Drawing on theorized fundamental human freedoms, Social Cognitive Domain Theory, and Christian philosophy, the chapter highlights how beliefs about the nature of reality animate Grant Morrison’s New X-Men.

Drawing on Social Cognitive Domain Theory and Christian philosophy, the chapter explores the centrality of Daredevil’s understanding of and response to the distinction between the letter and spirit of the law.

As sheriff, Paul Billings is responsible for maintaining social order. Similarly Saul—as a sanctioned persecutor—can also be understood as trying to maintain a sense of social order by punishing those spreading ‘radical’ beliefs. Just as Billings’ questioning of authority alters his worldview, Saul’s was altered while traveling to Damascus. These two figures and their stories invite us to consider three types of beliefs that inform how we treat each other: (meta) physical beliefs, social beliefs, and psychological beliefs.

Van der Ven suggests the role of subjective interpretations should be accounted for when thinking about how people may experience morally laden situations and the conflicting moral interpretations that may  result….Applied to TWD, it is possible for individuals who vary in their assumptions or beliefs about the post-zombie world to interpret the same morally laden act differently.

Martin, J. (2019, November). Superheroes, society, and…social studies?: Superhero narratives and their potential to facilitate socio-moral discourse.  Paper presented at the forty-fifth annual meeting of the Association for Moral Education, Seattle, WA.

• Relevant publication(s): Black Panther and Civics (2021), Comics and Citizenship (2023), and Luke Cage and Civil Discourse (In Progress)

If you have the powers to manipulate electricity, the adoration of a nation, and the backing of an international corporation, why would you ask for permission to do anything? And what type of society does this reflect or help create? I think these questions relate to an ironic feature of The Boys’s portrayal of the authority-accountability relationship, namely that—as indicated in the opening quote—it is someone like Frenchie, who is not part of the most powerful or elite in society, who feels the most remorse for not being held accountable for past actions.

...by analyzing Batman narratives through the lens of…the existence of distinct domains of social concepts and the importance of coordination to navigate situations with competing concepts or considerations…and centering Gotham as the primary unit of analysis, opportunities for reflecting on the relationship between understandings of God and understandings of the social world may become apparent.

...there are some parallels between the narrative Siddiq tells the community following the Whisperers attack, and the narrative represented by Christ’s resurrection. In both, narratives of hope offer alternative understandings of the world, each other, and our relationships. They also invite us to engage in a different set of relations with regards to (1) the features of the events we experience as well as (2) with one another.

“While getting revenge on Thanos appears to be a strong motivation for at least one of the Avengers, I contend that overall their primary motivation is relational. Above all, they seek to repair the damage done due to the loss of relationships. The fallout does not focus on the fact that Thanos won and they lost as much as it focuses on the ways they grapple with the enormous amount of relationships that were cut short.”