Jesus, Doctor Who, and My Preschooler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sally recently found a picture of the empty tomb in a Bible story book she has, and brought it to me, confused by the concept of resurrection. I helped her understand the story by putting it in the context of one of her favorite shows, Doctor Who. This moment made me think about the huge vast array of stories we have available to us in myth and fiction, often built on common themes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jesus, Doctor Who, and My Preschooler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sally recently found a picture of the empty tomb in a Bible story book she has, and brought it to me, confused by the concept of resurrection. I helped her understand the story by putting it in the context of one of her favorite shows, Doctor Who. This moment made me think about the huge vast array of stories we have available to us in myth and fiction, often built on common themes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-24T09:15:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-01-27T01:57:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html\",\"name\":\"Jesus, Doctor Who, and My Preschooler\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-24T09:15:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-27T01:57:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"Sally recently found a picture of the empty tomb in a Bible story book she has, and brought it to me, confused by the concept of resurrection. I helped her understand the story by putting it in the context of one of her favorite shows, Doctor Who. This moment made me think about the huge vast array of stories we have available to us in myth and fiction, often built on common themes.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Jesus, Doctor Who, and My Preschooler\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \\\"purity culture,\\\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jesus, Doctor Who, and My Preschooler","description":"Sally recently found a picture of the empty tomb in a Bible story book she has, and brought it to me, confused by the concept of resurrection. I helped her understand the story by putting it in the context of one of her favorite shows, Doctor Who. This moment made me think about the huge vast array of stories we have available to us in myth and fiction, often built on common themes.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jesus, Doctor Who, and My Preschooler","og_description":"Sally recently found a picture of the empty tomb in a Bible story book she has, and brought it to me, confused by the concept of resurrection. I helped her understand the story by putting it in the context of one of her favorite shows, Doctor Who. This moment made me think about the huge vast array of stories we have available to us in myth and fiction, often built on common themes.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html","og_site_name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","article_published_time":"2013-01-24T09:15:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-01-27T01:57:00+00:00","author":"Libby Anne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Libby Anne","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html","name":"Jesus, Doctor Who, and My Preschooler","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-01-24T09:15:51+00:00","dateModified":"2016-01-27T01:57:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2"},"description":"Sally recently found a picture of the empty tomb in a Bible story book she has, and brought it to me, confused by the concept of resurrection. I helped her understand the story by putting it in the context of one of her favorite shows, Doctor Who. This moment made me think about the huge vast array of stories we have available to us in myth and fiction, often built on common themes.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jesus, Doctor Who, and My Preschooler"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/","name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2","name":"Libby Anne","description":"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \"purity culture,\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":11906,"date":"2013-01-24T05:15:51","date_gmt":"2013-01-24T09:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=11906"},"modified":"2016-01-26T21:57:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-27T01:57:00","slug":"on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/01\/on-doctor-who-sally-and-the-resurrection.html","title":{"rendered":"Jesus, Doctor Who, and My Preschooler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cWhat is that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sally had a Bible story book in her hand, and was pointing to the empty tomb. The picture showed the tomb with the stone rolled away, a radiant Jesus standing outside talking to Mary Magdalene, and two sleeping Roman guards off to the side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the empty tomb,\u201d I told her. \u201cAfter Jesus died they buried him there, and then he rose again. That means he came alive again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sally looked from the picture to me, confused. I wrote last month<\/a> that ever since I overheard Sally call the angel at the annunciation \u201cMary\u2019s fairy godmother\u201d while reading the nativity story to her baby brother, I\u2019ve stopped worrying about the Bible story books her grandparents have gifted her over the years. To her, they\u2019re just stories like the rest of her books. She exalted in finding \u201cbaby Jesus\u201d in nativity scenes over Christmas, and since then she\u2019s realized that there are stories about \u201cJesus all growed up\u201d (as she puts it). Zacchaeus is a favorite. This was the first time, though, that Sally had come upon a story of the resurrection. She appeared to be flummoxed. I paused, grasping for some way to help her make sense of the story. Finally, I found one.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember how the Doctor regenerated? He was hurt and dying, and then he came alive again with a new body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOhhhhhhhhhhh.\u201d Understanding spread across Sally\u2019s face. \u201cJesus is like the Doctor!\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right. My daughter now thinks Jesus was a Time Lord. Honestly, given that Jesus\u2019 disciples didn\u2019t recognize him after he rose again, the inference actually works pretty well.<\/p>\n

Anyway, having put the story in a context in which it made sense to her, Sally pointed at the sleeping Roman guards. \u201cThose are Cybermen!\u201d<\/p>\n

She might have a point there.<\/p>\n

I try to read Sally stories of Jesus alongside mythology from other religions, such as stories of Vishnu or Zeus, but I suppose I hadn\u2019t thought of the ways that science fiction can play the same function. Darth Vader, the Doctor, even Severus Snape \u2013 all of these are fictional characters Sally is growing up with, and at this point, to her, there\u2019s no real difference between what we call \u201cfiction\u201d and what we call \u201cmyth.\u201d Jesus, Leia, Vishnu, the Doctor, Artemis, Hermione Granger \u2026 Sally is surrounded by stories of fascinating characters, fantastical worlds, and engrossing events.<\/p>\n

One thing I love about this fast array of stories is the way they both feature scads of overlapping themes and provide starting points for all sorts of ethical questions. There is such a richness and depth and meaning to be pulled from fiction and myth, and there are so very many comparisons to be drawn. I could just as well have pointed Sally to Harry Potter, after all, who also died and came alive again.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"