The Last of Us and Theology: Violence, Ethics, Redemption?
Ebook
With a catastrophic fungal pandemic, the post-apocalypse, a moral quest despite societal breakdowns, humans hunting humans or morphed into grotesque infected, The Last of Us video games and HBO series have exhilarated, frightened, and broken the hearts of millions of gamers and viewers. The Last of Us and Theology: Violence, Ethics, Redemption? is a richly diverse and probing edited volume featuring essays from academics across the world to examine theological and ethical themes from The Last of Us universe. Divided into three groupings—Violence, Ethics, and Redemption?—these chapters will especially appeal to The Last of Us fans and those interested in Theology and Pop Culture more broadly. Chapters not only grapple with theologians, ethicists, and novelists like Cormac McCarthy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Martin Buber, and Paul Tillich; and theological issues from forgiveness and theodicy to soteriology and eschatology; but will help readers become experts on all things fireflies, clickers, Cordyceps, and Seraphites. “Save who you can save” and “Look for the Light.”
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Giraffes and Shamblers
Peter Admirand
Part 1: Violence
Chapter 1: Separating the ‘Sci’ from the ‘Fi’: The Ominously Real World of Fungal Pathogens, and the Possibilities of Asthma, Illness, and Outbreak
David O’Connor and Jerry Hourihane Clancy
Chapter 2: Ellie, Abby, and the Hospital Missions in The Last of Us Part II
Amy M. Green
Chapter 3: The Theologies of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Albert Schweitzer in Dialogue with the Moral Landscape of The Last of Us
David K. Goodin
Chapter 4: Everything Happens for a Reason: ‘Pastor’ David, Epistemic Harm, and Religious Trauma Syndrome
Daniel J. Cameron
Chapter 5: Facing the Apocalypse: The Religious Cult of the Seraphites in The Last of Us Part II
Tijana Rupčić
Part 2: Ethics
Chapter 6: On Relationality, Human Beings, and Clickers
Robert Grant Price
Chapter 7: Genesis in Lincoln, MA: The Creation of Bill and Frank in “Long, Long Time”
Ryan Banfi
Chapter 8: Turning Reconsidered: Sam and Henry and the Futility of Nonviolence amidst Racism and Runners
Adam B. Banks
Chapter 9: The Road and The Last of Us: Failed Fathers at the End of the World
Peter Admirand
Part 3: Redemption?
Chapter 10: God’s (Non)Presence, Interdependence, and Hope in The Last of Us: A Theological Reflection
Pavol Bargár
Chapter 11: The Last of Us and Eschatology for a Post-Apocalyptic World
Flora x. Tang
Chapter 12: Carrying the Fire and Finding the Fireflies: Hope, Despair, and Godtalk in the Dystopian Stories of Naughty Dog and Cormac McCarthy
Matthew C. Millsap and Ched Spellman
Chapter 13: “Save Who You Can Save”: Soteriology in The Last of Us
Rebecca Chapman
Conclusion: “Too Much Faith in Humanity?”
Peter Admirand
About the Contributors
Peter Admirand has organized a wonderful volume and a worthy addition to the Theology, Religion and Pop Culture Series. It covers important themes in The Last of Us, like hope, faith, meaning, love, and redemption. The essays are thoughtful and well-written, drawing on thinkers like Dostoyevsky, Buber, Levinas, Foucault, and Tillich to help the reader make sense of the philosophical and religious themes prevalent in the video games and HBO series. Fans of the source material will most certainly walk away with a deeper appreciation of the theological themes in Naughty Dog’s work.
In a world where the borders between film, television, video games and pop culture are as porous as ever, it becomes imperative to unpack the deep resonances we find between culture and theology, especially where they are highly relevant and profoundly appealing. This bountiful collection of essays assembled by Peter Admirand on the phenomenon of The Last of Us captured my attention as fully as the way my son is swept away for hours by video games.
It is hard to write a book about theology and ethics in relation to a video game/TV series/cultural phenomenon that is played and experienced by millions of people. Academic books like to “tie it all together.” Narrative video games and narrative television tend to diffusion, shifting and spreading like fungal infections into each person’s life and story. The Last of Us: Violence, Ethics, Redemption? manages to open up our interpretations instead of shutting them down. In so doing, these chapters remind us that our best theologizing and moral reasoning always happens in relation to the stories that absorb us most.
Even those of us less familiar with The Last of Us can appreciate the contribution this anthology makes to the study of theology in and through popular culture. It compiles a group of authors diverse in background and approach who fearlessly navigate the grim moral dystopia of The Last of Us with pressing questions for our own world, and who then raise important and incisive implications for the demands of ethics and the possibilities for redemption.
- Title: The Last of Us and Theology: Violence, Ethics, Redemption?
- Authors: Peter Admirand, Ryan Banfi, Adam B. Banks, Pavol Bargár, Daniel J. Cameron, Rebecca Chapman, Jerry Hourihane Clancy, David K. Goodin, Amy M. Green, Matthew C. Millsap, David O'Connor, Robert Grant Price, Ched Spellman, Tijana Rupcic, Flora x. Tang
- Publisher: Fortress Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781978716360, 9781978716353, 1978716354, 1978716362
- Resource ID: LLS:9781978716360
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-12-14T06:46:56Z
Peter Admirand is associate professor of theology, a Deputy Head of School, and Director of the Centre for Interreligious Dialogue at Dublin City University.