Theo + POP

  2 theology PhD candidates on the move, finding theological nooks and crannies in film + television. Erica Saccucci, a PhD hopeful in Christian Ethics at Loyola University Chicago, works on film + religion + pop culture in her spare time. When she's not writing, working, or writing at work, you can find her hanging out with her family.  Seth Alexander is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Theology Department at Loyola University Chicago. His dissertation (in the works) is on women's mysticism in medieval Europe. Other research interests include theology and film, queer theology, and hagiography. In his free time he is usually watching horror movies (through a theological lens) or drinking coffee.  

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Nobody Puts Babies in the Corner

Nobody Puts Babies in the Corner

Have you ever met one of those people who hates children? You know the type. They insist that every child that walked the face of the Earth is born of Satan. That children are urchins, brats, and disgusting. I bring up child-haters because they are here and there are many. Some people don’t like that children are not born with social norms already in hand. Some don’t like that their reasoning…

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Apocalypse, Maybe Later.

There is a definitive difference between a Religious Apocalypse and a Secular Apocalypse. A Religious Apocalypse sets its foundation in the idea that change is not only imminent, but necessary to the fulfillment of God’s Will. It brings into reality the end of times, the end of life as human beings know it on Earth so that we may rejoin our Creator. In contrast, a Secular Apocalypse doesn’t bear…

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Sherlock and POP theology!

http://wp.me/p4oFHr-1G

Friends and Readers – Sorry we have been MIA for so long, between dissertation chapters Seth and I were lost somewhere between Narnia and Dorne. We’ll always come back to you though, just like Percy Jackson’s sword, Riptide.

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One of my other jobs, a job that I love more than all the others – except parenting – is teaching undergrads. I’ve had such…

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True Blood Series Finale, "Thank You," You're Welcome

True Blood Series Finale, “Thank You,” You’re Welcome

Game of Thrones better hurry up because True Blood is over! 

I know, Eric and Sookie, we’re upset too.

In our last True Blood article, we talked about hope and the purpose of belief in something, even if that something is not organized religion. I know I will probably not make too many friends by saying this, but there were parts of the True Blood series finale that I actually liked… a lot.

I…

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Revelations Under the Dome: Don't Drink the Water

This Tuesday we bring you a little something on Under the Dome! Moral dilemmas abound!

Utilitarianism, Darwinism, Principles of Proportionality. All these concepts have been used, experimented with, and abused at some point in human history. Over time, they have been combined with various doctrine in different religions. The initial discussion here is about the fact that we douse concepts, like those mentioned above, to make the world go ‘round whether it is in the public or…

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Carnivàle: The Apocalypse is Back / Part 3

The Final Installment of our Carnivàle: The Apocalypse series is here!! We try to wrap up our apocalyptic visions for you. Happy Tuesday readers and read on!

When we take a closer look at the 1990s, the years in which Knauf created and wrote Carnivàle, we must seek out the catalyst for this revolution of the apocalyptic mind. For many, both the mainstream Christian and fundamentalist groups, the catalyst in the 1990s was the Persian Gulf War. This military was believed by many to mark the beginning of the end while for others it was an example of…

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Carnivàle: The Apocalypse is Here / Part 2

Carnivàle: The Apocalypse is Here / Part 2

We come to you this week with a short, but important, second segment on Carnivàle. The sides of light and darkness have each been chosen, though the lines are arguably less clear throughout the series. In one of Knauf’s more brilliant moments, “light” creatures and “dark” creatures are never a cartooned version of themselves. In other words, they each exhibit and inhibit essential qualities of…

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ROBOTS OR DINOSAURS?

ROBOTS! Dinosaurs are pretty cool, but vulnerable. Cyborgs are going to take over the world.

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1970s Horror/Feminist Nightmare: Sexuality, Sin, and the Church in Alice, Sweet Alice

1970s Horror/Feminist Nightmare: Sexuality, Sin, and the Church in Alice, Sweet Alice

1970s horror films elaborated on the figure of the slasher-killer character introduced by Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Just as Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween, most famously, depicted bloodthirsty, inscrutable killers, who seemed to murder their fellow human beings without reason, the 1976 film Alice, Sweet Alice (originally titled Communion) provided a slasher film with an unexpected and…

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"Captain, you mind if I say grace?" ... "Only if you say it out loud" - Firefly, Serenity, and Morality in the 'Verse.

“Captain, you mind if I say grace?” … “Only if you say it out loud” – Firefly, Serenity, and Morality in the ‘Verse.

It took all of my will power, which is actually very little, to wait even one posting to write an article on Firefly. Firefly and its follow-up, Serenity, received both heavy cultic praise as well as criticism on its western-meets-space-meets-Chineselanguage-dystopian-Whedonverse identity. For those who love it already, read on. For those who don’t… well… there is really no help for that, read…

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Don't Believe the Monkey in the Tree: True Detective's Rust Cohle finds...

Don’t Believe the Monkey in the Tree: True Detective’s Rust Cohle finds…

  Existentialism, nihilism, Christology, just enough big words there to get dangerous when it comes to explaining Rust Cohle in True Detective. See, from the non-theological perspective of those who don’t work with theology for a living, I can understand the urge to move toward nihilism to describe Rust. After all, his outlook is continuously pessimistic and bleak to say the least. “Raw-bone…

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#doors at #LoyolaUniversityChicago #architecture

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