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…
Author: matthewbrake84
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…
Pop Culture and Theology 