By Matthew Brake It’s dangerous to build a cause based on a lie because the lie may come back and bite you. This is certainly the case in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. In the second movie, The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne believes that he can end his war on crime with the help of…
2022: Top Five Posts
Every year, we post links to the top five original posts for the year (check out our lists from previous years: 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021). Blogs from previous years and calls for papers certainly get a lot of views, but this list focuses specifically on the top views for this year’s original posts. If you…
Call for Papers: Theology, Religion, and Dungeons & Dragons
Call for Abstracts: Theology, Religion, and Dungeons & Dragons Edited by Scott Donahue-Martens and Brandon Simonson Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) that was created in 1974 and popularized in the 1970’s and 1980’s, though it has found a renaissance in contemporary popular culture due in part to its prominent role in…
A Beautiful Pattern: The Aesthetics of Virtue in Knives Out
By Colin Toffelmire Rian Johnson’s celebrated murder-mystery Knives Out is intricate, fun, and funny. The plot always leans forward, the acting is excellent, and it is relentlessly clever. What’s more, for the persistent viewer, the film rewards multiple viewings. First come the various hints and clues in the dialogue, and then more subtle hints and…
Virtue Ethics and Moral Transformation in A Christmas Carol
By Jake Doberenz “Spirit!” he cried, tight clutching at its robe, “hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse.” -Dickens, A Christmas Carol Personal change is a major theme in both religion and literature. We can recognize that in any…
What About Second Advent? Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy as Seasonal Inspiration
By Danny Anderson For the past several years, my family and I have made a tradition of watching through Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy in the Thanksgiving window. In all honesty, the tradition wasn’t born out of an intentional act of religious devotion. Thanksgiving break simply provided ample free-time to luxuriate in the…
Advent, Twelvetide, and the Unreasonable Hope of Christmas
By Katherine Billotte-Kelaidis It is a little bit awkward for me to sit down to write about “pop culture and Advent,” because a) I am from a tradition in which Advent as such does not exist (and I promise to explain below) and b) it seems to me that popular culture has, over the past…
Call for Papers: Theology, Religion, and the Office
Call For Papers: Title: Theology and The Office Volume Editors: Daniel J. Cameron & John W. McCormack Abstract and CV Due: January 31, 2023 Initial Final Paper Due: June 30, 2023 In 2020, seven years after the show officially ended, the hit NBC series The Office was the number 1 streamed tv show with over…
Unveiling the Secret of the “Seductive Stare”: Saint Teresa, Santiago Cabrera, and Desire – Part Two
By Loraine Haywood ***Click Here to read Part One! The Musketeers, Season 1, Episode 9: “Knight Takes Queen” In this episode, Aramis, the virile romantic hero, (Santiago Cabrera), Queen Ann (Alexandra Dowling), and Athos (Tom Burke) seek shelter in a monastery as Porthos (Howard Charles) and D’Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino) go for reinforcements. Under siege by…
Unveiling the Secret of “The Seductive Stare”: Saint Teresa, Santiago Cabrera, and Desire – Part One
By Loraine Haywood Abstract In a theological fantasy, Saint Teresa testifies to her piercing by an angel while in the convent in Avila. Film viewers would be familiar with Bernini’s statue, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, as a representation of this encounter, from the film, Angels and Demons (Howard 2009). This sculptural orgasm is a representation…
John Carpenter and the Origins of Evil
By Danny Anderson Let there be no doubt about my position. John Carpenter is a great artist. And critics, many of whom seemingly made careers out of missing this point, have largely come around to acknowledge this fact. If there was any remaining doubt about Carpenter’s artistic achievements, Jordan Peele, the director of three modern…
Horror, Theology, and the Fragmented World
By Brandon R. Grafius Every prophet in the Hebrew Bible has a call narrative, a story where God speaks to them directly and commissions them to be a prophet. Think of Moses at the burning bush, the young Samuel being woken by a voice in the middle of the night, or Jeremiah being touched on…
When Christians are Evil and Black Sabbath are “Moralists”: A Heavy Metal Theology of Retribution
By Jack Holloway Day of judgment, God is calling On their knees, the war pigs crawling Begging mercy for their sins Satan laughing, spreads his wings Oh lord, yeah! The United States had been bombing Indochina relentlessly for years, American troops were burning homes and villages belonging to Vietnamese noncombatants, and were raping Vietnamese women….
Religion, Consumerism, and Absurdism: Modernity and the Quest for Meaning
By Cole DeSantis Popular culture is not known for being the most self-aware phenomena in human society. Many of the trends that constitute “pop culture” are considered fashionable because they are taken to be cool, novel, or because they appeal to us on some visceral level. Pop culture is something to be enjoyed, not really…
Isaac Brock, the Unreliable Narrator: Holy Fury in Modest Mouse’s “Cowboy Dan”
Modest Mouse’s classic album “The Lonesome Crowded West” turned 25 this year. And yet, barely any writing about the band’s peculiar theology exists. It’s time to change that.
We Don’t Talk About Burnout: What Disney’s Encanto Can Teach Us About Having a Vocation
By Dr. Jennie Riley A gift bestowed upon an individual by an ephemeral divine being. A gift which gives the recipient purpose and a place in a community. A gift which becomes central to that person’s identity. Take that premise, give it a Disney twist, inject Lin Manuel Miranda’s song-writing, and you’ve got the ingredients…
Contemplatives in Conversation: The Theology of Cinema, Part 2
By Arthur Aghajanian ***Before continuing, read Part One here… AA: In the context of theology, we might note that film has a special ability to represent things that other art forms can’t. The hypnotic affects achieved through temporal dislocation, the camera’s ability to concentrate attention while being everywhere at once, and the use of montage…
Contemplatives in Conversation: The Theology of Cinema, Part 1
By Arthur Aghajanian Going to the movies may not seem like religious action, but it’s one of the most common ways we experience spiritual insight. Film impacts how we interpret life, and its mechanical apparatus is uniquely suited to provide glimpses of the divine in the signs and symbols of the everyday. Like religion, film…
Doom Theology: Black Sabbath’s Relentless Vision of Good and Evil
By Jack Holloway The 1960s was a decade brimming with hopes of revolution, an electric time for a zealous counterculture. The Vietnam War loomed in the background, a fraught international situation which fueled the counterculture’s pursuit of radical societal transformation. But 1969 would prove to be a decisive year, as the tide was turned by…
Harrowings of Hell in Sandman and Christianity
By David Armstrong Caveat Lector: Spoilers follow for Netflix’s The Sandman Season One. In The Sandman, Season One, Episode 4, “A Hope in Hell,” Morpheus, aka Dream of the Endless, Lord of the Dreaming, embarks on a harrowing of hell to retrieve his helm, one of three magical objects which contain and channel his creative…
Call for Papers: Religion and James Bond
Call for Papers: Religion and James Bond Volume Editor: George Tsakiridis, PhD Abstract and CV Due: November 30, 2022 Initial Final Paper Due: June 1, 2023 Click this link, and close your eyes…wait a few seconds and start reading… It’s hard to imagine a more iconic action hero from the past 60 years than James…
Saul Goodman (James McGill) finds a God of his Understanding: A Theological Reflection on Better Call Saul
By David K. Goodin The narrative world of the Breaking Bad has reached its conclusion. The original series (2008-2013) centered on the pyrrhic ascendency and tragic final days of drug kingpin Walter White. The follow-up movie El Camino (2019) added a postscript for the one seemingly redeemable character, Jesse Pinkman. Whereas the final episode of…
30% Discount on the Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture Series!
Up through May 04, 2023, Lexington/Fortress Press is offering a 30% discount on all books in the Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture series with discount code LXFANDF30. This discount includes not only hardcovers but ebooks and paperbacks as well (so definitely worth looking at the paperbacks for Theology and Prince and Theology and the Marvel…
Extended Call for Papers: Theology, Religion, and the Witcher
Title: Theology, Religion, and The WitcherEditor: Yael Cameron, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand Andrzej Sapkowski is author of the Polish fantasy novels and short stories following protagonist Geralt of Rivia, better known as The Witcher. Since the early days of publication The Witcher has had a remarkable reception. The Witcher and its lore came…
Theology, Religion, and Margaret Atwood: Contributors Needed!
We are once again extending the call for papers for the Theology, Religion, and Margaret Atwood volume. The editors are interested in theological and religious analyses of Atwood’s works, which includes her famous A Handmaid’s Tale, but also includes her other short stories, essays, and poetry. Of particular interest would be a critical essay dealing…
A Response to McGrath and Brake: Batman, Joker, and Nietzsche’s Overman
By John MacDonald On episode 36 of the Religion Prof Podcast, Dr. James McGrath and Matthew Brake shared their interpretations of Nietzsche’s overman in relation to the Batman mythos in popular culture. McGrath raises the point that it is young Bruce Wayne’s response to his family tragedy that raises him from the level of the…
Puss-in-Boots: An Allegorical Reading
By Daniel Bookman It is no secret that many tales that we read and enjoyed as children were oftentimes allegorical in nature. Who doesn’t know of Aesops fables or the Brothers Grimm and their many tales of morality? Likewise, there is a strong literary tradition of tales serving as Biblical allegories. Perhaps the most famous…
Morality and Power in Spider-Man: No Way Home
By George Tsakiridis WARNING: SPOILERS (but come on, it’s been 2 months!) “Three is a magic number.” The catchy tune by De La Soul that plays during the animated credits of Spider-Man: No Way Home rings in the ears of all attendees and represents the best-worst kept secret of the past year – there are…
Call for Papers: Theology, Religion, and the Witcher
Title: Theology, Religion, and The WitcherEditor: Yael Cameron, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand Andrzej Sapkowski is author of the Polish fantasy novels and short stories following protagonist Geralt of Rivia, better known as The Witcher. Since the early days of publication The Witcher has had a remarkable reception. The Witcher and its lore came…
Grant Morrison, Superheroes, and The Post-Traumatic Christian
By Matthew Brake I was talking the other day to a friend, and the topic of our spiritual journeys came up. This person told me about the burnout and discouragement they felt, not only being involved in different churches, but in the whole “Jesus thing” in general. I then relayed my own story: involvement in…
Cobra Kai and the Fluidity of Religion
By David Armstrong There are certain ideas that, once you have them, it is excessively difficult to un-have them. Here are two. The first is that religions–treated as self-sufficient, insulated systems of belief, behavior, and belonging that are discrete from other such systems and that can be identified through zoning in on some sort of…
Call for Papers: Theology, Religion, and Dune
Title: Theology, Religion, and Dune Editor: Christopher A. Porter, Trinity College, University of Divinity A mention of Frank Herbert’s Dune conjures up visions of warring houses, giant spice worms, mysterious Fremen, and the crucial ‘spice’ melange. But within Herbert’s broad world building enterprise, his universe unashamedly embeds religious themes and theological frameworks in the narrative….
Jimmy Eat World’s 555 and the Lament Tradition of Prayer
By Thomas M. Fuerst As a white United Methodist pastor living in the American South, I have grieved for two years as Covid-19 has run through my city, my region, my nation, and our world. Fortunately, I pastor a congregation that largely takes masks and vaccines seriously, but I lament that I live in an…
A Last Blood Benediction: Anne Rice, Type O Negative, and Religious Imagery in Vampire Lore
By Lillah Lawson Many have explored the relationship between vampires and Christianity – scratch the surface of any well-written piece of vampire fiction, from Dracula to The Vampire Chronicles, from Salem’s Lotto Twilight, and you’ll find no shortage of vampiric characters bemoaning the fact that they are damned by God, drinking blood as an act…
2021: Top Five Posts
When I did this post last year, I stated that it had been a tumultuous year (a bit of an understatement). 2021 brought it’s own share of ups and downs and the world continues to struggle with the Covid-19 pandemic, the rise of authoritarianism, and the pervasiveness of conspiracy theories. I hope everyone is finding…
Call for Papers: Anime, Religion, and Theology
Call for Papers: Anime, Religion, and Theology Proposal Due Date: February 15th, 2022 First Submission Date for Contributors: August 15th, 2022 Editors: Roberto J. De La Noval and David Armstrong Today it is impossible to overlook the presence of Japanese animation, ‘anime’ for short, in the Western entertainment ecosystem. Since the 1990s, when many landmark…
Extended Call for Papers: Theology, Religion, and Wes Craven
Call for Proposals Title: Theology and Wes Craven Editor: David K. Goodin, McGill University Wesley Earl Craven (1939-2015), popularly known as simply Wes Craven, redefined the horror genre with such landmark and notorious films as The Hills Have Eyes (1977), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), The People…
Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture Series Sale!
Hello Friends! From now through 01/08/2022, Lexington books is offering a 35% off sale on all in-stock titles (forthcoming titles not included). You can find out more specifics about the sale by clicking here. You can use the discount by going to the book series website and using code 21JOYSALE when you checkout. You can…
Why Theology and Spider-Man?
By George Tsakiridis As I begin writing this I am listening to the song “Stressed Out” by Twenty-One Pilots. It states “Wish we could turn back time, to the good old days, when our momma sang us to sleep, but now we’re stressed out.” In the newest book in the Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture…
Beastars, the Addictions of the Flesh, and Cruciform Asceticism
By David Armstrong Caveat Lector: Spoilers follow for Netflix’s Beastars. Beastars is objectively a little ridiculous. The first season follows Legoshi, a wolf living in a society of anthropoid animals tenuously held together across the division between herbivores and carnivores, the latter of whom struggle and periodically refuse to contain their violent and flesh-eating instincts….
Faith in the Balance: Religious Trauma and Hope in The Vigil
By Danny Anderson Horror films are shapeshifters by nature. They emerge into the world at a given time and place and contort themselves to embody the anxieties, fears, and hopes of their moment. For those interested in religion, horror has been, justifiably so, a primary cinematic genre to explore. No other kind of film takes…
I Have the Power! “Masters of the Universe: Revelation” and the Soul’s Becoming
By David Armstrong He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-1985) looms large in the 1980s nerd culture fusing science fiction, fantasy, and, let’s face it, psychedelic trips. The original show followed He-Man, the superpowered Prince Adam, and his comrades Teela, Man-At-Arms, Orko, Battle-Cat, and Roboto as they sought to prevent the evil wizard Skeletor…
Religion in the Crossfire of Right-Wing Culture Wars: A Christian’s Reflection on Belief and Social Utility
By Cole DeSantis We recently finished the summer. In American society, the summer, particularly the month of July, is the time in which Americans celebrate the birth of their nation. It is during this time that inhabitants of the United States contemplate, with particular intensity, the values that their nation, society and culture stand for….
Extended Call for Papers: Religion in Spider-Man Comics
Call For Papers: Religion in Spider-Man Comics – A Textual Look at our Favorite Web-Slinger Volume Editor: George Tsakiridis, PhD Abstract and CV Due: October 24, 2021 Initial Final Paper Due: March 1, 2022 There are few comic book heroes that rise to the level of Spider-Man. He is the foundation for most of the…
Call for Papers: Theology and Wes Craven
Call for Proposals Title: Theology and Wes Craven Editor: David K. Goodin, McGill University Wesley Earl Craven (1939-2015), popularly known as simply Wes Craven, redefined the horror genre with such landmark and notorious films as The Hills Have Eyes (1977), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), The People…
Intellectual Humility in the Face of the Unidentified: What Theology Can Learn From Ufology’s Renaissance
By David Armstrong We are living in something of a ufological renaissance at the moment. It is not the only such cultural resurgence and newfound respectability of a previously suppressed subculture: now more than at any other time in American history, interest in aliens, the paranormal, the occult, the psychedelic, and animistic, panpsychist, or idealist…
2nd Extension CFP: Theology and Margaret Atwood
Since the recent success of the TV series The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood—who has always enjoyed an enthusiastic “fan base” and coterie of admiring readers—has gained a renewed prominence and her work has entered into a kind of renaissance as readers (re)discover her extensive catalogue of writings, including novels, essays, short stories, poetry, and other edited…
WandaVision, Reality, and the Filter Bubbles that Control Our Minds
By Hannah Grubbs Imagine you’re sitting at the dinner table with your old white grandma and her and your parents are going on and on about how Antifa was behind the insurrection and that Trump won the election. You, a well-informed person, interject to say, “Well, the Antifa part is unsure and Trump actually lost…
Die Before You Die: The Mystery of Christ in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight
By David Armstrong Caveat Lector: Spoilers follow for David Lowery’s The Green Knight. David Lowery’s The Green Knight (2021) is simply incredible. In a lifetime of ill-conceived, failed, and outright botched Camelot films, it is refreshing to know that someone, somewhere, actually has some knowledge of Arthuriana, particularly the mystifying, apocalyptic, even psychedelic strangeness that surrounds the…
Call for Papers: Theology and the Blues
Theology and the Blues Edited by Justin McLendon While all music genres incorporate religious imagery, the blues has its origin in the soil of the church. In its infancy, the blues was considered the “Devil’s Music,” often dismissed as undermining the church’s gospel songbook. The initial resistance, however, could not suppress the organic development of…
Pop Culture and Theology 