Tolkien Pop! in 2025
Current and Upcoming Projects in the New Year
Happy New Year Tolkien Poppers!
I hope that you have been able to transition from the rest and chaos of the holidays into the new rhythms of 2025. Or, maybe you’re like me and have been lucky enough to experience some snow to extend the holiday feeling. Along with work, I have already been busy with Tolkien Pop! I have been working with friends on podcast discussions, contributing book chapters, and planning out the posts for 2025.
If you are looking for more podcasts to listen to on your commute, while you work, or do the dishes and/or are looking for more books related to Tolkien and pop culture, I am going to provide links to the episodes and books that I have contributed to. I’d love to hear what you think if you listen or read anything on the list here as well as what your goals are for the New Year! Enjoy and may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you.
My book Tolkien and Pop Culture: Volume I is now available on Amazon! This book is a selection of my Substack posts from the past couple of years, cleaned up, and formatted for publication. For the first time, you can get all these essays in print or in your Kindle library. It’ll look great on your shelf and be available for your own Tolkien purposes! Use the QR code or the link to pre-order your copy: https://a.co/d/eBE7jiH
First is my chapter “The Decline of Omnipotence in Pop Culture” in the collected book of essays Amipotence Volume 1: Suppor and Criticism that collects writings from a variety of contributors responding to
’s concept of amipotence, which is a theological alternative to the doctrine of omnipotence that emphasizes God being uncontrolling and loving: https://a.co/d/hqrHxZo
Before the New Year, I was interviewed by my friend Josh from the (Re)thinking Faith podcast about my book, process theology, and other cool musings about Tolkien’s work. It was a good time and we specifically got into Shrek and postmodernism.
Theology in Avatar: The Last Airbender is now available for pre-order and will be released this year! It will be the first volume of essays exploring theology in ATLA and my chapter “Reverberations of Eucatastrophe: Tolkienesque Fantasy in Aang's Secondary World” explores ATLA’s reliance on Tolkien’s approach to creating fantasy as he lays out in On Fairy-stories: https://a.co/d/hv3wcYQ
Earlier in 2024, I had the privilege of co-presenting a paper with
entitled “Reading, Rending, and Queering the Web of Story with the Lens of “Con-creation” and Process Theology” which will be published into a collection of essays from The Mythopoeic Society this year: https://mythsoc.org/publications.htmI also did a Christmas special with my friend
from Systematic Geekology, Whole Church, and The Kingdom Key, where we talk Tolkien and Kingdom Hearts. It is nerdy and fun!I hope you enjoy these pieces of media and that you all have a fantastic New Year! Thanks for all your support!
Thanks for your contribution to the Amipotence book!