Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Karen Trimble Alliaume ,  Maryellen Davis Collett
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN:  

9781666934854

ISBN 10:   1666934852
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   08 January 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  

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

Reviews

Blurring the Boundaries of Religion and Popular Culture provides a fresh, useful approach to rethinking how we might explore religious ideas in popular and speculative fiction texts, transmuting an initial reading into a real encounter through clear, demonstrated strategies. The individual chapters provide a great foundation for ways of reading as well as models for how other speculative fiction texts might be approached using the helpful ideas of implicit theology and secular spirituality. * Edward Ardeneaux IV, Associate Professor of English, University of the Ozarks, USA * Adroit, intriguing, and at times brilliant, Blurring the Boundaries invites readers to consider the alchemical processes of religious imagination in the stories we tell about possible futures and what these stories mean for our lives together in the here and now. Its accessible style, attention to pedagogy, and contemporary subject matter make it appealing as a companion guide for interpreting and teaching religious themes in popular genres. * Jill DeTemple, Chair of Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University, USA *

Blurring the Boundaries of Religion and Popular Culture provides a fresh, useful approach to rethinking how we might explore religious ideas in popular and speculative fiction texts, transmuting an initial reading into a real encounter through clear, demonstrated strategies. The individual chapters provide a great foundation for ways of reading as well as models for how other speculative fictions texts might be approached using the helpful ideas of implicit theology and secular spirituality. * Edward Ardeneaux IV, Associate Professor of English, University of the Ozarks, USA * Adroit, intriguing, and at times brilliant, Blurring the Boundaries invites readers to consider the alchemical processes of religious imagination in the stories we tell about possible futures and what these stories mean for our lives together in the here and now. Its accessible style, attention to pedagogy, and contemporary subject matter make it appealing as a companion guide for interpreting and teaching religious themes in popular genres. * Jill DeTemple, Chair of Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University, USA *

Author Information

Karen Trimble Alliaume is Professor of Theology at Lewis University. Maryellen Davis Collett is Professor of Theology at Lewis University.

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