Call for Papers: From Close Encounters to Disclosure

Call for Papers

From Close Encounters to Disclosure: Spielberg’s Alien Imaginary and American Spirituality

Proposed Edited Volume for the Pop Culture and Theology Series

Since the release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977, Steven Spielberg has played a significant role in shaping popular cultural understandings of extraterrestrial intelligence, UFOs, and humanity’s relationship to the unknown. Across films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, War of the Worlds, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Spielberg has repeatedly returned to themes of cosmic encounter, wonder, fear, revelation, otherness, and transcendence. His forthcoming film Disclosure Day appears poised to revisit these themes in a dramatically different cultural context—one increasingly shaped by public discussions of UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena), government disclosure initiatives, conspiracy cultures, and renewed fascination with extraterrestrial possibilities.

This volume proposes that Spielberg’s alien-centered films constitute more than entertainment. Taken together, they provide a unique lens through which to examine changing American hopes, fears, spiritual longings, mythologies, and religious imaginations from the late twentieth century to the present.

Contributors are invited to explore Spielberg’s evolving treatment of UFOs, aliens, and cosmic encounter as expressions of broader cultural and religious concerns. The volume welcomes interdisciplinary approaches from theology, religious studies, film studies, media studies, cultural studies, sociology, psychology, folklore, mythology, philosophy, and related fields.

Particular attention will be given to the ways Spielberg’s films function as sites where questions of transcendence, revelation, meaning, apocalypse, identity, and humanity’s place in the cosmos are negotiated within popular culture.

By examining Spielberg’s alien imaginary across nearly five decades of filmmaking, this volume seeks to illuminate how extraterrestrial narratives have functioned as a cultural arena for negotiating humanity’s deepest questions about transcendence, fear, hope, identity, revelation, and the sacred unknown.

Suggested Thematic Sections

Section I: Spielberg and the Sacred Unknown

This section explores Spielberg’s portrayal of extraterrestrial encounter as a source of wonder, transcendence, mystery, and spiritual transformation.

Possible topics include:

• Close Encounters of the Third Kind as a modern pilgrimage narrative
• UFO contact as revelation and religious experience
• Sacred space and liminality in Spielberg’s alien films
• Spielberg’s cinematic treatment of awe and wonder
• The relationship between science, mystery, and transcendence
• Cosmic encounter and the search for meaning
• Religious themes in Spielberg’s treatment of first contact
• Alien encounter as conversion, calling, or vocation

Section II: Aliens as Mirrors of Humanity

This section considers how Spielberg’s extraterrestrials reflect human concerns about identity, morality, belonging, and community.

Possible topics include:

• Hospitality, empathy, and moral imagination in E.T.
• Aliens as outsiders, strangers, and cultural others
• The ethics of encounter with radical difference
• Family, belonging, and vulnerability in Spielberg’s alien narratives
• Theological readings of friendship across difference
• Human identity constructed through extraterrestrial encounter
• Childhood, innocence, and spiritual imagination
• Alien figures as mirrors of human longing and alienation

Section III: Fear, Apocalypse, and Threat

This section examines the darker dimensions of extraterrestrial encounter and the cultural anxieties expressed through invasion narratives.

Possible topics include:

• War of the Worlds and post-9/11 American fears
• Alien invasion as apocalyptic imagination
• Catastrophe, vulnerability, and existential threat
• Trauma and survival in Spielberg’s alien films
• Theodicy and cosmic indifference
• Fear of the Other in science fiction cinema
• Technology, power, and vulnerability
• Extraterrestrials as embodiments of collective anxiety

Section IV: UFOs, Myth, and Modernity

This section situates Spielberg’s work within broader discussions of mythology, symbolism, and modern spirituality.

Possible topics include:

• Carl Jung’s interpretation of UFOs as modern myths
• UFOs as symbols of collective hopes and fears
• Mythological dimensions of Spielberg’s alien narratives
• UFOs and the evolution of American civil religion
• Extraterrestrials and contemporary spiritual seeking
• Spielberg and the mythology of cosmic salvation
• UFO religions and popular spirituality
• Folklore, myth-making, and extraterrestrial narratives
• The sacred and the secular in modern UFO culture

Section V: Disclosure, Post-Secular Culture, and the Future

This section addresses contemporary developments in UFO/UAP discourse and their relationship to Spielberg’s cinematic imagination.

Possible topics include:

• Government disclosure narratives and popular culture
• Spielberg’s forthcoming Disclosure Day and contemporary UAP debates
• The emergence of post-secular UFO discourse
• Social media, conspiracy cultures, and extraterrestrial belief
• Public fascination with disclosure movements
• Extraterrestrials and the future of religious imagination
• Artificial intelligence, non-human intelligence, and the evolving unknown
• The future of alien narratives in American culture

Additional Topics Welcome

The editors also welcome proposals on:

• Spielberg’s personal engagement with UFO and extraterrestrial themes
• Comparative studies involving Spielberg and other directors
• UFOs and race, gender, or identity
• Political theology and extraterrestrial narratives
• Environmental themes and cosmic encounter
• The role of music, sound, and visual spectacle in creating transcendence
• Alien encounter and theories of religious experience
• The intersection of UFO culture and contemporary spirituality

Submission Guidelines

Please submit:

• A 300–500 word abstract
• A brief biographical statement (100–150 words)

Full chapters will typically range between 5,000–7,500 words.

The editor particularly encourages contributions that engage both popular culture and theological, religious, mythological, or philosophical analysis.

Proposed Timeline

Abstract Submission Deadline: August 15, 2026

Questions and submissions may be directed to:

John W. Morehead
johnwmorehead@msn.com