By Matthew Brake As I’ve written before, I have not given up on my Christian faith. In many ways, at least creedally, I think many of my friends and colleagues would find me surprisingly orthodox. But emotionally and spiritually, I have described myself as a “post-traumatic” Christian, riffing on Grant Morrison’s notion of Batman as…
Author: matthewbrake84
Why Should Theologians Read H.P. Lovecraft?
By Austin Freeman The eldritch fingerprints of H.P. Lovecraft seem to be everywhere–tentacles, myriad eyes, regressive cults, and ancient names excavated from prehistoric monuments, bearing knowledge of forces greater and more terrifying than the soft anthropomorphic gods of the civilized world. From tabletop gaming to young adult comics to flagship television programs, Lovecraft’s great old…
All-Star Superman as Religious Creed
By Matthew Brake All-Star Superman recently began to trend when James Gunn announced that the upcoming DC movie slate would be inspired by many of the works of comics writer Grant Morrison. While not taking place in DC Comics’ “main continuity,” the story of All-Star Superman is a quintessential Superman tale, combining all the elements…
Call for Papers: Theology, Religion, and Watchmen
Editors: Matthew Brake and David K. Goodin Alan Moore is considered one of the greatest modern writers of comics and graphic novels, and he is perhaps best well-known for the celebrated comic series Watchmen, along with artist Dave Gibbons. Watchmen is not only one of the most celebrated comics series of all time, but in…
Black Mirror and the Virtue of Constructive Boredom
By John Anthony Donne Technology is making us bored. Andy Crouch supposes that the English word ‘bored’ came into existence in recent centuries in tandem with a new disposition that we experience with the advent of new technologies, especially digital technologies.[1] And boredom begets boredom. It is a recurring internal trigger that causes us to…
Conference: Theology, Religion, and D&D
A few weeks ago, our site published a Call for Papers for a Dungeons and Dragons volume. For fans of that franchise, we also want to let you know about a virtual graduate conference being held on March 25 hosted by the editors of the D&D volume, Scott Donahue-Martens and Brandon Simonson (you should also…
Sympathy for the Devil: Jeffrey Dahmer and the Tension of Redemption
By Jake Doberenz Most people can appreciate a good redemption story—as long as it is told in fiction. Real life redemption stories tend to make us quite uneasy. When we begin to see one pattern in a person, it becomes very hard to rewire our brains to see them in a new, different light. We…
Let the Truth Have its Day: The Dark Knight, Anthea Butler, and White Evangelical Racism
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…
Pop Culture and Theology 