In Theology and the Marvel Universe, fourteen contributors examine theological themes and ideas in the comic books, television shows, and films that make up the grand narrative of the Marvel Universe. Engaging in dialogue with theological thinkers such as Willie James Jennings, Franz Rosenzweig, Soren Kierkegaard, Rene Girard, Kelly Brown Douglas, and many others, the chapters explore a wide variety of topics, including violence, sacrifice, colonialism, Israeli-Palestinian relations, virtue ethics, character formation, identity formation, and mythic reinvention. This book demonstrates that the stories of Thor, Daredevil, Sabra, Spider-Man, Jessica Jones, Thanos, Luke Cage, and others engage not just our imagination, but our theological imagination as well.
In Theology and the Marvel Universe, fourteen contributors examine theological themes and ideas in the comic books, television shows, and films that make up the grand narrative of the Marvel Universe. Engaging in dialogue with theological thinkers such as Willie James Jennings, Franz Rosenzweig, Soren Kierkegaard, Rene Girard, Kelly Brown Douglas, and many others, the chapters explore a wide variety of topics, including violence, sacrifice, colonialism, Israeli-Palestinian relations, virtue ethics, character formation, identity formation, and mythic reinvention. This book demonstrates that the stories of Thor, Daredevil, Sabra, Spider-Man, Jessica Jones, Thanos, Luke Cage, and others engage not just our imagination, but our theological imagination as well.
1 What Did It Cost? Sacrifice and Kenosis in The Infinity Saga
Kristen Leigh Mitchell
2 “I Was Never the Hero that You Wanted Me to Be”: The Ethics of
Self-Sacrifice and Self-Preservation in Jessica Jones
Taylor J. Ott
3 Mythology, Mimesis, and Apocalypse in Jonathan Hickman’s
Avengers
Matthew Brake
4 “Because You Exist”: Biblical Literature and Violence in the
X-Men Comic Books
Dan W. Clanton, Jr.
5 The Gospel According to Thanos: Violence, Utopia, and the Case
for a Material Theology
Tim Posada
6 “Those Are the Ancestors You Hear”: Marvel’s Luke Cage and Franz
Rosenzweig’s Theology of the Creation
Levi Morrow
7 Spider-Man and the Theology of Weakness
Gregory Stevenson
8 Of Venom & Virtue: Venom as Insight into Issues of Identity, the
Human Condition, and Virtue
Jeremy E. Scarbrough
9 Matt Murdock’s Ill-fitting Catholic Faith in Netflix’s
Daredevil
Daniel D. Clark
10 Gods upon Gods: Hierarchies of Divinity in the Marvel
Universe
Austin M. Freeman
11 The Thor Movies and the “Available” Myth: Mythic Reinvention in
Marvel Movies
Andrew Tobolowsky
12 Thor: Ragnarok, Postcolonial Theology, and Life Together
Kevin Nye
13 Savage Monster or Grieving Mother? Sabra and Marvel’s Political
Theology of Reconciliation in Israel-Palestine
Amanda Furiasse
14 Modern Re-enchantment and Dr. Strange: Pentecostal Analogies,
the Spirit of the Multiverse, and the Play on Time and Eternity
Andrew D. Thrasher
Gregory Stevenson is professor of New Testament at Rochester University.
Greg Stevenson has gathered a generically and methodologically
wide-ranging assortment of essays for this collection. It will
undoubtedly be of great interest to scholars and students working
at the nexus of pop-culture and theology.
*Ben Saunders, author of Do The Gods Wear Capes?*
Not too many books on superheroes do justice to the Marvel Universe
of characters and stories from a biblical-theological vantage
point—this study is refreshing exception. The authors dive deeply
into the heroes and their myths without attempting to impose
theological elements that are not already latently there. This
collection of studies brings to light spiritual, religious, and
moral truths implicit, and sometimes explicit, in the superhero
films and graphic novels, and it engages both relevant and
up-to-date sources. The study is worthy of recommendation for
courses focusing on film, heroes, theology, or popular culture.
*B. J. Oropeza, editor of The Gospel According to Superheroes:
Religion and Popular Culture*
Assemble, true believers, and behold! Theology and the Marvel
Universe reveals what Uatu the Watcher has long witnessed:
Superhero stories are wholesome entertainments capable of inspiring
reflection even upon the essence of the divine and our relationship
with it. From the sanctity of life to suffering and sacrifice; from
temptation to redemption; from humility to zealotry; from service
to stewardship; from struggling with personal faith to confronting
historical injustice; from dealing with bodies to caring for souls;
from issues of identity and problems of personhood to surveying the
celestial order; from source criticism to supernatural forces; from
creation all the way to apocalypse—this good book offers
confirmation and testimony that Marvel comics, movies, and
television series are sources worthy of scholarly attention and
enthusiastic affection.
*Travis Smith, Concordia University*
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