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Blurring the Boundaries of Religion and Popular Culture

Implicit Theology, Secular Spirituality, and Speculative Fiction

Blurring the Boundaries of Religion and Popular Culture cover

Blurring the Boundaries of Religion and Popular Culture

Implicit Theology, Secular Spirituality, and Speculative Fiction

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Pre-order. Available 27 Nov 2025
$144.00 RRP $160.00 Website price saving $16.00 (10%)

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Description

Employing theoretical lenses of implicit theology and secular spirituality, this book blurs the boundaries between religion and popular culture to develop meaning-making in science fiction, fantasy, and horror media.

In an era shaped by increasing levels of religious non-affiliation and social polarization, Karen Trimble Alliaume and Maryellen Davis Collett explore religious ideas and practices that empower practitioners to meet universal yet deeply personal human needs and desires by engaging with popular culture. The authors integrate insights gleaned from the oft-siloed approaches of theology and religious studies to analyze works of literature, film, and television in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. These works of speculative fiction prompt emotionally charged experiences that reveal the paradox at the heart of being human.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Shock Value: Charged Boundaries in Science/Fiction/Religion

1. Shock/Value: Implicit Theology as Something More in Ted Chiang's “Hell is the Absence of God”
2. Rabid Rites and Rational Reversals: Secular Sacramentality in Midnight Mass

Part II: Provocative Portals, Narrative Collisions, and Erupting Epiphanies: Fantasy, Reality, and the Supernatural


3. Affective Portals: Making Belief with Galaxy Quest and The Magicians
4. Serving Many Masters: Real and Unreal, Sane and Insane, and Natural and Supernatural in M. Night Shyamalan's Servant

Part III: Hybridity and Wholeness: Negotiating Charged Identities

5. Being Beside Ourselves: Feeling Xenophilia in Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis
6. A Mind Divided Against Itself: Severance and the Secular Spirituality of Work/Life Balance

Conclusion: Revelatory Alchemies
Bibliography

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 27 Nov 2025
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 248
ISBN 9781666934854
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 1 b/w illus
Dimensions 229 x 152 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Karen Trimble Alliaume

Karen Trimble Alliaume is Professor of Theology at…

Author

Maryellen Davis Collett

Maryellen Davis Collett is Professor of Theology a…

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