Quick Update: Anime, Religion, & Theology

An Announcement

After several years in process, I’m very happy to announce that my coedited volume with my friend Roberto J. De La Noval, Anime, Religion, and Theology is now fully into the publisher (Lexington Press was acquired by Bloomsbury mid-production), checked and double-checked, and due to publish on October 2nd, 2025. It can be pre-ordered here.

Why this book? Since the 1980s, anime has become one of the major media presences in the Western world, and among people of my generation (Millennials) and after them (Gen Z, Gen Alpha), anime has become one of those major pop culture media forms that shape their imaginations, including about ideas traditionally in the domain of religion and theology. In fact, for many lovers of anime, as for lovers of fantasy, science fiction, and other pop-cultural forms, the medium is part of a subcultural replacement for traditional religious belonging, and informs anthropological, catechetical, and philosophical interests we could categorize as “religious.” In this volume, our contributors, Rob, and I consider a variety of popular anime in conversations with our subdisciplines in religious studies and academic theology, and see what anime brings to the conversation between religion and culture.

My special congratulations to Rob, who was a wonderful co-editor, and to all of the contributors for what is really a fine volume.

Curate ut valeatis,
David