Movies and the Church of Baseball: Religion in the Cinema of the National Pastime

Christian religious imagery and symbolism has a long history in American baseball cinema, from The Busher (1919) to Angels in the Outfield(1994) and present-day movies. This book examines The Natural, Field of Dreams, Bull Durham and other films, exploring the frequency of Christian imagery and themes in the American baseball movie. From Babe Ruth’s performance of a miracle to help a disabled boy walk again in The Babe Ruth Story to Shoeless Joe Jackson’s question to Ray Kinsella--＂Is this heaven?＂--in Field of Dreams, Christian themes and American baseball film are inextricably linked. This discussion encompasses 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.＂

Jonathan Plummer is a senior lecturer in film and television at Solent University, Southampton, England. He lives near Winchester.