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….
Author: matthewbrake84
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…
Analyzing Religion in Jonathan Hickman’s House of X/Powers of X: Epilogue
At long last, David Canham‘s epilogue for his ongoing blog series for Sequart on Jonathan Hickman’s House of X/Powers of X. Here is an excerpt: “One also cannot deny how well-crafted the House of X / Powers of X series is. The questionable morality of the X-Men’s new status quo does not make the storytelling any less compelling. Hickman…
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…
Pop Culture and Theology 