Mythic Realms: The Moral Imagination in Literature And Film

A sequel of sorts to Bradley Birzer’s Beyond Tenebrae (Angelico Press, 2019), Mythic Realms seeks to pursue excellences in the last hundred years of literature and film. Still rooted in Christian Humanism and Burke’s moral imagination, Birzer offers here a series of autobiographical vignettes, following which he analyzes fiction from Willa Cather to J R R Tolkien to Stephen King to Frank Miller, and considers everything from the novel to the graphic novel. From the world of film he explores the works of John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Roland Joffé, and Christopher Nolan, while not neglecting popular TV series such as Star Trek, X-Files, Daredevil, and Stranger Things. In the end, though, after these many thought-provoking investigations, Birzer concludes that all things come down to reverence—both mythic and real—for the Blessed Mother and, especially, for her son, Jesus Christ. Praise for Mythic Realms “Bradley Birzer has here compiled a set of scintillating essays that combine his erudition with his love for popular culture. Sharing his own love of reading and film, he sees the beauty in Batman, takes pleasure in pulp fiction, and appreciates the philosophy and theology infused into fantasy literature and science fiction. In this potpourri of movies, TV shows, and books, Birzer sifts, critiques, and analyzes—helping us make sense of a tsunami of wildly imaginative input that too often threatens to overwhelm.” —FR DWIGHT LONGENECKER

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