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Marveling Religion

Critical Discourses, Religion, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Edited by Jennifer Baldwin and Daniel White Hodge - Contributions by Will Abney; Jennifer Baldwin; Adam Barkman; Whitney Bauman; Matthew William Brake; George A. Dunn; Jason T. Eberl; Rhiannon Grant; Jo Henderson-Merrygold; Daniel White Hodge; Imran Khan; John C. McDowell; Dilyana Mincheva; Ryan Smock; Bennett Soenen; Lisa Stenmark; George Tsakiridis and Andrew T. Vink

Marveling Religion: Critical Discourses, Religion, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe is an edited volume that explores the intersection of religion and cinema through the lenses of critical discourse. The focus of the shared inquiry are various films comprising the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and corresponding Netflix series. The contributors explore various religious themes and how they intersect with culture through the canon on the MCU. The first part focuses on responses to the societal, governmental, and cultural context that solidified with clarity during the 2016 Presidential Election cycle in the United States and in the following administration. Additionally, it provides lenses and resources for engaging in productive public actions. Part two explores cultural resources of sustaining activism and resistance as well as some of the key issues at stake in public action. The third part centers on militarization and resistance to state violence. Taken in concert, these three sections work together to provide frames for understanding while also keeping us engaged in the concrete action to mobilize social change. The overarching aim of the volume is to promote critical discourse regarding the dynamics of activism and political resistance.

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  • Details
  • Author
  • Author
  • TOC
  • TOC
  • Reviews
  • Reviews
Lexington Books
Pages: 284 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-7936-2138-2 • Hardback • September 2022 • $116.00 • (£89.00)
978-1-7936-2140-5 • Paperback • May 2024 • $39.99 • (£30.00)
978-1-7936-2139-9 • eBook • September 2022 • $38.00 • (£30.00)
Series: Religion and Science as a Critical Discourse
Subjects: Religion / Theology, Social Science / Popular Culture, Social Science / Media Studies

Jennifer Baldwin is director of Grounding Flight Wellness Center, Woodstock, Georgia. Her primary area of scholarship is the intersection of traumatology and systematic theology.

Daniel White Hodge is associate professor of intercultural communication and chair of the communication arts department at North Park University in Chicago, Illinois.

Preface: Marveling Religion: Visual Culture as a Common Tongue

Daniel White Hodge and Jennifer Baldwin

Technology, Violence, and Sacrifice

Chapter One: “I See A Suit of Armor Around the World: Tony Stark’s Techno-Idolatry and Self-Sacrificial Love

George A. Dunn and Jason T. Eberl

Chapter Two: Mimesis, Conflict, and Sacrificial Crisis in Black Panther

Matthew Brake

Chapter Three: Bulletproof Love: Luke Cage (2016) and Religion

Ken Derry, Daniel White Hodge, Laurel Zwissler, Stanley Talbert, Matthew J. Cressler, and Jon Ivan Gill

Power, Worth, and Society

Chapter Four: Old Gods in New Films: History, Culture, and Religion in Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and Thor: Ragnarok

Rhiannon Gran and Jo Henderson-Merrygold

Chapter Five: The Worthiness of Thor

Adam Barkman and Bennett Soenen

Chapter Six: “Who Are You?”:René Girard, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Black Panther

Ryan Smock

Chapter Seven: The Failure of a God: Thor, the Snap, and Post-Holocaust Political Theology

Andrew T. Vink

Chapter Eight: Mysterio as Antichrist in SpiderMan: Far From Home

George Tsakiridis

Deconstructing Norms, Imagining the New

Chapter Nine: Science and the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Deconstructing the Boundary between Science, Technology, and Religion

Lisa Stenmark

Chapter Ten: Religion, Science, and the Marvel Universe: Re-Imagining Human-Earth Relations

Whitney Bauman and Imran Khan

Chapter Eleven: “Open Your Eye”: Psychedelics, Spirituality, and Trauma Resolution

Jennifer Baldwin

Forming Identity

Chapter Twelve: Marvelling at Captain Danvers, Or What is So Super About Our Heroes: Contesting the Identity Politics of Self-Other

John C. McDowell

Chapter Thirteen: The Super Muslim and the Marvel Cinematic Universe: A Complicated Trajectory of Fantasy and Agency

Dilyana Mincheva

Chapter Fourteen: Bad Girls Turned Superwomen: A Critical Appraisal of the MCU Archetype for Superheroines

Will Abney

Marveling Religion stands as a powerful text, and the questions and conversations posed by the writers are engaging and challenging in the best possible ways. They name how these films offer representation and diversity while also spotlighting spaces and elements that continue to uphold problematic ideologies and worldviews. Marvel narratives are multivalent in their reception and can act as a mirror or prophetic lens to the toxic and insidious elements of our culture, while also still being bound to it as a product of a cultural time and place. From a teaching standpoint, the essays in this collection are a strong tool for engaging the variety of questions posed in them. On a personal note, I have used several of the essays from this text in my freshman interdisciplinary seminars. They have offered my students a great space to be guided through wrestling with questions of technology, otherness, and the monstrous in relationship to films and characters they know well. Marveling Religion is an important and valuable text to use as a conversation starter and scaffolding piece.


— Journal of Religion and Film


Marveling Religion

Critical Discourses, Religion, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • Marveling Religion: Critical Discourses, Religion, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe is an edited volume that explores the intersection of religion and cinema through the lenses of critical discourse. The focus of the shared inquiry are various films comprising the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and corresponding Netflix series. The contributors explore various religious themes and how they intersect with culture through the canon on the MCU. The first part focuses on responses to the societal, governmental, and cultural context that solidified with clarity during the 2016 Presidential Election cycle in the United States and in the following administration. Additionally, it provides lenses and resources for engaging in productive public actions. Part two explores cultural resources of sustaining activism and resistance as well as some of the key issues at stake in public action. The third part centers on militarization and resistance to state violence. Taken in concert, these three sections work together to provide frames for understanding while also keeping us engaged in the concrete action to mobilize social change. The overarching aim of the volume is to promote critical discourse regarding the dynamics of activism and political resistance.

Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 284 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
    978-1-7936-2138-2 • Hardback • September 2022 • $116.00 • (£89.00)
    978-1-7936-2140-5 • Paperback • May 2024 • $39.99 • (£30.00)
    978-1-7936-2139-9 • eBook • September 2022 • $38.00 • (£30.00)
    Series: Religion and Science as a Critical Discourse
    Subjects: Religion / Theology, Social Science / Popular Culture, Social Science / Media Studies
Author
Author
  • Jennifer Baldwin is director of Grounding Flight Wellness Center, Woodstock, Georgia. Her primary area of scholarship is the intersection of traumatology and systematic theology.

    Daniel White Hodge is associate professor of intercultural communication and chair of the communication arts department at North Park University in Chicago, Illinois.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Preface: Marveling Religion: Visual Culture as a Common Tongue

    Daniel White Hodge and Jennifer Baldwin

    Technology, Violence, and Sacrifice

    Chapter One: “I See A Suit of Armor Around the World: Tony Stark’s Techno-Idolatry and Self-Sacrificial Love

    George A. Dunn and Jason T. Eberl

    Chapter Two: Mimesis, Conflict, and Sacrificial Crisis in Black Panther

    Matthew Brake

    Chapter Three: Bulletproof Love: Luke Cage (2016) and Religion

    Ken Derry, Daniel White Hodge, Laurel Zwissler, Stanley Talbert, Matthew J. Cressler, and Jon Ivan Gill

    Power, Worth, and Society

    Chapter Four: Old Gods in New Films: History, Culture, and Religion in Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and Thor: Ragnarok

    Rhiannon Gran and Jo Henderson-Merrygold

    Chapter Five: The Worthiness of Thor

    Adam Barkman and Bennett Soenen

    Chapter Six: “Who Are You?”:René Girard, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Black Panther

    Ryan Smock

    Chapter Seven: The Failure of a God: Thor, the Snap, and Post-Holocaust Political Theology

    Andrew T. Vink

    Chapter Eight: Mysterio as Antichrist in SpiderMan: Far From Home

    George Tsakiridis

    Deconstructing Norms, Imagining the New

    Chapter Nine: Science and the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Deconstructing the Boundary between Science, Technology, and Religion

    Lisa Stenmark

    Chapter Ten: Religion, Science, and the Marvel Universe: Re-Imagining Human-Earth Relations

    Whitney Bauman and Imran Khan

    Chapter Eleven: “Open Your Eye”: Psychedelics, Spirituality, and Trauma Resolution

    Jennifer Baldwin

    Forming Identity

    Chapter Twelve: Marvelling at Captain Danvers, Or What is So Super About Our Heroes: Contesting the Identity Politics of Self-Other

    John C. McDowell

    Chapter Thirteen: The Super Muslim and the Marvel Cinematic Universe: A Complicated Trajectory of Fantasy and Agency

    Dilyana Mincheva

    Chapter Fourteen: Bad Girls Turned Superwomen: A Critical Appraisal of the MCU Archetype for Superheroines

    Will Abney

Reviews
Reviews
  • Marveling Religion stands as a powerful text, and the questions and conversations posed by the writers are engaging and challenging in the best possible ways. They name how these films offer representation and diversity while also spotlighting spaces and elements that continue to uphold problematic ideologies and worldviews. Marvel narratives are multivalent in their reception and can act as a mirror or prophetic lens to the toxic and insidious elements of our culture, while also still being bound to it as a product of a cultural time and place. From a teaching standpoint, the essays in this collection are a strong tool for engaging the variety of questions posed in them. On a personal note, I have used several of the essays from this text in my freshman interdisciplinary seminars. They have offered my students a great space to be guided through wrestling with questions of technology, otherness, and the monstrous in relationship to films and characters they know well. Marveling Religion is an important and valuable text to use as a conversation starter and scaffolding piece.


    — Journal of Religion and Film


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