Blurring the Boundaries of Religion and Popular Culture
Implicit Theology, Secular Spirituality, and Speculative Fiction
Blurring the Boundaries of Religion and Popular Culture
Implicit Theology, Secular Spirituality, and Speculative Fiction
Description
Employing theoretical lenses of implicit theology and secular spirituality, this book blurs the boundaries between religion and popular culture to develop meaning-making in science fiction, fantasy, and horror media.
In an era shaped by increasing levels of religious non-affiliation and social polarization, Karen Trimble Alliaume and Maryellen Davis Collett explore religious ideas and practices that empower practitioners to meet universal yet deeply personal human needs and desires by engaging with popular culture. The authors integrate insights gleaned from the oft-siloed approaches of theology and religious studies to analyze works of literature, film, and television in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. These works of speculative fiction prompt emotionally charged experiences that reveal the paradox at the heart of being human.
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Table of Contents
Part I: Shock Value: Charged Boundaries in Science/Fiction/Religion
1. Shock/Value: Implicit Theology as Something More in Ted Chiang's “Hell is the Absence of God”
2. Rabid Rites and Rational Reversals: Secular Sacramentality in Midnight Mass
Part II: Provocative Portals, Narrative Collisions, and Erupting Epiphanies: Fantasy, Reality, and the Supernatural
3. Affective Portals: Making Belief with Galaxy Quest and The Magicians
4. Serving Many Masters: Real and Unreal, Sane and Insane, and Natural and Supernatural in M. Night Shyamalan's Servant
Part III: Hybridity and Wholeness: Negotiating Charged Identities
5. Being Beside Ourselves: Feeling Xenophilia in Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis
6. A Mind Divided Against Itself: Severance and the Secular Spirituality of Work/Life Balance
Conclusion: Revelatory Alchemies
Bibliography
Product details
| Published | 27 Nov 2025 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 256 |
| ISBN | 9781978763494 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 1 b/w illus |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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