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…
Tag: Batman
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…
A Response to McGrath and Brake: Batman, Joker, and Nietzsche’s Overman
By John MacDonald On episode 36 of the Religion Prof Podcast, Dr. James McGrath and Matthew Brake shared their interpretations of Nietzsche’s overman in relation to the Batman mythos in popular culture. McGrath raises the point that it is young Bruce Wayne’s response to his family tragedy that raises him from the level of the…
Grant Morrison, Superheroes, and The Post-Traumatic Christian
By Matthew Brake I was talking the other day to a friend, and the topic of our spiritual journeys came up. This person told me about the burnout and discouragement they felt, not only being involved in different churches, but in the whole “Jesus thing” in general. I then relayed my own story: involvement in…
Evil and the Bat, Part Three: The Meaning of THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE
By Raymond Lam (Read Part Two of this blog series here) In this third and final exploration of Batman and the “theology” constructed by Grant Morrison over the decade of 2008–18, we dive into The Return of Bruce Wayne (RBW) (2010), one of Morrison’s finest Batman works and one that elevated the idea of Bruce Wayne to…
Evil and the Bat: Part Two: Free Will’s Confrontation with Time and Destiny
By Raymond Lam (Read Part One of this blog series here) In my first entry, I attempted to explain how the theology of the DC Universe came to be (over a decade between 2008 and 2018) defined by the metaphysical conflict between Batman, DC’s ultimate human archetype or ideal, and Darkseid, who serves as not…
Vision: Batman V Superman – Dawn of Justice
By Stephen Garner ***A version of this article previously appeared in Stimulus: The New Zealand Journal of Christian Thought and Practice,23, no. 2 (2016): 43-45., and is used here with permission from the author and the journal. If you like superheroes, then it doesn’t get much better than current cinema and television. Not only are…
Evil and The Bat: Time and Destiny From Final Crisis to Dark Nights Metal, 2008-2018
By Raymond Lam Evil is at once profound and overused, haunting and trite. Thanks to its deep roots in Western theology and philosophy, it has been the “go-to” theme for so many for our entertainment mediums. Yet we are not always sure how we can tell a story about it in a way that gives…
CFP: Theology and Batman
Editors: Matthew William Brake and Rev. C. K. Robertson, Ph.D. In 2019, Batman turned 80 years old. First appearing in Detective Comics #27, that famous title hit #1000 back in March. Since his debut, Batman has been a cultural force across multiple medium, whether in the comics that spawned him, the 1960s campy television series, the…
Batman, the Joker, and Nietzsche’s übermensch: A Discussion with James McGrath and Matthew Brake
Hello friends! A few weeks ago at the Batman conference at Bowling Green State University, which I discuss with some friends here, I presented a panel with James McGrath on the Friedrich Nietzsche’s übermensch. Specifically, James and I discussed, in conversation with a work by our friend Chuck Robertson, who best fits the description of…
Pop Culture and Theology 