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Theology and Batman examines theological themes such as theodicy and evil, ethics and morality, justice and vengeance, and the Divine in various stories featuring The Dark Knight from across different mediums, including comics, movies, and video games.
List of contents
Introduction: Batman as a Focus of Theological Inquiry
C.K. Robertson, Ph.D., and Matthew Brake
Section One: Theodicy and Evil
1. The Karmic Tragedy of Bruce Wayne: Batman as Anti-Buddha
Wesley D. Cray
2. Suffering and Evil in the Book of Job and Batman: The Killing Joke
Francesco Del Bianco
3. Evil After Christianity: Joker (2019) as Post-Christian Theodicy
Katherine Kelaidis
4. Beginning with Wickedness, or the Long Dark Knight of the Polis' Soul
John C. McDowell
5. Batman Encounters Judaism and the Holocaust
Rafael Medoff
Section Two: Ethics and Morality
6. "Fear of Faith" and Faith over Fear: Scarecrow as Emblem of a Purgatorial Gotham
Christina M. Knopf
7. Pride Goeth Before the Knightfall: Sabbath as Heroic Practice
Drew McIntyre
8. Batman Forever: Morality and Narrative in Grant Morrison's Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne
Andrew Kuzma
9. The Bat-Bodhisattva: A Buddhist reading of our favorite (Anti)Hero
John Thompson
10. Batman's Cardinal Virtues in Dark Knight Returns
Joseph Turner
Section Three: Justice and Vengeance
11. Reflections on Revolutionary Gotham: Sovereignty, Sacrifice, and Theological Fantasy in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy
Ryan Haecker
12. No Saviors in Gotham: Black Liberation and Whiteness in Batman: The Cult
Peter Herman
13. Vengeance, Justice, and Batman's War on Crime
Randall M. Jensen
14. False Messiah and Real Devils: Batman and Girard on the Fate of Gotham Mimesis and the Messianic
Clint Jones
15. Fighting for Righteousness: Batman's Atonement
Joshua Wise
Section Four: Deities and the Divine
16. Morality, Epistemology, and How Batman Can Know That God Exists
Batman: Atheist?
Armond Boudreaux
17. How One Becomes What One Is: The Nietzschean Polytheology of Joker (2019)
Vernon W. Cisney
18. Dark Knight of the Soul: Reading Batman with Apophatic Theology
Stephen Garner
19. The Dark Knight and the Dark Side of God
Michael D. Nichols
20. God-Confusion in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Michael Anthony Novak
About the author
Matthew Brake (M.Div., Regent University; M.A. in philosophy and interdisciplinary studies, George Mason University) is the series editor for the Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture series from Lexington Books and Fortress Academic. He also serves as the co-editor (with A. David Lewis) for the Religion and Comics series from Claremont Press.
C.K. Robertson, Ph.D., is an Episcopal priest and professor, editor of the academic book series Studies in Episcopal and Anglican Theology, and a former board member and frequent guest editor of the Anglican Theological Review.
