Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "theology"

God on the Streets of Gotham: What the Big Screen Batman Can Teach Us about God and Ourselves by Paul Asay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What does Batman have to do with Christianity? To many cynical modern Batman fans, the answer is, "Nothing." Batman is a lapsed probably Episcopalian, maybe lapsed Catholic, with no religious underpinnings. For such fans, Paul Asay's God on the Streets of Gotham will seem like an absurd concept.

However, writers borrow from the culture around them, either intentionally or by accident. Of Shakespeare's thirty-six plays, thirty-five were based on some other work or story. If Shakespeare had to borrow, the writers of Batman have to do even moreso. In addition, God's truth is so woven throughout creation and good fiction reflects these truths. It is possible to extrapolate some truth from anything whether it's the Rocky movies or superheroes.

The point of such a book is not that it necessarily explains some amazing heretofore unknown spiritual truth. Rather, it makes spiritual truths more real and causes us to look at them in a different way. It's a bit of a Mars Hill device in explaining truths about God through something that is known and recognizable to the reader.

By that account, Asay's book works. It delvers a theologically sound examination of themes from Batman that tie into the Christian view of life. One thing that I like about Asay's treatment is that the Batman character affords an opportunity to discuss difficult issues that Christians can tend to gloss over such as pain and suffering.

What makes this sort of book work is the knowledge of the writer of the secondary subject matter (in this case Batman), Asay is a long-time Batfan, so while he cites extensively from the first two Batman movies, he also reference both golden and silver age incarnations of Batman as well as more modern works such as the Knight Fall and No Man's Land comics. Asay knows his stuff and that makes the book worth reading, particularly if you're more familiar from Batman from his large and small screen incarnations.

At times, Asay does stretch a bit to make a point and his chapter, "Tools" in which Asay creates an analogy between Batman's costume and the full of Armor of God listed by the Apostle Paul seemed a little corny with "The Utility Belt of Truth" but mostly came out okay. Also, because these were written before Asay saw the final Nolan Batman film. At least one of his points was negatives.

Overall, if you're a fan of Batman who'd like a different way to think about the Christian life, this is a good book for you.



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