Kim Paffenroth Interview: Zombies, Religion and Popular Culture
Kim Paffenroth is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College, New York. He has written on the development of religious ideas in the major world religions, as well as on the Bible and theology, but another interest of his is of particular relevance to this blog, that is the intersection of religion and popular […]
Sci-Fi Boys, Wonder, and Imagination
Last night I had the privilege of watching a two-hour program on the Sci Fi Channel called Sci-Fi Boys. This program interviews a number of leading artists in the entertainment industry who have contributed to various horror, science fiction, and fantasy films and asks them to share the influences that helped shape their imagination and […]
Christianity and Horror
I did some poking around on the Internet over the weekend and discovered that TheoFantastique has already attracted the interest of several bloggers and has been added to blog rolls. I am surprised and humbled by this. I hope my comments and explorations here are worthy of the interest. As I looked around the Internet […]
Comic Books, Theology and Religion
I have been interested in comic books for quite a while. I still remember walking home from grammar school and stopping by the local market to read through the latest issue of MAD magazine, and to see if the new issues of my favorite comics had hit the stand yet. My brother is a comic […]
Gospel of the Living Dead
I purchase and read a lot of books for my seminary studies and ministry research. As a result, I am on a lot of mailing lists for book publishers. Most of the catalogs don’t include titles that interest me, but today I received a promotional postcard for a new book from Baylor press that’s right […]
Pan’s Labyrinth, Myth, and Popular Culture
Guillermo Del Toro is a film director from Mexico. He has directed a number of horror and fantasy films, including Cronos (1992), Mimic (1997), The Devil’s Backbone (2001), Blade II (2002), and Hellboy (2004).Del Toro’s latest project is the fantasy film Pan’s Labyrinth, set for release in America on December 29, 2006. The Official Movie […]
Spirituality, Pop Culture, and Anime
Philip Johnson recently made a post on “Spirituality Aspects of Anime,” based upon an article in the journal Culture and Religion. The article that Philip is interacting with was written by Jin Kyu Park and Philip’s post echos one I made on this blog previously in commenting on Park’s work. The interface between popular culture […]
Star Trek Conventions as Sacred Pilgrimage
I have been doing some reading on anthroplogy of pilgrimage. One particularly helpful book has been Intersecting Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage and Tourism, Ellen Badone and Sharon R. Roseman, eds. (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004). One of the more interesting chapters in the book is “Pilgrimage and the IDIC Ethic: Exploring […]
Anime, Spiritual Seekers, & Cultural Consumption
My Australian friend and colleague, Philip Johnson, recently made me aware of an article that touches on an aspect of the interrelationship between religion and culture in the area of Japanese animation, known as anime. I have not seen the article yet, but hope to track it down in the near future. I had an […]
Sci Fi, Fantasy Horror, and “Reel’ Spirituality
I still remember one night in the 1970s when my dad gave my younger brother and I the option of watching The Wonderful World of Disney on television as part of our regular family habit, or a horror film on another channel. The curiosity of youth being what it was, we chose the horror film, […]
