As the editors of this fascinating book note, we are living in a golden age of “television.” Based on their work and the work of their contributors, I would add that we are also living in a golden age of scholarship examining the relationship between religion and popular culture. This book addresses a myriad of issues raised by that relationship in Westworld, including apocalypticism, AI, embodiness, ethics, rape, scripture, technology, theology, trauma, violence, and more in an illuminating exploration of one of the most thought-provoking series in recent memory.

Dan W. Clanton Jr., Doane University

Theology and Westworld tackles the big questions raised by the ideas of artificial intelligence, artificial life, and creation given dramatic life by the television series. Accessible to both people of faith and to those of none, this book is a valuable addition to the scholarly conversation. The volume considers how we imagine ourselves as the creators of artificial progeny, as well as how our own humanity might be disturbed by such a creation and our debt to it. An array of excellent scholars have brought their diverse perspectives to the philosophical, ethical, and social implications of our dreams of other worlds that are filled with other beings in servitude to our ‘violent delights’.

Beth Singler, Cambridge University