Theology and black mirror / Amber Bowen [and nine others].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bowen, Amber, 1987- editor.

Dunne, John Anthony, 1986- editor.

Bloomsbury (Firm), publisher.

Series:

Theology, religion, and pop culture.

Theology, religion, and pop culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Black mirror (Television program).

Television programs--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Television programs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (355 pages)

Distribution:

New York : Bloomsbury Publishing (US), 2022.

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, [2022]

Summary:

This book brings together scholars from various disciplines to think alongside Black Mirror with resources from the Christian tradition, discerning what the show and theology can teach us about how to live faithfully in a technocratic age.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

More Than Meets the Eye

Black Mirror and the Human-Tech Relationship

Theology and Black Mirror

Summary of the Volume

Notes

Bibliography

Part I: Agency and Conditioning

Chapter 1: Ethics through a Dark Lens: Ellul's Technological Morality in Black Mirror

The Criticism: The Present Future of Technological Morality

The Cardinal Virtues of the Technological Morality

Gaining a Technological Society but Losing Our Soul

The Cure: Confronting Technological Vice with Christian Virtue

Immanent Freedom through Christological Transcendence

Genuine Hope to Live in Reality

Conclusion

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

Barbarism and the Primacy of Life

The Techno-Scientific World of Fifteen Million Merits

Boredom and Entertainment

The Pornographic Gaze

Signs of Life

The Diabolical Spirit of Barbarism

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

Determinism's Apparent Threat to Free Will

Indeterministic (Libertarian) Free Will

The Rollback Argument

The Value of Undetermined Choice in Hang the DJ

Chapter 4: Too Many Twos: Ashley and the Artificial Authentic

"Such a Huge Fan": Ashley as Mediator

"Status: Controlled": Ashley Mediated

"I Am All of Me": Ashley in Search of Authenticity

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

"I Was the Whole Cliché"

"I Heard That You Make These Things That Way-Addictive"

"It Wasn't Supposed to Be Like This"

"You Gotta Keep Optimizing"

"Can't Take My Eyes Off You"

Part II: Idols and Anti-Christs.

Chapter 6: Arkangel and the Death of God: A Nietzschean Critique of Technology's Soteriological Scheme

Nietzsche's Critique of Religion

European Rationalism, Human Nature, and Slave Morality

Nietzsche's Christ

Technology and the "Metaphysical Need"

The Pathologies of Arkangel

The Death of the Mother

Arkangel for Lent

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

Sartre and the Dim View of the Other

Marion and the Gaze of Christ

Chapter 8: Evil Gods and the USS Callister

Is the Biblical God a Moral Monster?

What Kind of God Is Captain Robert Daly?

Human and Divine Murders in Exodus and Beyond

The Final Frontier of a Murderous Trinity

Part III: Truth and Justice

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

A Culture on Trial: "Could You Move the Microphone a Little Closer?"

Crossing the Line: Disembodied Comments and a Body on the Floor

Freedom of Speech and the Question of Culpability (Hateful Words Are Okay As Long as They Are Trending)

The Story within the Story: Consequences

Cosmic Trial, Cosmic Mob: A Johannine Reading of Hated in the Nation

Words and the Word on Trial: Johannine Testimony and Online Hate Speech

The Co-Opted Hivemind: When Our Hate and Indignation Are Instrumentalized

"Whose Justice?" The Logos in the (Online) Echo Chamber of Broken Humanity

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

The Two Towers: Parallel Visions from the Lady and the Shepherd

The Lady's Tower

The Shepherd's Tower

Reading the Two Towers Together.

Using a Modern Genre to Explore an Ancient Text

Becoming the Panopticon: Seeing without Seeing in The Entire History of You

Memory and Its Uses

Dark Scanners and Dim Divinations: The Agonies of Knowledge and Its Absence

Chapter 11: King David and the White Bear Justice Park

Like-for-Like Punishment in White Bear and the Book of Samuel

Retribution Reconsidered

Judging God?

Retribution as "Payback"

The External Gaze

Conclusion: Guilt and Power

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

Perspective Shifting in Black Mirror

White Bear

Perspective Shifting in Shut Up and Dance

Perspective Shifting in Men Against Fire

Shifting Perspectives on the Samson Narrative

Perspective Shifting in the Samson Narrative

Conclusion: Shifting the Perspective on Justice

Chapter 13: "Not Some Crazy Spiritual Thing": Rewards, Punishment, and Afterlife in Black Mirror

Resurrection: Be Right Back

Eternal Disembodied Existence: San Junipero

Judgment, Atonement, and Scapegoats: White Bear

Eternal Conscious Torment: Black Museum

Part IV: Hope and Transcendence

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

Dystopic Science Fiction and Questions of Meaning

Be Right Back Revisited

Locke, Authenticity, and the Performance of Identity

"The Work of Mourning" and Algorethics in the Digital Age

Echoes of Resurrection and the Ethics of Mourning

Conclusion: Mourning in "The Uncanny Valley"

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

Reflecting Darkness

Desiring Entertainment.

Desiring Self-Expression

Desiring the Transient as Ultimate

Reflecting Light

Note

Chapter 16: Memoria and The Entire History of You

The Entire History of You: Summary

Memory in the Christian Tradition

Memory as a Virtue

Anamnesis and the Memory of the Future

Technology, Festival, and the Arts

Chapter 17: Look Door, Get Key: Presence in Black Mirror's Bandersnatch

Defining Presence

Telepresence in Bandersnatch

Branching Narratives

Choose Your Own Adventure

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

Space, Place, and the Bible

Space, the Medium of Technology, and the Holy Spirit

Heaven Is a Person on Earth

COVID-19 and the Virtue of Virtual Presence

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

An Overview of Transhumanism in Black Mirror

Clarity on Cookies

The Metaphysics of Digital Hope

"Perfect Body" Eschatology

The Desirability of Uploading

Subject Index

People Index

Ancient Sources Index

About the Contributors.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

1-9787-1900-0

1-9787-1117-4

OCLC:

1311323492