Dr. Daniel Anderson I was shopping with my daughter and the irritating, happy version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” began playing through the store speakers. I reacted with an apocalyptic eye roll and my daughter asked why. I had to explain how the original version of the song, written for the Judy Garland…
Matthew Brake on the ReligionProf Podcast
About a month ago, I (Matt) had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. James McGrath to discuss the Theology and Pop Culture series. I’ve really enjoyed connecting with James this past year, and I’m excited about some of the volumes he himself is cooking up for the series! Take a listen here!
EXTENDED Call for Papers: Theology and Star Trek (DEC. 15)
Call for Papers: Theology and Star Trek Editors: Shaun C. Brown (shauncbrown@yahoo.com) and Amanda MacInnis Hackney (macinnishackney@icloud.com) Theology and Pop Culture is currently seeking contributions for a potential edited volume from Rowman and Littlefield on the intersection of theology and Star Trek. Essays may focus on any of the television series or films that make…
True Believers: In Memory of Stan Lee
I waited awhile to write this blog. Some of the reason for the wait was out of necessity—I simply had no time. But more importantly, if I had released this blog right after Stan Lee passed away, my voice being one of many voices vying for attention, many of who did a better job eulogizing…
New Release from A. David Lewis: Kismet – Man of Fate!
From the Eisner Award-nominated team of A. David Lewis and Noel Tuazon, along with Rob Croonenborghs and Ghost Glyph Studios, comes the debut collected trade paperback from A Wave Blue World featuring the world’s first Muslim superhero – Arriving in shops nationwide on November 28, 2018 and available online for order now, it’s Kismet, Man…
Call for Abstracts: Theology and Westworld
Call for Abstracts – Theology and Westworld Edited by Juli Gittinger and Shayna Sheinfeld The television series Westworld has garnered significant interest from academics as well as from wide audiences. While many of its themes and plot motifs represent longstanding focuses in science fiction, the treatment of them has stood out as especially creative in a…
Call for Abstracts: Theology and Horror
Call for Abstracts – Theology and Horror Explorations of the relationship between religion and horror are fairly well established. However, this is not the case for theology and horror. Many times explorations of theology and horror involve simplistic readings in which theological concepts or doctrines are spotted within horror narratives and noted as points of…
Compassion, Justice, and Trusting One’s Enemy in iRobot
By Muoki Musau The director of the movie I, Robot describes the movie as a believable world not too far in the future. Set in 2035, it tells the story of Detective Del Spooner who has a deep distrust of the idea that robots are companions to human beings. The story is a “whodunit” mystery…
Cain, Abel, and the Protection of Sacred Knowledge
By Molly Kluck Cain and Abel were first introduced by the DC universe as caretakers and tenants of The House of Mysteries and The House of Secrets respectively (Cain and Abel). Connected to these houses are two horror-themed comic book series named after the houses. The comic book series used the brothers as narrators (House of Mystery Vol….
Black Panther and Theology: Unity and Our Call to Face the World
By Stephanie Pacheco [SPOILER ALERT] As the characters of T’Challa’s Black Panther and Erik Stevens’s Killmonger, take their respective stances, the film personifies two major responses to the historical colonization of Africa: unity versus retribution. The film’s roaring success is in its championing of authentic unity, precisely as we are called to as Christians and…
Ethical Adventures in The Good Place
By Corey Patterson One of the funniest, most thought-provoking shows on the air right now is The Good Place on NBC. It is also one of the most original. Instead of copying the same-old sitcom tropes and story lines from the many comedies circulating us, The Good Place offers viewers a (layman’s) philosophical look into…
The Guilt of Being Someone: Daredevil and Martin Heidegger
A few years ago, I (Matthew Brake) co-wrote a piece for the Philosophy and Pop Culture blog on Daredevil and guilt: “Father Lantom’s final point — that Matt’s guilty conscience indicates a wrongdoing for which he must make amends — is an unexpected shift, since Lantom previously says he ‘is sure that [it is] true’…
Fear and Trembling in the Flash: Gods and Anti-Gods on the Throne
By Dr. Joel B. Kemp Images, attributes, and powers associated with God in the biblical tradition abound in comic books. Typically, we think of these divine characteristics in connection with our favorite heroes and heroines, such as Wonder Woman and Superman. These characters are celebrated for their strength, courage, intellect, and self-sacrificial love that benefits…
JEWS AND COMICS IN CANADA THIS OCTOBER
An interesting event brought to our attention by our friends over at Sacred and Sequential. Check out the details here.
Review – ΘeoCon: Where Theology and Popular Culture Meet
I had the privilege of attending ΘeoCon in Alexandria, VA at Virginia Theological Seminary last weekend. This was a great event on the intersection of Theology and Pop Culture. Rather than write a review myself, I wanted to draw attention to James McGrath’s review of the event over at his blog. James has laid out a…
Interview with Church of the Geek Podcast
Hello everyone! I was recently invited onto the Church of the Geek podcast by Brian Bennett and Sam Blair to discuss the blog and the book series. We had a great discussion about the intersection of Theology and Pop Culture, and I wanted to share that podcast with you and encourage you to follow Brian…
Crazy Rich Asians and Christianity
By Dr. Linh Hoang This summer, the widely popular and spectacularly successful movie Crazy Rich Asians made Asians evermore visible to the point of being now a popular mainstay of American culture. Many Asians exuded pride in seeing an all-Asian cast dominating the big screen and drawing a diverse crowd across the globe. The movie is…
Wakanda Forever – The Black Panther Theology Syllabus
Hello friends! I wanted to share a project that Rev. Kimberly Hampton, co-editor of the upcoming Theology and Black Panther volume from Lexington books, has been working on for awhile now. She has been constructing a syllabus entitled “Wakanda Forever – The Black Panther Theology Syllabus.” I encourage you to check it out here. This is…
Sacha Baron Cohen is Satan
By Jack Holloway Sacha Baron Cohen is making a lot of news with his new Showtime special Who is America? The concept for the show will be familiar to those who know Baron Cohen’s work: he disguises himself as whacky characters and gets people to do crazy things under misleading pretenses. Among the characters this…
Call for Papers: Theology and the Star Wars Universe
Call for Papers: Theology and the Star Wars Universe Editor: Ben Espinoza (theologyandstarwars@gmail.com) Theology and Pop Culture is currently seeking contributions for an edited volume from Rowman and Littlefield on the intersection of theology and Star Wars. Essays may focus on any of the films, TV series, books, and other media that comprise the Star…
Teaching Gospel Texts and Mimesis with Superhero Stories
From our friends over at Sacred and Sequential: Dr. John Fadden discusses how he teaches Gospel texts and mimetic theory to students who would be otherwise interested in those topics. His solution: incorporating superhero narratives. “Finally, the activity left an impression on the students. I could talk to students about the narratives without them jumping to…
Call for Papers: Theology and Star Trek
Call for Papers: Theology and Star Trek Editors: Shaun C. Brown (shauncbrown@yahoo.com) and Amanda MacInnis Hackney (macinnishackney@icloud.com) Theology and Pop Culture is currently seeking contributions for a potential edited volume from Rowman and Littlefield on the intersection of theology and Star Trek. Essays may focus on any of the television series or films that make…
Pharisees, Jedi, and a New Ecclesia
By Ben Espinoza To be honest, when I first saw The Last Jedi, I wasn’t a huge fan. Rey’s a nobody? Snoke’s dead? Luke’s gone? I thought most other folks would agree with me. Turns out, they didn’t. Over time, I sought to understand how folks could possibly like this affront to the Star Wars…
EXTENDED Call for Papers: Theology and Black Panther
Call for Papers: Theology and Black Panther Theology and Pop Culture is currently seeking contributions for a potential volume from Rowman and Littlefield on the character of Black Panther in comics, television, and film with a specific emphasis on Black Liberation Theology. Essays should be written for academics, but avoid “jargon” to be accessible for…
Secret Invasion: How to Trust Other People
By Corey Patterson Marvel Comics’ Civil War event was one of the biggest phenomenons to shake up the comic book world. The tensions between those heroes in favor of superhero registration and those who weren’t continue to reflect our conflicting desires of freedom and security. Marvel cleverly expanded these themes in the next event to hit…
Worship and MacLaren’s Pub
By David Tassell “I wish we had our own MacLaren’s pub!” Fans of How I Met Your Mother are likely to resonate with this sentiment. After several seasons, something about the familiar central place for the whole gang to meet and Barney’s antics to flourish becomes an attractive ideal for 20- and 30- somethings and…
Sorry to Bother You…But We Need a Prophet
By Fr. Linh Hoang Sorry to bother you is a statement that polite telemarketers say when customers answer their phones. It is a way to get your attention and draw you into their sales pitch. Sorry to Bother Youis also a movie about Cassius Green an unemployed, black Oakland, California resident who lands a telemarketing job….
Become Ocean’s Spiritual Frontier
By Sam Bennett Born in Mississippi and raised amid California’s suburban sprawl, composer John Luther Adams lived for forty years in Alaska. Not just a vague source of inspiration, he intended to produce a translation in sound of Alaska’s surrounding environment. His most celebrated attempt is the symphony Become Ocean (2013). A key element of…
Islamic Arts and “Arabian Nights Mode”
By Fatima Hye As a Muslim in America, I always felt that there was a rift in our community. Either you were a practicing Muslim, and therefore had zero interest in the arts, or you engaged in the arts, but weren’t very practicing. In my view, this issue (that other faith-based communities sometimes face as well:…
Call for Papers: Theology and the Marvel Universe
Call for Papers: Theology and the Marvel Universe Editor: Gregory Stevenson (gstevenson@rc.edu) Theology and Pop Culture is currently seeking contributions for a potential edited volume from Rowman and Littlefield on the intersection of theology and the Marvel Universe. Essays may focus on comic books/graphic novels, film, and television/streaming series. Essays should be written for academics,…
Chaos and Order in the Works of Grant Morrison
By Abigail Bilby Religious scholars argue that the battle between chaos and order has been in existence since before humans were able to conceive of it (Mobley p. 16). Ever since their arrival, humans have carried an obsession with the idea of chaotic beings and events existing in direct conflict with what is considered to…
Sidebar: Everyday Evil and the Visions of 616 Hickory Branch Lane
From our friend Rev. Samuel Blair over at The Chaplain’s Report: “The fatal flaw of the Vision in creating his family and trying to live a normal life is that that he did not see how much evil there was in normal life. The Vision, he recounts to himself, has saved the world 37 times….
EXTENDED Call for Papers: Theology and Game of Thrones
Call for Papers: Theology and Game of Thrones Theology and Pop Culture extending the deadline for abstracts to AUGUST 1 for a potential volume on the work of George R.R. Martin and the world of Game of Thrones. Essays should be written for academics, but avoid “jargon” to be accessible for the layperson. Potentials ideas…
Kingdom Hearts and Learning to Walk in the Dark
By Corey Patterson Right before the start of E3 this year, we were granted with the release date of the much-anticipated Square Enix game Kingdom Hearts 3: January 29, 2019. The franchise has received a massive influx of fans with the multiple installments throughout the years, and it’s showing no sign of coming down. I…
Rick and Morty, the Viability of Religion, and Experiencing the Sacred (or: Show Me What You Got!)
By Matthew William Brake In the episode “Get Shwifty” of Rick and Morty, the acclaimed Adult Swim show known for its sci-fi adventures and nihilistic brand of humor, a giant head (known as a “cromulon”) appears in the sky above Earth with one simple demand: “SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT!” This challenge ultimately involves Earth…
Grant Morrison, Final Crisis, and the Power of Apocalyptic Storytelling
By Julie Rivera Anyone that has heard a Grant Morrison interview can deduce that he has some interesting ideas about the world, which he portrays using metafiction, unique storytelling, and spirituality. While Morrison does not identify as a Christian, some of his works reflect Christian themes. His graphic novel Final Crisis uses the idea of…
‘In God We Trump’ – Film Review
From our friend Rev. Leah Schade over at EcoPreacher: “How is it possible for those who profess to follow a savior who preached inclusivity, respect for all peoples, humbleness, and nonviolence to venerate a man whose every Tweet, every speech, and every action flies in the face of our understanding of what it means to…
Free Will: Reality or Illusion? A Debate with Matthew Brake and Professor Gary Andrews
About 2 months ago, I (Matthew Brake) was invited to debate Professor Gary Andrews, a psychology professor at Lehigh Carbon Community College in Schnecksville, PA to participate in a debate about the existence of Free Will. Professor Andrews contended that human beings do not have free will, and I argued for a (constrained) free will. The…
What an Old Hollywood Melodrama Taught Me About the Gospel
By Louis Markos At the core of San Francisco (1936; W. S. Van Dyke), as at the core of so many film classics, is a love triangle. Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald), the innocent, devout daughter of a country parson, has come to the Barbary Coast in hopes of becoming a singer. As the story progresses,…
The Power of Narrative Preaching (or: The Pastor as Dungeon Master)
By Rev. Samuel Blair One of the side things I enjoy is playing fantasy roleplaying games with a group of friends online. Destroying giant bees ridden by bow-wielding goblins from the comfort of my office chair is always fun. However they can be very exciting not merely for the fun of fighting but the chance…
FREE Bible and Culture Class
Hello everyone! I wanted to let you all know that I (Matthew Brake) am teaching an 8-week class on the Bible and Culture online for a small Christian school in Bowie, MD called William Seymour College. William Seymour is a new school, led by a former professor of mine named Dr. Estrelda Alexander, who founded…
Fenway Park: From Profane Space to Sacred Place
By Michael Xiarhos, Ph.D. What is it that makes a place sacred? Essentially, we are talking about creation, that is the creation of the sacred place from profane space. Sacredness can be attributed to a certain place because of a singular event associated with that particular location: The Sepulcher in Jerusalem is a prime example of…
Sex, Prayer, and Broken Being in Nymphomaniac
By The Very Reverend Archimandrite John Panteleimon Manoussakis (For Antonio Mizael) “Yahweh, you seduced me unlawfully, and I consented to being seduced; you raped me, and you were too strong for my resistance to prevail.” Jeremiah 20:7 “Thou art victorious; open-mouthed he gapes at your beatitude, you took him as a woman, cut him through, opened…
Pop Culture and Theology Listed as one of Top 20 Pop Culture Blogs and Websites To Follow in 2018
Feedspot has selected Pop Culture and Theology as one of the Top 20 Pop Culture Blogs and Websites to Follow in 2018. After only being active for one year, we are honored to be listed in the same company as a number of well-established pop culture sites. This would not have been possible without all of…
The Infinite Strangeness of Atonement
By Corey Patterson [WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!] If you’re a Marvel fanatic, you’re probably still wiping the tears from your eyes after Infinity War. The film lived up to the “war” in its name with the mad Titan Thanos wiping out half of the life in the universe. His murderous act was…
Call for Papers: Theology and Prince
Call for Papers: Theology and Prince Editors: Rev. Katrina E. Jenkins (kejenkins@rollins.edu) & Jonathan H. Harwell (jharwell@rollins.edu) Theology and Pop Culture is currently seeking contributions for a potential edited volume of essays on theology and the life, music, and films of Prince Rogers Nelson. Essays should be written for academics, but avoid jargon in order…
The Incarnation as Condemnation in Lars von Trier’s Dogville
By The Very Reverend Archimandrite John Panteleimon Manoussakis Lars von Trier’s Dogville offers us an alternative interpretation to the mystery of the incarnation than what Christianity has traditionally come to understand in Christ’s humanization. Instead of the possibility of salvation, Dogville suggests Christ’s incarnation as the possibility of a universal condemnation. The story of God-becoming-man remains…
A Different Kind of Power: Superman and Paul Tillich
By Corey Patterson If the average person is asked to describe Superman, chances are they will undoubtedly talk about his vast strength. They would speak of his ability to leap tall buildings and pick up cars. However, few would describe his caring personality and kind demeanor, and to be fair, these have been deemed secondary…
Traditionalism, Modernism, and the Spirit of the Crowd
By Cole DeSantis The French philosopher, literary critic, anthropologist, and sociologist René Girard has garnered much attention among certain Christian theological circles. Bishop Robert Barron once published an article on his Word on Fire blog in 2015 in which he described Girard in the title as a “Church Father.” James B. Murphy, a professor at…
