Religion, Theology, and Stranger Things - (Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture) by Andrew J Byers Byers & Adam J Powell & Andrew J Byers (Hardcover)

About the Book

Analyzing the spirituality in a hit television series, this scholarly volume explores topics ranging from spiritualism to secularism, Mormonism to mythology, rock & roll to Dungeons & Dragons. The book demonstrates that popular culture can serve as an effective lens through which to reflect on the soul of humanity.

Book Synopsis

Religion, Theology and Stranger Things Studies from the Upside Down on Evil, Ethics, Horror, and Hope brings interdisciplinary analysis to the teeming spiritual side of the hit television series. With chapters from social scientists, historians, theologians, and Biblical scholars, the volume addresses the many different theological, religious, and supernatural themes present in the fictional world of Hawkins, Indiana. From spiritualism to secularism, Mormon gender norms to monsters of abnormality, rock & roll to Dungeons & Dragons, an international list of scholars come together to argue that imaginative realms like the one created by the Duffer brothers can serve to showcase and to scrutinize the common impulses and needs of our culture and ourselves. To venture into the darkness of the Upside Down is to venture into the depths of human experience. This volume explores the shadows and suggests a few paths back into the light.

Review Quotes

Andrew Byers and Adam Powell have curated an engaging and entertaining volume that opens a portal into the religious dimension of the hit series Stranger Things. The international ensemble of contributors offers profound, multi-disciplinary insights into the showrsquo;s exploration of identity, monsters, nostalgia, and the human condition in the Upside Down. Each essay expertly weaves together pop-culture analysis with sociological, religious, or theological reflection, making it both a go-to resource and a must-read for fans and scholars alike.--Brandon M. Hurlbert, Durham University

Modern cultures and society frequently consider theology and religion as if they belong to a long-gone nostalgia of another world, yetmdash;as the essays which Byers and Powell have compiled showmdash;the universe of Stranger Things draws freely from the wells found in that other world. Stranger Things provides a rich and fertile ground to explore these themes. Through a wide-ranging series of essays and reflections, Religion, Theology and Stranger Things does a wonderful job of translating and working through both the ldquo;Upside Downrdquo; of Stranger Things in Hawkins, Indiana into the ldquo;Right Side Uprdquo; of our own world. It is an excellent volume thinking through the religion and theology of such a popular series which has sparked widespread cultural nostalgia for the 1980s. May this volume do the same for reflections on our theology and religion.--Christopher A. Porter, Trinity College, Melbourne

About the Author

Andrew J. Byers serves as lecturer in New Testament at Ridley Hall in the Cambridge Theological Federation and as an affiliated lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge.
Adam Powell is a lecturer in medical humanities in the Department of Theology & Religion at Durham University (UK).