supreme being identified as "God Killing Himself" expires in an act of self-immolation in
E. Elias Merhige Edmund Elias Merhige, known as E. Elias Merhige (, pronounced like ''marriage''; born June 14, 1964), is an American film director born in Brooklyn, New York City. Work Merhige is known to mainstream audiences for his work on the 2000 film ''Shad ...
's 1991 avant-garde feature ''
Begotten Begotten may refer to: Religion * Only-begotten Son *Monogenēs, only begotten in the New Testament and Christian theology Film and TV *'' Begotten'', a 1989 experimental horror film written, edited, produced, and directed by E. Elias Merhige *"Th ...
''. In Carlos Diegues' 2003 movie '' Deus é Brasileiro'', God is a down-to-Earth character, exhausted from his labours, who is taking a rest in the north east of Brazil. God as a character is often mentioned or intervenes in the plot of the CW show ''Supernatural'', and eventually served as the ultimate villain of the series. He seems as a loving, smart, serious, strategic, all-seeing, father, who observes events play out, but ignores them unless he absolutely needs to fix something. God has also been portrayed by actor Dennis Haysbert in the DC comics based show
Lucifer (TV series) ''Lucifer'' is an American urban fantasy television series developed by Tom Kapinos that premiered on January 25, 2016, and concluded on September 10, 2021. It is based on the DC Comics character created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dri ...
starting in 2020 and 2021.


Oblique portrayals

One new portrayal of God was in the television series ''
Joan of Arcadia ''Joan of Arcadia'' is an American fantasy family drama television series telling the story of teenager Joan Girardi (Amber Tamblyn), who sees and speaks with God and performs tasks she is given. The series originally aired on Fridays on CBS for ...
''. In that series, God is portrayed, in accordance with the programme's theme song ( Joan Osborne's "
One of Us 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit (measurement), unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment ...
"), as simply a proverbial "stranger on a bus". God is portrayed as taking on human form in a wide variety of shapes, from a piano tuner to a telephone repairman. Neuhaus characterizes this portrayal as an "unknowable but visible God, who sees and is seen and is among us always, in all kinds of forms, participating in our everyday life but not interfering with humanity's free will, and who nonetheless calls us into service". This portrayal was criticized in the first series for being
ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...
, almost to the point of being secular. The creator of the series, Barbara Hall, set out how God would be portrayed in some directives to the series' writers, named the "Ten Commandments of ''Joan of Arcadia''". Thus, in the words of Amber Tamblyn, ''Joan of Arcadia'' is "not religious, we're philosophical". Neuhaus deduces that this portrayal of God was in part motivated by the fact that ''Joan of Arcadia'' is a television show, a product, that has to appeal to a broad a range of viewers. Thus God, as portrayed in the show, does not call for
proselytisation Proselytism () is the policy of attempting to convert people's religious or political beliefs. Proselytism is illegal in some countries. Some draw distinctions between '' evangelism'' or '' Da‘wah'' and proselytism regarding proselytism as invo ...
. Similarly, the portrayal of God is prepared to poke fun at Christian doctrine. Further, ''Joan of Arcadia''s God spurns the
supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
. A more oblique portrayal of God occurs in the television series '' Wonderfalls'', where God appears not as a person, but as a series of inanimate objects, that lead the protagonist of the series to perform good works in other people's lives. The word "God" is never mentioned in the show in relation to these encounters.


Off-screen portrayals

Some portrayals of God are entirely off-screen. For example: The God who gives the stone tablets to Moses in '' The Ten Commandments'' is, in the words of
Paul Schrader Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first received widespread recognition through his screenplay for Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collabo ...
's commentary to the film, "off-screen to the right". Such biblical epics have less trouble with this obliquity than non-biblical works. This because whilst there is no visual representation of God himself in the source text that such movies are based upon, there ''are'' visually representable elements that can be used, from burning bushes to clouds and fire, in the manifestations of God. So whilst biblical epics are constrained by their source text to aniconism, they are not denied spectacle.


References


Further reading

* {{Religion and philosophy in popular culture Religion in popular culture