Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion & Doctor Who, a forthcoming new book from Darton Longman & Todd, examines in depth for the first time, the interaction between religion and Doctor Who over its 50 year lifespan, considering both religious themes on the show and the way in which religious organisations have made use of the programme. A collection of essays written in a scholarly yet accessible style, the book brings together academics working in History, Film, Theology, Sociology, Law and Anthropology to consider the many ways in which religion and Doctor Who have interacted.
The first half of the book contains chapters looking at the way religious themes have been used throughout the show’s lifespan, from the question of immortality, to changing uses of the concept of fate; from the portrayal of Buddhism to the Doctor’s continued challenges to “false Gods”. The second half of the book turns its attention to Doctor Who in the wider world. How has the show represented the changing face of British religion? And to what extent could Doctor Who fandom be considered a religion?
Indeed, since its return in 2005 Doctor Who has been nominated for a US ‘Epiphany Award’ by Evangelical Christians, featured a guest appearance by Richard Dawkins, and served as the basis of a Church of England conference on using the show in evangelism and featured religious themes heavily in episodes as diverse as The Parting of the Ways and The God Complex. All of this underlines the importance of religious themes in the seminal series.
- Courtland Lewis, ‘Why Time Lords do not live forever’
Gabriel McKee, ‘Pushing the Protest Button: Doctor Who’s Anti-Authoritarian Ethic’- Kenneth Jason Wardley: ‘Divine and Human Nature: incarnation and kenosis in Doctor Who’
- Tim Jones, ‘Breaking the Faiths in “The Curse of Fenric” and ‘The God Complex”’
- Michael Charlton, ‘The Doctor Working on God’s Time: Kairos and Intervention in “The Waters of Mars” and “A Christmas Carol”’
- Brigid Cherry, ‘“You’re this Doctor’s companion. What exactly do you do for him? Why does he need you?”: Doctor Who, Liminality and Martha the Apostle’
- Laura Brekke “Humany-Wumany”: Humanity vs. Human inDoctor Who
- Jennifer L. Miller, ‘The Monstrous and the Divine in Doctor Who: The Role of Christian Imagery in Russell T. Davies’s Doctor Who Revival’
- John Vohlidka, ‘“With proof, you don’t have to believe”: Doctor Who and the Celestials’
- Kieran Tranter, ‘“Her Brain was full of Superstitious Nonsense”: Modernism and the Failure of the Divine in Doctor Who’
- Karma Waltonen, “Religion in Doctor Who: Cult Ethics”
- David Johnson, ‘Mediating Between the Scientific and the Spiritual in Doctor Who’
- Kristine Larsen, ‘Karma, Conditionality, and Clinging to the Self: The Tennant Years as Seen Through a Tibetan Buddhist Lens’
- Andrew Crome, ‘“There never was a Golden Age”: Doctor Who and the Apocalypse’
- Alexander Cummins, ‘Qui Quae Quod: Doctor Who and the History of Magic’
- Marcus Harmes, ‘The Church Militant? The Church of England, humanity and the future in Doctor Who’
- Russell Sandberg, ‘Bigger on the Inside? Doctoring the Concept of “Religion or Belief” under English Law’
- Noel Brown, ‘“Something Woolly and Fuzzy”: The Representation of Religion in the Big Finish Doctor Who Audio Adventures’
- Joel Dark, ‘Doctoring the Doctor: Midrashic Adventures in Text and Space’
- Cost: £14.99
- Publisher: Darton,Longman & Todd Ltd (29 Oct 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0232530211
- ISBN-13: 978-0232530216
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