Religious Studies Publications
BOOKS
Spiritual Sensations: Cinematic Religious Experience and Evolving Conceptions of the Sacred
Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
“Spiritual Sensations is a noteworthy achievement. This study goes way beyond the description of religious motifs in film and the identification of filmic narratives as belonging to specific religious traditions and exposes how cinema-viewing can induce powerful religious and spiritual experiences.”
– Prof. Carole M. Cusack, The University of Sydney, Australia.
“This book will surely open new doors of perception in our scholarly understanding of how film and religion intersect.”
– Assoc. Prof. Per Faxneld, Södertörn University, Sweden.
“Combining intellectual clarity with a profound understanding of film and the sacred, Sarah K. Balstrup successfully illuminates the sensations of cinematic impact. This book is extraordinary rich in depth.”
– Assoc. Prof. Tomas Axelson, Dalarna University, Sweden.
“I am thrilled with the new avenues of research such a book puts at the disposal of scholars of Religious Studies, Film Studies, and Western Esotericism. A great addition to the scant material on the topic.”
– Dr. Christian Giudice, Gothenburg University, Sweden.
“In the area of religion and film, Spiritual Sensations opens promising new directions. By focusing on the experiential qualities of film, Balstrup draws on the importance of “alternative spirituality” (p. 46), a new reli- gious paradigm that prizes personal experience and religious autonomy. It is also a broad religious sensibility that inspired Kubrick’s 2001.”
- Jacob Given, Villanova University, Pennsylvania.
“Balstrup makes an important contribution to the study of religion and film, bringing with her innovative methods such as the use of internet feedback, and calling our attention to theory, such as the work of Schrader, that needs to be brought into the Study of Religion.”
– Dr. Francisco Santos Silva, University Institute of Lisbon.
ARTICLES
Religion, Creative Practice and Aestheticisation in Nick Cave’s The Red Hand Files
Religions, 2020.
Interpreting the Lost Gospel of Mary: Feminist Reconstructions and Myth Making
Journal of Literature and Aesthetics, 2015.
Doctor Who: Christianity, Atheism and the Source of Sacredness In the Davies Years
Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 26:2 (2014), 145-156.
The Location of the Sacred: Methodological Reconsiderations of the Sacredness of Place
Journeys and Destinations: Studies in Travel, Identity, and Meaning, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2013, pp. 69-86.
Sentient Symbols: The Implications of Animal Cruelty Debates in Contemporary Australian Art
Literature and Aesthetics, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2011, pp. 114-133.
BOOK REVIEWS
Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 2018.
(Book Review) Carl Gustav Jung, The Red Book/Liber Novus
Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, 2011.