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Clergy Keynote - Fr. Evan Cummings, CSP - Apocalypse How! - The End, Catharsis, and Magic: the GatheringThe apocalypse is no stranger to the tropes of modern media. From summer blockbusters to rapture movies, the end of the world remains a perennially popular theme for fiction. The apocalypse is no stranger to Christian tradition and theology either (we have a literal book in the Bible sometimes called The Apocalypse). However, the world-ending vision of fiction is often at odds with the Christian view of the apocalypse. One presents a something to be feared, survived, or averted, while the other presents an image of hope and newness (not without its purgation though).
While best known as the original trading card game, Magic: the Gathering has also developed a rich and complex lore of its world, Dominaria. Throughout the history of Dominaria, characters have gone to literal world ending extremes to defeat the evil of the Phyrexians and their leader, Yawgmoth. In comparing two of these cataclysmic events found in the novels “The Brothers’ War” and “The Thran,” one can see a more nuanced approach to the apocalypse usually not found in media. While still incomplete, this lens provides a new perspective of appreciating the Christian view of the apocalypse as both a moment of catharsis and an already-and-not-yet reality. Hailing originally from Utah, Fr. Evan serves as a member of the Paulist Fathers in New York City. After graduating from Utah State University in 2013, he joined the Paulist Fathers and studied in Washington, DC at The Catholic University of America. He was ordained as a Catholic priest in May 2019 and has served in campus ministry at The Ohio State University, in the parish of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan, and currently serves in the media ministry of Busted Halo. |
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Lay Keynote - M. R. Leonard (author of Pilgrims) - Reconquering Sci-Fi for GodScience fiction has been defiled by a malevolent force, one bent on de-conversion and the ruin of souls. It has propelled many a young mind toward materialism, flattering them with pretensions of sophistication as it encouraged them to deny the Truth. Yet the imagination is God's territory, the divine spark that allows us to glimpse eternity. There is no reason this genre—this beloved genre—that has enlivened the imaginations of countless men and women across the ages needs to be ceded to the Enemy. This is holy ground, and we must fight to reclaim it!
Join me as I explore how we can unite as Christians to reconquer science fiction for God. Drawing on the rich heritage of speculative storytelling—from the Divine Comedy to a Canticle for Liebowitz—we'll rally to infuse the genre with themes of hope, transcendence, and divine purpose. Together, let's baptize this essential space, forging stories that proclaim Christ's light across the cosmos and ensure science fiction's future belongs to the faithful. M. R. Leonard was born and raised in Boston, but the cities he’s spent the most time in are Beijing, Florence and Edgartown (in that order). After graduating from Boston College, he pursued a career in law before becoming a China market entry advisor and accumulating a few lifetimes worth of adventures in just nine short years. Somewhere along the way he lost his faith but he found it again in graduate school at MIT. Married with two young sons, he can be found discussing his next novel with his ten pound dachshund as he strolls around Boston Harbor. |
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Sarah Esker - The Prodigal Power RangerA discussion of the role of catharsis in contrition and salvation, using insight from the Japanese tokusatsu series Super Sentai: Ressha Sentai ToQger.
Sarah Esker is a lifelong nerd who spent twelve years in Catholic schools, but only learned how to argue in support of her faith when she found herself in a public university taking Religious Studies courses. The experience left her with a thirst for knowledge and a drive to talk at length about any topic of interest to any captive audience. Currently, she channels this as a science teacher and freelance writer, who has contributed perspectives on comic books, video games, anime and tokusatsu to many podcasts, blog series and news outlets over the years. She is a contributing writer for Ultraman Connection, the official English-language source for news and events related to the Ultraman franchise. Sarah is not representing her employer in her talk and takes personal responsibility for all embarrassing views, opinions, and/or theological misstatements presented therein. |
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Allison Franklin-Jordan - The Prince and the Pyromaniac: Obsession, Dishonor, and RepentancePrince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Touya Todoroki from My Hero Academia are both burn-scarred fire-wielders living in exile, rejected by fathers who are blinded by ambition. Each becomes consumed by obsession: one desperately seeks his family's acceptance while the other lives solely for revenge. While Zuko ultimately finds redemption and honor after rejecting his father's path, Touya is both figuratively and literally consumed by the flames of his hatred. This talk explores how obsession and anger hinder repentance and inevitably lead to self-destruction.
Allison Franklin-Jordan is a stay-at-home mom in Alexandria, Virginia who loves anime, historical fantasy, and reading with her two children. |
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Kevin Fritts - "A Seat at That Table": Extrinsic and Intrinsic Catharsis in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (and Beyond)Both Sam Wilson, the Falcon, and Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, undergo purification (catharsis) as their characters develop in Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. In seeking to heal his PTSD by atoning for his missions for Hydra, Bucky experiences an interior catharsis. By coming to terms with his relationship to the ideals and reality of America as a Black man, Sam experiences an exterior catharsis. This talk brings two distinct theological discourses into dialogue with these characters and their personal purifications: Black Theological approaches to the mixed legacy of “America” and pastoral approaches to service personnel returning from conflicts. The quote in the title, from Captain America: Brave New World, signals that this talk will also examine how these purifications have affected their respective characters in subsequent stories.
Kevin Fritts is a doctoral candidate at the Catholic University of America, where his research focuses on the history and theology of liturgical translation into English for the North American mission context. He first spoke at Doxacon West in 2015 on similarities between time and space in Doctor Who and the space-time transcending nature of the cross. He’s a thoroughgoing nerd whose early exposure to fiction includes Star Wars and Superman in the theater, Batman and Wonder Woman in syndication, and original broadcasts of Battlestar Galactica and The Incredible Hulk — not to mention Captain America athwart that classic cycle. |
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Sr. Allison Regina Gliot, fsp and Sr. Orianne Pietra Rene Dyck, fsp - Long-Term Cathartic Accompaniment Through FictionIn a character’s struggle toward redemption, we often find echoes of our own journey. But what happens when our journeys are much longer—and messier—than a 2-hour movie? Long-form fiction (such as novels, movie series, and multi-season TV shows) provides the narrative space for complex character arcs that capture a sense of the challenges and timeframe involved in true spiritual conversion. It also gets us deeply invested in characters’ journeys, allowing for a greater identification with their spiritual growth and a stronger pull to pursue a similar growth in real life. Drawing on the storytelling philosophies of Flannery O’Connor, C.S. Lewis, and T.S. Eliot, we’ll explore examples from Star Wars, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and The Curse He Chose (the first book in Sr. Allison’s YA vampire trilogy), to see how witnessing a character’s long-term struggles with grace can release interior bonds in readers as well.
Sr. Orianne Pietra René Dyck is a Canadian Daughter of St. Paul with a heart for bringing Christ to anime communities. An award-winning author, she has a BA in Social Anthropology and a BEd in Primary Education, and is currently studying towards a Master of Theology through St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto. Sr. Allison Regina Gliot is a Daughter of St. Paul and award-winning author of books for children and teens, including the In Aeternum young adult trilogy. A life-long fan of anime, sci-fi, and fantasy, she delights in making creative connections between Christianity and pop culture. She has a BA in Theology & Religious Studies and is obtaining her MFA in Creative Writing for Young People. |
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Jeanatan (J.C.) Hall - Becoming the Man Without Fear: Recovering Wholeness in Daredevil Season 3What does it mean to be a "man without fear"? Season 3 of Daredevil (Netflix TV) depicts Matt Murdock, a lawyer and vigilante, as he grapples (occasionally literally) with this question. This presentation will investigate Matt's journey from brokenness to wholeness through the lens of three keystone moments across the season: revelation of his identity, death of a father figure, and the final confrontation. As each keystone moment shatters Matt to his core, he becomes a more integrated person through the healing process, re-accepting both his own personality and the faith identity that helps define him; this process is identifiable as Matt undergoing catharsis. Matt's experiences are contrasted to those of his moral opposite, Wilson Fisk, and an amoral adversary, Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter, who experience similar moments but fail where Matt succeeds. This presentation will argue that his faith, in both the personal and institutional Church, is what allows Matt to overcome tragedy and move towards wholeness and human flourishing.
Jeanatan Hall (J.C.) is a PhD student in bioethics at The Catholic University of America, where he lives as a recovering engineer. He spent his formative years delving too deep on Wookieepedia and captaining his undergraduate’s Star Trek Club, and still refuses to get over that time theLibrary of Alexandria burned down. J.C.’s list of hobbies is too numerous to mention – highlights include exploratory cooking, comics-accurate crochet, and spaceship origami - but in his professional capacity, he spends a lot of time thinking about plants. |
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Ken Hite - Arthur Machen and the Catharsis of Christian HorrorHorror scholar Kenneth Hite looks at Arthur Machen's horror tales, from "The Great God Pan" to "The Ritual" as instances of a particularly Christian catharsis: witnessing sin in shock and terror. How Machen combined his idea of art as ecstasy with his depictions of sin and evil, how he both depended on and detourned the medieval substrate of his stories for their power, and why this most Christian of the great horrorists so inspired the atheist H.P. Lovecraft, are all topics sure to surface as well, even before the audience joins in with their well-considered questions.
Kenneth Hite has written or designed 100+ tabletop roleplaying games and supplements, including GURPS Horror, Trail of Cthulhu, The Fall of DELTA GREEN, The Dracula Dossier, Night’s Black Agents, Bubblegumshoe, and Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition. His other works include the two-volume Tour de Lovecraft, Cthulhu 101, The Thrill of Dracula, the “Lost in Lovecraft” column for Weird Tales, an annotated edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, and four Lovecraftian children’s books. His essays and criticism have appeared in National Review, Amazing Stories, University Bookman, and in encyclopedias and anthologies from Ashcroft, Ben Bella, Dagan Books, Greenwood, and MIT Press. An Artistic Associate and dramaturg at Chicago’s WildClaw Theatre, and half of the award-winning podcast Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, he lives in Chicago with two Lovecraftian cats and his non-Lovecraftian wife, Sheila. |
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Jon James - Faith in Forlorn Futures: An Incensepunk Comparison of Fallout and A Canticle for LeibowitzBethesda’s Fallout franchise of video games (and recent TV series on Amazon Prime) and Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz have a lot in common: a post-nuclear wasteland, violent mutants, scavenging survivors, and enclaves of the fallen society. However, only one of these worlds explores the idea of purification. While in Fallout, the evils that brought society to the very brink of total destruction seem even more pervasive in the post-apocalypse, Canticle's dystopia is pierced with a beam of hope that ultimately helps restore peace and structure (even if that restoration isn't guaranteed to last). In one world, nihilism ensures that nothing will get better; in the other, faith sows the seeds of redemption.
Jon James has a million hobbies and writing is one of them. Accordingly, he doesn’t spend long in one particular genre, or even form. He likes weird stuff, which you will probably quickly figure out if you read anything he has written. He is the Editor in Chief of Incensepunk Magazine, where some of his fiction and essays have appeared. |
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Fr. Demetrios Kehagias - Catharsis in Doctor Who: Biblical and Patristic PerspectivesBuckle up for a thrilling journey through time and space as we dive into Doctor Who’s emotional roller coaster from a Christian perspective! For over 60 years, the Doctor’s T.A.R.D.I.S. has whisked us through heart-wrenching tales of sacrifice, redemption, and mortality. We’ll explore how episodes like “The Day of the Doctor,” “Vincent and the Doctor,” and “Heaven Sent” spark catharsis—purging emotions and stirring the soul. From a Christian lens, these stories echo repentance and the quest for theosis, yet their humanistic bent challenges divine grace. Can the Doctor’s cosmic dilemmas and companions’ transformations illuminate spiritual truths? Join us to unpack how Doctor Who’s epic narratives ignite reflection on sin, hope, and communion with God. Perfect for Whovians and faith-seekers alike, this session promises lively discussion, blending pop culture with profound theology. Grab your sonic screwdriver and let’s explore the universe of the Doctor!
Meet Fr. Demetrios N. Kehagias, a dynamic Greek Orthodox priest with 30 years of devoted service, bringing faith and inspiration to communities across the U.S. From the vibrant shores of Norfolk, VA, and Clearwater, FL, to the heart of Montgomery, AL, and multiple parishes in the bustling New York metropolitan area, Fr. Demetrios has left a lasting impact. Married to his beloved Helen Moskovites for three decades, they share the joy of raising two sons. As the son of a priest himself, Fr. Demetrios carries forward a rich legacy of faith, compassion, and leadership. |
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Jacob Reed - Ever Ancient, Never New: What Modern Speculative Fiction Can Learn from Classical LiteratureWhat does Homer say about the death and eternal glory of Achilles in the Iliad and Odyssey, and how does that inform our reading of Frank Herbert’s Dune heptalogy? Are these themes handled with more or less depth in a modern series like N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy? Likewise, how does the Persian epic Shahnameh address the rise, the rule, and the fall of mythological kings and compare to T.H. White’s classic The Once and Future King and the modern bestseller Red Rising? We will address these questions and more.
Contemporary authors and readers could learn much by reading classic literature from around the world, especially modern authors whose work grapples with religious themes. In this talk, we will explore similar themes across classic literature, classic speculative fiction, and more recent books. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own examples and ideas to add to the discussion. Jacob Reed, OFS, is a professed Secular Franciscan who lives with his wife, children, and pets in God’s favorite state (Maryland). After a decade of working in national security, he converted to Catholicism and subsequently resigned to work as an attorney focusing on international development finance and renewable energy projects. He is currently focused on the intersection of classic literature (in the broadest sense), global folk-epics, and what they can teach us about our current world. He talks about Moby-Dick more often than his friends would like. When he writes, he usually writes at https://loosecanons.substack.com/ |
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Richard Strube - Oh Catharsis, Where Is Thy Sting? Examining Catharsis in Twin Peaks from an Orthodox Christian Perspective (with reference to St. Anthony of the Desert)In this talk, we will consider some of the mythology of Twin Peaks, focusing on FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper's reliance on mystical intuition and perceived angelic guidance that cast themselves on his determination to restore order. We will do this in recurring reference to such Orthodox Christian wisdom as taught by St. Anthony of the Desert, who emphasized self-examination and repentance over the pursuit of the miraculous. We will explore how Cooper's external focus and moral certainty distracts from crucial introspection, impacting both his personal journey and the audience's potential for cathartic resolution. Coop, in all his facets, suggests himself to be a Tarot Fool, embodying both innocence and folly - both leading to peril. I suggest that it is the series' lack of a Christian framework, (consider the "Fool for Christ"!) which draws Cooper inexorably towards obstinacy and a lack of repentance, and which draws the narrative towards a halt state that withholds resolution and audience catharsis.
Richard Strube is a newly illumined parishioner of Protection of the Mother of God Orthodox Church in Falls Church, Virginia, and an adjunct instructor at Germanna Community College. |
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Doxacon Prime of Washington, D.C. is sponsored by
Protection of the Holy Mother of God Orthodox Church Orthodox Church in America — Romanian Episcopate
7223 Roosevelt Ave, Falls Church, VA 22042 stmaryorthodox.org |