Theology and Westworld

Juli Gittinger (PhD Religious Studies, McGill University) is a lecturer and program coordinator for religion at Georgia College.Shayna Sheinfeld (PhD Religious Studies, McGill University) is honorary research scholar at the Sheffield Institute of Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies (SIIBS), University of Sheffield.

As the editors of this fascinating book note, we are living in a golden age of “television.” Based on their work and the work of their contributors, I would add that we are also living in a golden age of scholarship examining the relationship between religion and popular culture. This book addresses a myriad of issues raised by that relationship in Westworld, including apocalypticism, AI, embodiness, ethics, rape, scripture, technology, theology, trauma, violence, and more in an illuminating exploration of one of the most thought-provoking series in recent memory.

• Chapter 1 Consuming Westworld: Facilitating the Robotics and AI Discussion through Science FictionJaime WrightChapter 2 Techno-Transcendence and Artificial RaptureOlivia BeltonChapter 3 For the Rest of Time They Heard the DrumJacob BossChapter 4 A Comparative Inquiry into the RealKristin Johnston LargenChapter 5 Will Robots Too Be in the Image of God? Artificial Consciousness and Imago Dei in WestworldMarius DorobantuChapter 6 On Idolatry and Empathy: An Orthodox Christian Response to the Victimization Fantasies of WestworldDavid K. GoodinChapter 7 Rethinking the Maze: Africana Religions, Somatic Memory, and the Journey to ConsciousnessAmanda FuriasseChapter 8 Exile, the Remnant, and a Promised Land without a GodKevin J. Wetmore, Jr.Chapter 9 “And behold, a black horse”: Heaven, Hell, and Biblical Eschatology in WestworldTony Degouveia