Anime, Religion, and Theology - (Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture) (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book presents essays that investigate religious themes in anime and use anime.

Book Synopsis

This book brings together scholars to unpack the religious ideas, themes, motifs, texts, traditions, and practices that suffuse anime. Immensely popular with Western audiences since the 1980s, anime continues to be a prominent medium through which contemporary people, especially younger generations, are engaging ideas about God or ultimate reality, the world, and the self. This volume brings an academic lens to anime and shows the central role that religion plays in the intellectual and visual architecture of many popular shows, including Dragon Ball, Madoka Magica, Gurren Lagann, Sword Art Online, and more.

Review Quotes

Anime, Religion and Theologyis a wonderful addition to anime studies. Starting with a truly thoughtful and thought-provoking introduction, the chapters explore many of the fascinating metaphysical elements and aims of some of the most interesting and important anime productions over the last decades, from lyrical meditations on Miyazaki in comparison to Seamus Heaney, to provocative visions of Evangelion, to a wide-ranging look at the Dragon Ball Zuniverse. This book takes the study of anime in fresh and fascinating directions.
Susan Napier, Goldthwaite Professor of Rhetoric and Japanese, Tufts University, USA

David Armstrong and Roberto J. De La Noval's edited book Anime, Religion, and Theology is a valuable contribution to the study of both Japanese pop cultural forms and the global fandoms that consume them. The focus is largely Western philosophical and theological concepts and frameworks, which - while potentially culturally incongruous - are deftly applied to tease novel and intriguing meanings from anime series and films, focusing on theodicy, deification, ecology, transhumanism, and meaning-making in the twenty-first century. Recommended.
Carole M. Cusack, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Sydney, Australia

About the Author

David Armstrong teaches Latin and Greek in St. Louis, MO and writes the Substack newsletter A Perennial Digression.

Roberto J. De La Noval is assistant professor of the Practice in the Theology department at Boston College.