Boo! It's a spooky season and that means Jodie and Matthew get to review a religious horror movie: Midsommar. Matthew’s advice is to never watch this movie, but that’s mainly because he doesn’t like horror movies. Jodie’s advice is to follow us on social media, but that’s unrelated. But Jodie and Matthew discuss some of the religious themes and tropes that pop up throughout Midsommar and discuss anthropological concerns such as “how should one study communities who practice life in a way that seems so removed from our western values - especially when their way of life costs others theirs?" If you’ve seen the movie, listen along and let us know your thoughts!

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Jodie and Matthew begin their discussion on religious violence and extremism by offering a brief introduction to religious violence. Following Mark Jurgensmeyer’s book: Terror in the Mind of God, Jodie and Matthew will explore various care studies of religious extremism before delving into the logic and justification of these horrific acts of violence.

Works Referenced and Recommended Readings:

Juergensmeyer, Mark. Terror in the Mind of God, Fourth Edition: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. 4th ed. University of California Press, 2017.

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Jodie and Matthew delve into a sensitive topic as they review a PBS Frontline Documentary about how religious faith changed in the aftermath of 9/11. While this is a relatively unknown documentary, it acts as a great introduction to religious extremism and hopefully will act as a good starting point as The Religious Treehouse starts an extended series on religious extremism, fundamentalism, and violence, starting next episode.

Works Referenced and Recommended Readings:

See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valarie Kaur

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Bluesky: @TheRELTreehouse

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This week, Jodie and Matthew delve into the New Testament to discuss Jesus’ parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard… if that’s what we want to call it. As with most parables of Jesus, historical and modern interpretations have vastly differed, but how would Jews that Jesus was speaking to have understood the parable? To address this, Jodie and Matthew set off to explore the variety of ways it has been interpreted, for better or for worse, relying on AJ Levine’s book “Short Stories by Jesus” (Seriously. It’s a great book. Go read it).

Works Referenced and Recommended Readings:

Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi by Amy Jill Levine.

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Jesus Camp is an Oscar-nominated documentary from 2006 that looks at a Pentecostal children’s summer camp and the conflation between this branch of evangelicalism and the Republican party. Jodie and Matthew discuss why the leaders of this camp act the way they did, why the children reacted the way they did, and how Jodie and Matthew’s personal experience in religious circles similar to this parallel the documentary.

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Bluesky: @TheRELTreehouse

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This is a re-release of episode 8, Jonah and Satire. Jonah is a well-known story for kids, but why do people stop talking about it after they’ve grown up? Jodie and Matthew attempt to strip away the Veggietales-ification of this fascinating story to get into the fascinating Biblical satire that is the Book of Jonah. And no, it’s not a whale. It’s a fish. Last week we released a review of the Veggietales version of Jonah, so this is a good companion episode to note the differences in some scholarship compared to the popular presentation of this story in Children’s media.

Works Referenced and Recommended Readings:

Rhetorical Criticism: Context, Method, and the Book of Jonah by Phyllis Trible

Strawn, Brent A. “Vocatio Interrupta: Jonah’s Call, Jonah’s, Silence, and Form Criticism.” In

Historical Settings, Intertextuality, and Biblical Theology: Essays in Honor of Marvin A.

Sweeney, edited by Hyun Chul Paul Kim, Tyler D. Mayfield, and Hye Kyung Park, 77-

94. Tubingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2022.

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Perhaps one of the most well-known pieces of Christian media is Veggietales, and Jodie and Matthew are delving into the Veggietales retelling of the story of Jonah. Whether you grew up with Veggietales or not, you should enjoy this conversation as Jodie and Matthew discuss the interpretive choices that may occur when adapting a text for a children's movie. Likewise, how does an explicitly Christian production company make choices about how they present a story to its audience? Listen along and please share your thoughts!

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The Bible has some pretty freaky creatures in it, and that is certainly the case for Seraphim. Burning, 6-wings, human-snake hybrids should certainly sound scary, and that is the point of these creatures: to be intimidating and deadly. Listen along as Jodie and Matthew discuss seraphim and how they appear in the Bible - especially in Numbers 21 and Isaiah 6. How are they used, what is their role, and what do we do with such creepy creatures in the Bible?

Works Referenced and Recommended Readings:

God’s Monsters:Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible - by Esther J. Hamori

Reiterer, F. V., Nicklas, T., & Schöpflin, K. (2006). Angels : The concept of celestial beings - origins, development and reception. De Gruyter, Inc..

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