Theology and the Marvel Universe

Theology and the Marvel Universe combines cutting-edge scholarship on theology with the comic, film, and television stories of the Marvel Universe. Fourteen contributors from around the world engage these stories in a theological dialogue that highlights the significance of these stories as a vibrant part of our cultural mythology.

1 What Did It Cost? Sacrifice and Kenosis in The Infinity Saga

Kristen Leigh Mitchell

2 "I Was Never the Hero that You Wanted Me to Be": The Ethics of Self-Sacrifice and Self-Preservation in Jessica Jones

Taylor J. Ott

3 Mythology, Mimesis, and Apocalypse in Jonathan Hickman's Avengers

Matthew Brake

4 "Because You Exist": Biblical Literature and Violence in the X-Men Comic Books

Dan W. Clanton, Jr.

5 The Gospel According to Thanos: Violence, Utopia, and the Case for a Material Theology

Tim Posada

6 "Those Are the Ancestors You Hear": Marvel's Luke Cage and Franz Rosenzweig's Theology of the Creation

Levi Morrow

7 Spider-Man and the Theology of Weakness

Gregory Stevenson

8 Of Venom & Virtue: Venom as Insight into Issues of Identity, the Human Condition, and Virtue

Jeremy E. Scarbrough

9 Matt Murdock's Ill-fitting Catholic Faith in Netflix's Daredevil

Daniel D. Clark


10 Gods upon Gods: Hierarchies of Divinity in the Marvel Universe

Austin M. Freeman

11 The Thor Movies and the "Available" Myth: Mythic Reinvention in Marvel Movies

Andrew Tobolowsky

12 Thor: Ragnarok, Postcolonial Theology, and Life Together

Kevin Nye

13 Savage Monster or Grieving Mother? Sabra and Marvel's Political Theology of Reconciliation in Israel-Palestine

Amanda Furiasse

14 Modern Re-enchantment and Dr. Strange: Pentecostal Analogies, the Spirit of the Multiverse, and the Play on Time and Eternity

Andrew D. Thrasher