Synopses & Reviews
Television, Religion, and Supernatural: Hunting Monsters, Finding Gods is the first book-length treatment using a theory-based inquiry of the nuanced religious messages in Supernatural, a popular, long-running television series. As a popular culture artifact, Supernatural presents religious themes via entertainment, relying on a combination of horror and fantasy genres to convey a Christianity without Christ. This book uncovers how mass media, and entertainment television in particular, provide a conduit for religious messages—ones that speak to the role of faith in contemporary U.S. society.
Synopsis
Television, Religion, and Supernatural examines the text of the CW network television series Supernatural, a program based in the horror genre that offers viewers myriad religious-based antagonists through the portrayals of monsters, which its two main characters "hunt" and destroy, as well as storylines based on the Bible. Even as the series' producers claim a nonreligious perspective, the authors contend that story arcs and outcomes of episodes actually forward a hegemonic portrayal of Christianity that portrays a good-versus-evil motif regarding the superiority of Catholicism. The depiction of its protagonist brothers, Dean and Sam Winchester of Lawrence, Kansas, provides a pro-American perspective regarding a more generalized fight against evil in contemporary times.
Synopsis
This book uses a theory-based inquiry of the nuanced religious messages in the TV series Supernatural, which presents religious themes through horror and fantasy to show a Christianity without Christ. It uncovers how entertainment television provides a conduit for religious messages that speak to the role of contemporary American faith.