Theology and Black Mirror

Amber Bowen is assistant professor of philosophy at Redeemer University (Hamilton, ON). John Anthony Dunne is assistant professor of New Testament and the director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at Bethel Seminary (St. Paul, MN).

More Than Meets the Eye: An Introduction to Theology and Black Mirror

Amber Bowen and John Anthony Dunne

Part 1. Agency and Conditioning

1.Ethics through a Dark Lens: Ellul’s Technological Morality in Black Mirror

Peter Anderson

2.Barbarism, Boredom, and the Question Concerning Pornography in Fifteen Million Merits

Amber Bowen

3.Free Will and (In)determinism in Hang the DJ

Taylor W. Cyr

4.Too Many Twos: Ashley and the Artificial Authentic

Elizabeth Howard

5.Smithereens as Technological Theodicy: Addiction, Emergence, and Resistance

John Anthony Dunne

Part 2. Idols and Anti-Christs

6.Arkangel and the Death of God: A Nietzschean Critique of Technology’s Soteriological Scheme

Amber Bowen and Megan Fritts

7.Seeing and Being Seen in a Black Mirror, Dimly: Phenomenology and the Dim View of White Christmas

King-Ho Leung and Patrick McGlinchey

8.Evil Gods and the USS Callister

Celina Durgin and Dru Johnson

Part 3. Truth and Justice

9.Crowdsourcing Judgment: The Dark Side of Justice in Hated in the Nation and the Johannine Trial Narrative

Andrew J. Byers

10.Re-Dos and Re-Visions: Replay and the Search for Meaning in the Shepherd of Hermas and The Entire History of You

Jeremiah Bailey

11.King David and the White Bear Justice Park

Rachelle Gilmour

12.Alternate Eyes: Perspective Shifting in the Samson Narrative and Black Mirror

Brandon M. Hurlbert

13.“Not Some Crazy Spiritual Thing”: Rewards, Punishment, and Afterlife in Black Mirror

James F. McGrath

Part 4. Hope and Transcendence

14.Be Right Back and the Ethics of Mourning: (In)Authenticity and Resurrection in the Digital Age

Rebekah Lamb and Joanna Leidenhag

15.Reflecting the Infinite or the Finite? The Mirror Motif in Black Mirror and Gregory of Nyssa

Elizabeth Culhane

16.Memoria and The Entire History of You

Nathaniel A. Warne

17.Look Door, Get Key: Presence in Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch

Douglas Estes

18.Where are You? San Junipero and the Technology of Shared Space

Kris Song

19.Uploaded to the Cloud: Transhumanism and Digital Hope in Black Mirror

John Anthony Dunne