Chris Deacy is Head of Religious Studies at the University of Kent, where he specialises in Applied Theology. His first book, Screen Christologies: Redemption and the Medium of Film, was based on his doctoral thesis and published by the University of Wales Press in 2001. His 2005 publication, Faith in Film: Religious Themes in Contemporary Cinema, published by Ashgate, was the product of a two-year Special Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust. In 2008, Blackwell published Chris's latest book, co-authored with Gaye Ortiz, Theology and Film: Challenging the Sacred/Secular Divide, which focuses upon a number of theoretical and methodological questions that arise in the area of theology and film before applying many of these insights to a range of theological perspectives and filmic themes, including violence, justice and eschatology. Chris is a member of INTERFILM, the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the UK Theology, Religion & Popular Culture Network Group. Elisabeth Arweck is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Warwick (Institute of Education). She is a member of a range of national and international learned societies in religious studies and the sociology of religion and is a Council member of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion. Elisabeth is an editor of the Journal of Contemporary Religion. She has co-edited a number of volumes, including Reading Religion in Text and Context: Reflections of Faith and Practice in Religious Materials (with Peter Collins) (Ashgate, 2006), Materialising Religion: Expression, Performance and Ritual (with William Keenan) (Ashgate, 2006), and Theorising Faith: The Insider/Outsider Problem in the Study of Ritual (with Martin Stringer) (Birmingham University Press, 2002). She is author of Researching New Religious Movements in the West: Responses & Redefinitions (Routledge, 2007) and co-author (with Peter Clarke) of New Religious Movements in Western Europe: An Annotated Bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1997). She has published a number of articles in journals (with Eleanor Nesbitt), book chapters, and entries in handbooks and encyclopaedias.
Chris Deacy is Head of Religious Studies at the University of Kent, where he specialises in Applied Theology. His first book, Screen Christologies: Redemption and the Medium of Film, was based on his doctoral thesis and published by the University of Wales Press in 2001. His 2005 publication, Fai...