Superman as lived religion in contemporary American culture

165 Pages·2016·1.26 MB·English

University of Iowa
Iowa Research Online
Theses and Dissertations
Summer 2016
"Look up in the sky:" Superman as lived religion in contemporary
American culture
Brandon O'Neal Dean
University of Iowa
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of the Religion Commons
Copyright 2016 Brandon O'Neal Dean
This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2065
Recommended Citation
Dean, Brandon O'Neal. ""Look up in the sky:" Superman as lived religion in contemporary American
culture." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2016.
https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.8jagj9l5
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of the Religion Commons
“LOOK UP IN THE SKY:”
SUPERMAN AS LIVED RELIGION IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CULTURE

by

Brandon O’Neal Dean

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy
degree in Religious Studies in the
Graduate College of
The University of Iowa

August 2016

Thesis Supervisor: Professor Richard Brent Turner
Graduate College
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa

CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL

____________________________

PH.D. THESIS

_________________

This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of

Brandon O’Neal Dean

has been approved by the Examining Committee for
the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy degree
in Religious Studies at the August 2016 graduation.

Thesis Committee: ____________________________________________
Richard Brent Turner, Thesis Supervisor

____________________________________________
Kristy Nabhan-Warren

____________________________________________
Jordan Smith

____________________________________________
Corey Creekmur

____________________________________________
Deborah Whaley
To Samantha and Harper

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“This is an imaginary story…aren’t they all?”

Alan Moore
“Whatever Happen to the Man of Tomorrow?”
Superman #423

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my committee for their guidance in the process of compiling this
work. It has been a pleasure working with all of you.
Thank you Dr. Richard Turner for being a great mentor and all your words of
encouragement.
Thank you Dr. David Ede, Dr. Stephen Covell, and Dr. Kevin Wanner for giving me the
courage to pursue my ideas in the early stages of my academic career.
And lastly, thank you to Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and all the thousands of others who
have helped to shape Superman over the years. You gave the world a shared dream of heroics and
an idea of what it may truly means to be human.

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ABSTRACT

This study argues that, rather than simply reflecting the religious worldviews of his
creators and readers, the presentations of Superman that span more than 75 years in a variety of
mass media have produced a mythology, iconography, ethical code, and set of practices that
reflect a dynamic relationship with the complex religious systems in the United States. The
presentation of Superman by his creators and the reception of Superman by his readers are
heavily influenced by Christianity, Judaism, and American civil religion (he does, after all,
represent “truth, justice, and the American way”) along with many other religious worldviews.
This study also explores the dynamic and complex interactions between Superman and his fans
and shows that the figure of Superman is used by his fans to understand theological and ethical
issues, while, at the same time, their understanding of Superman shapes those theological and
ethical opinions and ideas. American religious traditions influence the popular images and
representations of Superman, but Superman also influences the understanding of religious
traditions across a breadth of historical and cultural contexts.
Superman’s as a site of multiple expressions of permanent liminality allows the character
and his stories to be useful sites for people to perform the religious work of constructing,
strengthening, and/or negotiating boundaries between categories, such as the human and the
divine or the secular and the religious. It is through these boundaries that people define and
interpret their religious worldviews.

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PUBLIC ABSTRACT

First published in 1938, Superman has an undeniable impact on American and global
popular culture. Superman is a strange and foreign alien who is extremely human and
quintessentially American. He is mortal, yet he possesses a level of power that is godly. It seems
only natural that the cultural influence of this character enters the religious sphere as well.
Superman’s creators and audience read him through their particular religious worldviews, but he
also has an effect on those worldviews. This study will explore a variety of ways that Superman
and his stories have been encompassed and expressed by American religions to define what it
means to be a god, to be a human, to be an American, to be a Christian, to be a father, and/or to
be a man. Ultimately, it will demonstrate the importance of American popular culture when it
comes to how Americans construct the religious worlds in which they live. The importance of
Superman as an object of analysis exists in its ability to reveal meanings of religious experience
in twenty-first century America.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER ONE: BEYOND TRADITIONS ................................................................................. 5
Religion and its Permeable Boundaries ...................................................................................... 6
A Brief Origin of Superman ...................................................................................................... 11
Early Superman Scholarship ..................................................................................................... 12
Superman: Jewish, Christian, or Other? .................................................................................... 13
A Billion (and Counting) Supermen ......................................................................................... 15
Superman as Religious .............................................................................................................. 18
Superman and Liminality .......................................................................................................... 19
Superman’s Liminality and its Religious Use in Boundary Maintenance ................................ 25
CHAPTER 2: BOXING SUPERMAN ......................................................................................... 29
American Civil Religion and Superman ................................................................................... 30
Muhammad Ali ......................................................................................................................... 32
The Racial Politics of Heavyweight Championship Boxing ..................................................... 35
Ali, the Nation of Islam, and Malcolm X .................................................................................. 39
1960s Mainstream Media and Ali’s Image ............................................................................... 43
Superman vs. Muhammad Ali ................................................................................................... 47
CHAPTER 3: A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY .................................................................. 59
“The Power Within” (1988-1989) ............................................................................................. 60
The Kingdom (1999).................................................................................................................. 64
“Angel” (2007) .......................................................................................................................... 66
Superman’s Mistaken Identity as Religious Work .................................................................... 68
CHAPTER 4: SUPERMAN ON A SUNDAY MORNING ......................................................... 74
Selling Movie Tickets to the Religious: Historical Context ..................................................... 81
Superman: Silver Screen Savior ................................................................................................ 84
Man of Steel Ministry Resources ............................................................................................ 102
Drawing the Line, Forming the Boundaries ............................................................................ 107
CHAPTER 5: FATHERING THE MAN OF STEEL ................................................................ 114
The American Bible Society’s “Father’s Day Conversation Guide: Man of Steel”................ 116
Man of Steel and the Fatherhood Blogosphere........................................................................ 121
The Father and Christian Male as Superman .......................................................................... 132
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The Superman Mythos as a Site for Fatherhood and Masculinity .......................................... 136
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 141
BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 145

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