Thirteenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Todd Reeser (2010) observes that a nation in a state of fear, trauma, suffering or has experienced military defeat may uses images of strong masculinity to “revitalize or revirilize itself”. In post 9/11 America, the harking back to traditional forms of masculinity and heroic manhood, and calls for strong masculinized national response as observed by scholars like Hannah (2005), Nayak (2006), Faludi (2007) etc. can be seen manifested in the cinema of the times. This paper looks at the ways in which religion, masculinity and nationalism intertwine in the realm of popular culture to promote American geopolitical interests through a reading of Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), a Biblical epic film re-imagining the Old Testament tale of Prophet Moses and the Exodus of Jews from Egypt. It focusses on US geopolitics post 9/11 and the “War on Terror” wherein the military engagements and other human rights abuses committed by America and its allies invited mass condemnation, necessitating ideological pushback. This period saw the use of religion, religious figures and language as it engaged with masculinized nationalist tenets in American politics to justify aggressive American foreign policies. Considering films as reflecting/refracting society, this paper primarily utilises theories from Connell, Nagel, and Slootmaeckers to focus on Moses-the Patriarch, the idea of a land promised by God and a people/nation “chosen” by God as sites of enquiry within the text, to understand the interplay of religion, masculinized nationalism and politics in contemporary times with special focus on America and its ally Israel.