Social Imaginaries as a New Paradigm for Film and Religion Studies: What Film Images and Narratives Tell Us About Present-Day Religiosity? A Polish Perspective

The Author argues that the audiovisual image of reality cemented in films as audiovisual media reflects in a particular way the developments occurring in the community that produced these images. This refers also to the religiosity of a specific society. The article will begin by providing a brief overview of its main theoretical perspective of social imaginaries formulated and implemented in the field of sociology by Charles Taylor. In order to pave the ground for future studies in the area, the method of implementation of Taylor’s term will be presented to highlight how narrative films and television series as products of audiovisual culture reflect the state of the collective consciousness of the Polish national community in terms of Christian religiosity expressed through attachment to Catholic rituals, practices and customs as well as usage and understanding of religious symbols and also basing personal and collective behaviors and decisions on the value system that arose from Christian ethics. This means that in spite of people moving away from orthodoxy and a shift to postsecular attitudes, Christianity shaped images (including visual metaphors) that still provide people with mental shortcuts or become tools of persuasion as a means of audiovisual communication with the viewer.