Movies and the Church of Baseball: Religion in the Cinema of the National Pastime (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781476676555)

American baseball cinema has a long history of Christian religious imagery and symbolism, from The Busher in 1919 to Angels in the Outfield in 1994, to the baseball movies of the twenty-first century. This book undertakes a close textual analysis of The Natural, Field of Dreams, and Bull Durham, among others, exploring the frequency of Christian imagery and themes in the American baseball movie. From Babe Ruth performing a miracle to help a disabled boy walk again in The Babe Ruth Story to Shoeless Joe Jackson asking Ray Kinsella "Is this heaven?" in Field of Dreams, Christian themes and American baseball film are inextricably linked. This cultural analysis looks at symbolic imagery in mainstream film, Christian baseball movies directed by Christian filmmakers promoting their faith messages, and images of America as a prelapsarian paradise before "The Fall."