Titles of Interest – Gods of Thrones: A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Religions of Ice and Fire

0 | January 18th, 2019 | Posted in fantasy, Game of Thrones, religion

Gods of Thrones: A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Religions of Ice and Fire
A. Ron Hubbard and Anthony Le Donne
Bald Move Books, 2018

Why is Tyrion hated by the gods? Does Dany have a messiah complex? Can Bran manipulate timelines? What would Nietzsche think about Jaime’s morality? These are just a few of the questions answered in Gods of Thrones. Applying the study of religion, sociology, and history, this book offers a fresh take on the religious landscape of Ice and Fire.

The final season of Game of Thrones begins in April. In preparation you can not only binge watch on HBO, but also do some reading to dive deeper into the fantasy world of George R.R. Martin through this book. Listen to a podcast discussion with the authors to learn more.

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Shudder documentary “Horror Noire”

0 | January 7th, 2019 | Posted in horror, horror noire, race

From Entertainment Weekly:

Get Out writer-director Jordan Peele and Candyman star Tony Todd are two of the movie notables interviewed in a new documentary called Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, EW can exclusively reveal. Horror Noire is based on the book of the same name by Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman and takes a critical look at a century of genre films that by turns utilized, caricatured, exploited, sidelined, and embraced both black filmmakers and black audiences. Horror Noire is the first original feature documentary from Shudder and will premiere exclusively on the horror- and thriller-streaming service Feb. 7 after special screening events in New York and Los Angeles earlier in the month.

See my previous interview with Dr. Means Coleman on this subject here.

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Forthcoming book in 2019: The Paranormal and Popular Culture

0 | December 19th, 2018 | Posted in paranormal, pop culture

I am pleased to announce a February 2019 release date for one of my book projects in the coming year. It was a pleasure to co-edit with Darryl Caterine, and the wonderful contributors to this volume. I hope it makes a significant contribution to paranormal and pop culture studies.

The Paranormal and Popular Culture
A Postmodern Religious Landscape, 1st Edition
Edited by Darryl Caterine, John Morehead
Routledge
330 pages

Description
Interest in preternatural and supernatural themes has revitalized the Gothic tale, renewed explorations of psychic powers and given rise to a host of social and religious movements based upon claims of the fantastical. And yet, in spite of this widespread enthusiasm, the academic world has been slow to study this development. This volume rectifies this gap in current scholarship by serving as an interdisciplinary overview of the relationship of the paranormal to the artefacts of mass media (e.g. novels, comic books, and films) as well as the cultural practices they inspire.

After an introduction analyzing the paranormal’s relationship to religion and entertainment, the book presents essays exploring its spiritual significance in a postmodern society; its (post)modern representation in literature and film; and its embodiment in a number of contemporary cultural practices. Contributors from a number of discplines and cultural contexts address issues such as the shamanistic aspects of Batman and lesbianism in vampire mythology.

Covering many aspects of the paranormal and its effect on popular culture, this book is an important statement in the field. As such, it will be of utmost interest to scholars of religious studies as well as media, communication, and cultural studies.

Reviews
‘Few who have studied popular culture would question that it is haunted by a fascination with the paranormal. Furthermore, that this haunting has an impact on the everyday lives of many of our contemporaries is beyond question. This is why this book matters. Understanding the occultural context in which we live our lives is enormously important for those seeking an accurate grasp of late-modernity. The thoughtful and engaging studies in this timely volume, not only make it difficult to put down, but also increase our knowledge of the nature of occulture and open up new areas of inquiry. It deserves to be widely read.’ – Christopher Partridge, Lancaster University, UK

‘I am often asked by people, usually those with slightly raised eyebrows, why I am so interested in things paranormal. I answer: “Why, of course, because these things mess every other thing up.” I am hardly just joking. This collection of essays on the postmodern paranormal demonstrates in playful detail, historical nuance, and just plain weirdness how these things do this messing up and why it is so historically important, so spiritually contemporary, and so intellectually liberating. For some, at least. For others, it is all a closed book, or a non-existent book. That uncertainty, that freeing nonsense, that hesitation, it turns out, is at the very heart of the postmodern paranormal and this book, which really does exist.’ – Jeffrey J. Kripal, Rice University, TX, USA

‘In our postmodern age, traditional religions appear to be losing status globally, while its ideals and beliefs are increasingly appropriated by occulture, the folk and popular culture devoted to the paranormal. Caterine and Morehead have enlisted a team of both skeptics and sympathetic observers to explore the complexity of this modern scene. It takes readers on fascinating journey through the wide realm of high weirdness, ranging from Brazilian UFO lore to the quests of amateur ghost hunters, discussing supernatural tales by classic authors and by the directors of exploitation films, finding deep religious meaning in the lore of zombies and of Bigfoot. This volume is an alluring incentive to further study of this rich and constantly growing phenomenon.’ – Bill Ellis, Professor Emeritus, Penn State University, USA

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Appreciating Rankin/Bass at the Holiday Season

0 | December 1st, 2018 | Posted in animation, Rankin/Bass, stop-motion animation


I picked up a copy of the Deluxe Edition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer today to introduce to my youngest granddaughter, and was was surprisingly pleased to find several “Enchanting Bonus Features,” include a short on Restoring the Puppets of Rudolph, and a longer documentary titled The Animagic World of Rankin/Bass, a new documentary film. Those who grew up in the 60s and 70s will appreciate the look back at this animated holiday classic, but also the extended discussion of the groundbreaking work of Rankin/Bass and their continuing legacy. In the estimation of several in the documentary, Rankin/Bass should be acknowledged for their great contribution to animation, right alongside Disney, Hanna-Barbera, and Looney Tunes. This Deluxe Edition of the classic is worth picking up for the new material for fans of the film that virtually created animated holiday television specials, fans of Rankin/Bass, as well as animation and stop-motion animation fans.

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Volume for review – “Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques: Monstrosity and Religion in Europe and the United States”

0 | November 30th, 2018 | Posted in Books, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, monstrous, religion, Titles of Interest

I just received this volume for review in the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.

Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques: Monstrosity and Religion in Europe and the United States, Edited by Michael E. Heyes Lexington Books, 2018

Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques examines the intersection of religion and monstrosity in a variety of different time periods in the hopes of addressing two gaps in scholarship within the field of monster studies. The first part of the volume—running from the medieval to the Early Modern period—focuses upon the view of the monster through non-majority voices and accounts from those who were themselves branded as monsters. Overlapping partially with the Early Modern and proceeding to the present day, the contributions of the second part of the volume attempt to problematize the dichotomy of secular/religious through a close look at the monsters this period has wrought.

Introduction: Ecce Monstra Michael E. Heyes
Part I: Inside the Monster, Looking Out
1. The Woman’s Body, In-Between: The Holy and Monstrous Womb in Medieval Medicine and Religion Minji Lee
2. Miracles and Monsters: Gog and Magog, Alexander the Great, and Antichrist in the Apocalypse of the Catalan Atlas (1375) Thomas S. Franke
3. Dressing Monstrous Men: Landsknechte Clothing in Some Early Modern Danish Church Wall Paintings John Block Friedman
4. Twelfth Night’s “poor monster:” Viola/Cesario as Holy Grotesque Cathleen McKague 5. Grotesques in Sacred Spaces: The Cappella dei Priori and the Cappella del Quartiere di Leone X in the Palazzo Vecchio Susanne Margarit McColeman

Part II: Monstrous Modernity
6. Monstrous Sovereignty and the Corrupt Body Politic in Richard III and The Duchess of Malfi John W. Ellis-Etchison
7. Reform and Romance: Catholic Monstrosity in Antebellum U.S. Fiction AnaMaria Seglie
8. Lovecraft’s Things: Sinister Souvenirs from Other Worlds Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
9. The Big Bad and the Big “Aha!”: Metamodern Monsters as Transformational Figures of Instability Linda C. Ceriello
10. From Revelation to Revolution: Explaining the Strange Success of Fox’s Sleepy Hollow Michael E. Heyes

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Podcast Interview with Doug Cowan on “America’s Dark Theologian”

0 | November 15th, 2018 | Posted in Douglas Cowan, horror, podcast, religion, Stephen King, theology

Doug Cowan has been a frequent guest here at TheoFantastique discussing his books on science fiction, horror and religion. We are pleased to have him back in a podcast where he discusses his new book America’s Dark Theologian: The Religious Imagination of Stephen King (New York University Press, 2018). Sit back and enjoy our conversation below, and if you’d like to explore other facets of Doug’s work click the links underneath the podcast for our past conversations.

Who are we? Why are we here? Where do we go when we die? For answers to these questions, people often look to religion. But religion is not the only place seekers turn. Myths, legends, and other stories have given us alternative ways to address the fundamental quandaries of existence. Horror stories, in particular, with their focus on questions of violence and mortality, speak urgently to the primal fears embedded in such existential mysteries. With more than fifty novels to his name, and hundreds of millions of copies sold, few writers have spent more time contemplating those fears than Stephen King. Yet despite being one of the most widely read authors of all time, King is woefully understudied. America’s Dark Theologian is the first in-depth investigation into how King treats religion in his horror fiction.

Considering works such as Carrie, The Dead Zone, Misery, The Shining, and many more, Douglas Cowan explores the religious imagery, themes, characters, and, most importantly, questions that haunt Stephen King’s horror stories. Religion and its trappings are found throughout King’s fiction, but what Cowan reveals is a writer skeptical of the certainty of religious belief. Describing himself as a “fallen away” Methodist, King is less concerned with providing answers to our questions, than constantly challenging both those who claim to have answers and the answers they proclaim. Whether he is pondering the existence of other worlds, exploring the origins of religious belief and how it is passed on, probing the nature of the religious experience, or contemplating the existence of God, King invites us to question everything we think we know.

Related posts:

TheoFantastique Podcast 2.1 on The Rite

Douglas Cowan Interview Part 1: Forthcoming Book “Sacred Space”

Douglas Cowan Interview Part 2: Sci-Fi, Transcendence and “Sacred Space”

Douglas Cowan and Sacred Terror: Part 1

Douglas Cowan and Sacred Terror: Part 2

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Book Cover for my forthcoming volume “The Sacred in Fantastic Fandom”

1 | November 8th, 2018 | Posted in fan cultures, fandom, fantasy, religion, sacred, science fiction

The cover design for one of the book projects I’ve been working on for a while. My thanks to the best book cover designers UK has, and my co-editors who came on board when the needs of the book and my life circumstances at the time meant I needed a lot of help to get this volume over the finish line. Coming through McFarland.

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Call for Abstracts: Theology and Westworld

0 | November 6th, 2018 | Posted in artificial intelligence, call for papers, robotics, science fiction, theology

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 number of ways. While the creation of life using advanced technology is arguably one of the oldest tropes in sci-fi, Westworld has not only asked whether robots can be human, nor even whether they can be free, but whether they can perhaps be freer than we are. The loops and prepared lines they deliver turn out not to set them apart from their creators as much as might be assumed. Where much science fiction asks whether our creations can ever truly equal us, Westworld asks whether they can be superior to us – and if so, what that might mean. And as William says in one episode, “I think there’s an answer here to a question no one has ever dreamed of asking.” Themes of sin, evil, redemption, judgment, immortality, slavery, personhood, justice, and liberation run through the show prominently, and diverse characters give voice to a range of viewpoints, making the show’s narrative itself a profound conversation about serious issues related to theology and religion. Some of those issues include:

* Free Will
* Ethics/morality (Do ethics matter in an VR world?)
* Good and Evil
* Ideas of the Divine (in the Self, “playing God”, etc)
* Nature of consciousness
* Biblical themes
* Eschatologies (“the Valley Beyond” etc)
* Immortality
* The bicameral mind and the psychology of religion

Following the model of the series, we would also distribute a call for abstracts between 300-700 words with CVs by Jan 31, 2019, with a submission deadline for drafts (6000-10,000 words) of accepted papers by August 15, 2019, and a completed volume submission by January 2020. Submissions should be sent to juli.gittinger@gcsu.edu.

About the editors:

Dr. Juli Gittinger received her PhD from McGill University and is a Lecturer at Georgia College. Her official area of expertise is modern Hinduism, with particular attention to media and politics (see Hinduism and Hindu Nationalism Online, Routledge 2018). A subject of personal interest, however, is religion in popular culture, especially science fiction. She is presently working on a new book which will engage philosophical and religious ideas in science fiction.

Dr. Shayna Sheinfeld received her PhD from McGill University and is Visiting Scholar at the University of Kentucky. Her main area of research are communities and leadership in ancient Judaism and Christianity, especially through the lens of the end times/apocalypse. Dr. Sheinfeld has taught and published on biblical material and popular culture, especially on books, television, and movies that relate to the end of the world and dystopian futures.

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Titles of Interest – Our Old Monsters: Witches, Werewolves and Vampires from Medieval Theology to Horror Cinema

0 | November 6th, 2018 | Posted in theology, Titles of Interest

Our Old Monsters: Witches, Werewolves and Vampires from Medieval Theology to Horror Cinema
Brenda S. Gardenour Walter
McFarland, 2015

The witch, the vampire and the werewolf endure in modern horror. These “old monsters” have their origins in Aristotle as studied in the universities of medieval Europe, where Christian scholars reconciled works of natural philosophy and medicine with theological precepts. They codified divine perfection as warm, light, male and associated with the ethereal world beyond the moon, while evil imperfection was cold, dark, female and bound to the corrupt world below the moon. All who did not conform to divine goodness–including un-holy women and Jews–were considered evil and ascribed a melancholic, blood hungry and demonic physiology. This construct was the basis for anti-woman and anti-Jewish discourse that has persisted through modern Western culture. Nowhere is this more evident than in horror films, where the witch, the vampire and the werewolf represent our fear of the inverted other.

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Call for Abstracts: Theology and Horror

0 | November 6th, 2018 | Posted in call for papers, horror, theological reflection, theology

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 connection. While this approach has its place, great possibilities exist for going deeper and wider in the exploration of horror and theology. Horror can be a subversive and edgy genre, and this doesn’t often connect well with conservative assumptions which underlie much of the theological enterprise. Theology is often neat and sanitized; horror is messy and dirty.

This volume seeks to do something different, and to break new ground. Along with exploring how theology is present in horror, this volume will seek to explore how theology can be changed and shaped by an interaction with horror. This can be illustrated with examples of possible topics:

* God as monstrous figure
* Zombie Jesus phenomenon
* Horrific readings of the Bible
* Horror as/in theological pedagogy
* Atheological conceptions of horror
* The afterlife in theology and horror
* Frankenstein and God as absent parent
* Apocalyptic thinking in theology and horror
* Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy and Horror
* Horror and nihilism vs. horror and theological hope
* How theology can benefit from interaction with horror
* The portrayal of religious institutions in horror narratives

This volume is a part of the Theology and Pop Culture series published by Lexington Books/Fortress Academic. It will be co-edited by John Morehead and Brandon R. Grafius. Morehead is the proprietor of TheoFantastique.com, and is a contributor, editor and co-editor to a number of books including The Undead and Theology, Joss Whedon and Religion, The Supernatural Cinema of Guillermo del Toro, and Fantastic Fan Cultures and the Sacred (forthcoming). Grafius is assistant professor of biblical studies at Ecumenical Theological Seminary, whose monograph Reading Phinehas, Watching Slashers: Numbers 25 and Horror Theory was published by Lexington Books/Fortress Academic in 2018.

Abstracts of 300-500 words with CVs should be sent to johnwmorehead@msn.com and bgrafius@etseminary.edu by January 15, 2019. The submission deadline for drafts of manuscripts of 6,000-8,000 words is scheduled for September 1, 2019.

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