When you think of James Bond, you probably don’t reckon with whether or not the super spy is religious or if spirituality plays a major role in his action-filled escapades.

But if you look for it, religion is everywhere in James Bond:

In the novel You Only Live Twice, Ian Fleming casts James Bond in the role of a savior, prophesied by Shinto priests and embodying the saintly personage of the Catholic, dragon-slaying hero St. George.
Live and Let Die — both the book and movie — heavily feature vodou and obeah, with a 007-emblazoned, customized tarot card deck specifically designed for the film.
There is a “priest hole” and chapel on Bond’s family Scotland estate in the movie “Skyfall” (2012).
Bond battles with a man dressed as a Nio guardian statue in the film, “The Man with the Golden Gun” and traipses through Cairo, Egypt’s Ibn Talun mosque in “The Spy Who Loved Me.”
In 2015’s “Spectre,” Bond replies to his love interest Dr. Madeleine Swann's question, "Why does a man choose the life of an assassin?" with, "Well, it was that or the priesthood."

The list could go on, but suffice it to say: James Bond has a long and complicated relationship with religion.

On the occasion of the 60th-anniversary of the world premiere of the first James Bond film Dr. No in 1962 (October 5, 2022), I take a look at religion in the Bond universe and consider what we might have to learn about religion — and the world-famous super spy — in the process.

READ JAMES BOND’s INTRODUCTION to RELIGION

Think religion doesn’t matter at the movies? Think again. More specifically, think of the kerfuffle over the Church of England’s “Lord’s Prayer Commercial” and some of the UK’s biggest cinema chains denying the commercial ad space in its theaters.

As Reuters reported, “The 60-second ad, which shows a variety of Christians including a police officer, weight lifter and school children each saying one line of the prayer, had been due to be shown next month before screenings of the new Star Wars film ‘The Force Awakens.’”

Not only was the Anglican church confused over the refusal, but social media and blogs erupted with robust conversations about the place of religious ads before movies, on television, and on radio. This scenario of scandal underscores the importance, and urgency, of considering the interaction of religion & pop-culture in its many, many, forms.

That is why I am overwhelmingly excited to announce the release of Jesus Christ, Movie Star by Edward N. McNulty, in which I was humbled & honored to write the foreword. In that introductory statement I attempted to frame McNulty's work on Jesus and movies in the contemporary context of currents in religion & pop-culture.

In the foreword I wrote that in a global culture, where internationalization occurs across, through, and in tension with various sites and conduits of ethnicity, technology, financial systems, media, ideological networks, and religions the images of Jesus not only matter to U.S. moviemakers, and consumers, but people throughout the world. Hence the importance to critically think through what depictions of Jesus mean — how they are represented, how they communicate, how they are interpreted, and how they reflect, critique, and interact with wider socio-cultural realities.

This is even more pertinent because Jesus is such a popular movie star and it is helpful -- both theologically and from a religious studies perspective -- to consider him as such. As David Crumm of Read the Spirit wrote:

“ONLY ONE FIGURE rivals Sherlock Holmes and Santa Claus as the longest-running characters in world cinema. As veteran-faith-and-film writer Edward McNulty points out in his new book, that unique, history-spanning figure is Jesus Christ, Movie Star.”

McNulty’s exploration of Jesus-figures, faith, and film gets us started down a path to not only catch the great importance of Jesus’ story as it was, but also — crucially — how it is transported and transposed in our current culture. To that end, I invite you to explore more about the work or to purchase it at Amazon.com to engage heartily in discussion with those with whom you watch, react to, and examine faith and film.