{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.adamdjbrett.com/blog/catastrophic-christianity/",
  "description": "This book reflects on Christianity in a time of catastrophe: how theological language can normalize crisis, obscure harm, or help communities reckon honestly with violence, responsibility, and repair.",
  "path": "/blog/catastrophic-christianity/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-21T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:3vmq5usrh3yvhbrrzf4ymo23/site.standard.publication/3mpfboadoa72e",
  "tags": [
    "notes",
    "publication"
  ],
  "textContent": "I am pleased to share that my dissertation has now been published as a book: Catastrophic Christianity: An Iconological Study of the Messianic Idea in American Protestant Christianity circa 1900--1940. The book is available now through DTL Press and can be purchased through DTL Commons and Amazon.\n\n[](/assets/img/979-8-89731-285-6.jpg) \n\nDTL Commons&nbsp;<i class=\"fa-solid fa-up-right-from-square\"></i> or Amazon&nbsp;<i class=\"fa-solid fa-up-right-from-square\"></i>\n\nCatastrophic Christianity examines the messianic idea in \"America\" through early twentieth-century U.S. Protestant culture and popular media. The book traces how figures such as The Fundamentals, Superman comic books, Bruce Barton's capitalist Christianity, and The Wizard of Oz reveal two recurring ideological impulses: authoritarian-populism and catastrophic-utopianism. Together, these case studies show how messianism functions not only as a theological category, but as an iconological force shaping American religious, political, and cultural imagination.\n\nThis project began as my doctoral dissertation in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University, and I remain deeply grateful to the people who made it possible. Thank you to my spouse, Stephanie Wyatt, for her love, patience, and support throughout the long life of this project. Thank you to my good friend Betty Hill, née Lyons, whose friendship, insight, and work continue to shape how I think about religion, power, and responsibility. I am also grateful to my advisors, Zachary J. Braiterman and Philip P. Arnold, whose guidance at Syracuse University helped bring this project into being. Finally, thank you to Tom Phillips and DTL Press for publishing the book and helping make this work available to a wider public.\n\nI am grateful that this work is now out in the world and available to readers interested in American Christianity, messianism, religion and popular culture, authoritarianism, and the religious imagination of catastrophe.\n\nPurchase the book here: DTL Commons&nbsp;<i class=\"fa-solid fa-up-right-from-square\"></i> or Amazon&nbsp;<i class=\"fa-solid fa-up-right-from-square\"></i>\n\nMARC Records\n MARC Record \n CSL JSON \n* RIS",
  "title": "Catastrophic Christianity Is Now Available"
}