I met Jennifer Neyhart via twitter and soon discovered we shared a love for theology, Doctor Who, and sci-fi/fantasy. It’s not often you find someone whose loves fall so in tune with your own.
For Thanksgiving I did not want to share the typical love of turkey, family, and friends. I wanted to expand a little. So today I’m sharing three things I adore: Jesus, Doctor Who, and women pursuing theological studies. Jennifer represents all three of those realities. Be sure to follow her blog (link at bottom), share your thoughts in the comments below or on twitter by tagging @JenniferNeyhart and @HopeNGriffin. We would love to discuss the awesomeness of forgiveness, the struggle of being good in a our world today, seminary, C. S. Lewis, and of course all things Doctor Who.
Today as you are recovering from the turkey, or just waiting for it to finish up, enjoy a little reprieve with the writings of Jennifer Neyhart and discover a world we are both so very thankful for.
The Theology of Doctor Who by Jennifer Neyhart
I love theology (studying/thinking about God) and I love Doctor Who. But do they go together? I say yes! My obsession with Doctor Who started a few years ago when several good friends of mine with similar sci-fi and fantasy interests fell in love with Doctor Who. I figured if they loved it so much, so would I. And I was right.
For those who don’t know, Doctor Who originally premiered on the BBC in 23 November 1963. (The very next day after C. S. Lewis died in fact. Coincidence? Or could Lewis have been the original Doctor… 😉 The “Classic Who” era ran from 1963 until 1989, and then the Rebooted Series (sometimes called the “New Who”) launched in 2005 and is still going strong as the longest running and most successful sci-fi series in television history. The show follows the Doctor, an ancient Time Lord with the power to regenerate into a new body whenever he is mortally wounded.
As silly and fun as the show can be at times, Doctor Who has a lot of heart (no pun intended, though the Doctor himself does in fact have two hearts). Throughout the adventures in time and space, themes of love over hate, are interspersed with those of wonder and curiosity, belief and goodness. The nature of our choices and free-will are explored along with themes of war vs anti-violence. Doctor who navigates the complexities of morality in an always changing universe.
There is Christian symbolism aplenty. The series reboot is sometimes referred to as a “resurrection” and the Doctor himself experiences death and resurrection as he transforms from one incarnation to another. (I believe Lewis would appreciate this as part of the dying and rising god mythos.) The doctor is always trying to save some species (usually human) from something (usually some type of alien). This season we’ve even had a line from the Doctor specifically stating, “I’m the Doctor, and I save people!” And the new series tagline is “Doctor Who: Born to Save the Universe.” Now who else do we know that actually came to save the universe?
Doctor who navigates the complexities of morality... There is Christian symbolism aplenty. @JenniferNeyhart Click To TweetNow obviously The Doctor does not fit the Christ comparison perfectly, nor is he supposed to. But I do think he is a type of archetype, pointing us back to our ultimate Savior. His emphasis on non-violence, peace, and forgiveness has shown through again lately. In a recent episode (The Zygon Inversion) he says,
“You just want cruelty to beget cruelty. You’re not superior to people who were cruel to you. You’re just a whole bunch of new cruel people. A whole bunch of new cruel people being cruel to some other people, who’ll end up being cruel to you. The only way anyone can live in peace is if they’re prepared to forgive.” – The Doctor
And in the conclusion to that episode we had this poignant moment:
The “bad guy”: “You think they’ll let me go after what I’ve done?”
The Doctor: “You’re all the same, you screaming kids, you know that? ‘’Look at me, I’m unforgiveable’, well here’s the unforeseeable: I forgive you! After all you’ve done. I forgive you.”
I mean talk about having a come to Jesus moment! I got tears in my eyes, I was so moved just thinking about the truth of those words in Jesus.
There was another moment like that last season when Clara lied to The Doctor and put his life and the TARDIS in danger and the Doctor responded with Christ-like compassion: “Do you think that I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?” I think about Jesus and Judas, but I also think about the times and ways in which I have betrayed Jesus, and how he loves me so much that my betrayal does nothing to diminish his love.
One of the episodes this season even started with The Doctor playing Amazing Grace on his electric guitar!
I would bet that we could find something theological to talk about in just about every episode, if not every episode. The show has an overt pro-life ethic. Each week, we see The Doctor or his companion standing up for the inherent value of human life. To me, this resonates with how we are all made in the imago Dei (the image of God) and are immensely valuable to God.
And if you want to read how The Kingdom of God is like the Oldest Question in the Universe? Read this post. It’s beautiful.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on the similarities to C. S. Lewis and various images in his works. This would become a ridiculously long post! Instead I will point you to this post if you are interested: Five Reasons ‘Doctor Who’ Owes C.S. Lewis A Debt Of Gratitude. Maybe I’ll write my own post in the future on C. S. Lewis and Doctor Who ;-).
On the whole, I believe Doctor Who speaks to the deeper longings of the human soul: the ways we wrestle with faith and doubt, the significance of our choices and free-will, the bigness of the universe and how small we may feel in light of it. And as the best stories do, I see it pointing us back to the one True myth: The myth of the dying and rising God that became Fact in Jesus Christ.
Jennifer Neyhart is an aspiring Educator and Scholar of C.S Lewis, Bible, and Theology. She is an M.Div. student at Asbury Theological Seminary. Her interests include Fantasy and Sci-Fi stories in addition to reading books related to Theology, Philosophy, The Bible, Spirituality, etc.
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