CFP: Religion, Popular Culture, and the Nineties Edited by Ilaria W. Biano Although initially dismissed as “a holiday from history” (Will), a “frivolous if not decadent decade” (Rich), and a “time of trivial pursuits” (Halberstam) (cf. Chollet and Goldgeier 2008), the 1990s have increasingly been recognized as a pivotal historical moment. Scholars have underscored its…
Author: matthewbrake84
Jon Stewart, AOC, and MLK’s Critique of the White Liberal
I wish there was a bold opposition party to stand against the Trump administration. The Democratic Party is not that party. I have a large number of Republican family members, who consume a large amount of conservative media. It has struck me as funny for a couple of years now whenever one of them or…
Call for Papers: Religion and AI Romance in Popular Media
Title – Religion and AI Romance in Popular Media: Wired for Love Edited by: Amanda Furiasse, Nova Southeastern University As AI-driven love stories become increasingly central to cultural narratives, they provoke fundamental questions about love, intimacy, and human connection, challenging conventional understandings of personhood, the soul, and the nature of relationships. In light of these…
Call for Papers: Theology, Religion, and Mad Max
Call for contributions Title: Theology, Religion, and Mad Max: Rising from the Ashes Edited by: Yael Thomas Cameron, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand; Vernon W. Cisney, Gettysburg College, and Jon Hoskin, Phd. Mad Max is a post-apocalyptic film franchise that first wormed its way into the black matter of popular culture back in 1979, becoming…
Call For Papers: Religion, Popular Culture, and the Nineties
CFP: Religion, Popular Culture, and the Nineties Edited by Ilaria W. Biano Although initially dismissed as “a holiday from history” (Will), a “frivolous if not decadent decade” (Rich), and a “time of trivial pursuits” (Halberstam) (cf. Chollet and Goldgeier 2008), the 1990s have increasingly been recognized as a pivotal historical moment. Scholars have underscored its…
Wolfenstein: Playing the Jew?
By Dr. Frank G. Bosman We are in the year 1960. The Third Reich has solidified its political, cultural, and military dominance over Europe and North America since their 1946 victory over the Allied Forces by means of nuclear technology. All Entarteten are rounded up in concentration camps, racial laws rule the world, and only…
Call for Papers 2025: Censorship, Book Burning, and Separating the Artist from the Art!
Call for Papers 2025! Censorship, Book Burning, and the Separation of Artist from their Art! The ninth volume of the Pace University Journal of Comics and Culture is inviting authors, scholars, cartoonists, and comics creators to submit essays on banning and censorship of comics, contemporary or otherwise. Be it due to artist, content, religion, region,…
Embracing the Chaos: Lady Gaga’s ‘Disease’ and the Sacredness of the ‘Person-Body’
By Rev. Christopher N. West What makes us who and how we are in the world? Reductive approaches to personhood try to isolate a particular abstract aspect of our identities as our defining characteristic – an approach known as ‘essentialism’, as it seeks to reduce personhood down to a vital ‘essence’. For this reason, sacramental…
Call for Papers: Session “Visualizing conflicts and apocalypses. Religion and visual arts in a Polarized World”
Call for papers Session “Visualizing conflicts and apocalypses. Religion and visual arts in a Polarized World” Deadline 20 December International Society for the Sociology of Religion June 30 – July 4, 2025 Kaunas (Lithuania) Organized by Francesco Piraino – University of Bologna and Kees de Groot – Tilburg University For many years the relationship between…
Election Special: Lex Luthor, Donald Trump, and the Power of Pride
By Matthew Brake Brian Cronin wrote an interesting article on CBR about six years ago discussing John Byrne’s 1980s reboot of the Superman villain Lex Luthor. Historically depicted as a mad scientist, Byrne updated him for the 80s by reworking him into a corrupt businessman who loved to put his name on every building (regular…
Pop Culture and Theology 