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….
Pop Culture and Theology 