ABSTRACT
SO FAR I HAVE LAID OUT THE context within which theology is currentlyundertaken. I have showed that meaning-making happens in the midst of people’s complex negotiations with many forms of media. In Part II I shall illustrate this with respect to a number of worked examples drawn from people’s consumption of film. It will become clear that for any theological dialogue with film to happen, a framework needs to be provided. That framework is maintained not in the abstract but as a living tradition. It is carried through history by a body of people (the church). However rigid or flexible that living tradition is deemed to be, inside or outside the church, and whatever judgments are made about its relevance or usefulness for church or society, it only exists because there is a community of people who embody it. Whatever patterns of meaning-making are occurring, then, there remains a sense that whether people do or do not count themselves ‘in’ within an active religious community, the persistence of theological traditions depends on the existence of such communities.
