{"id":27687,"date":"2015-04-18T19:41:04","date_gmt":"2015-04-18T23:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=27687"},"modified":"2015-04-18T19:41:04","modified_gmt":"2015-04-18T23:41:04","slug":"the-politics-and-theology-of-superman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/04\/18\/the-politics-and-theology-of-superman\/","title":{"rendered":"The politics and theology of Superman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The problem with Superman is that almost nothing can stop him.<\/p>\n

That can be a storytelling challenge, making it difficult to imagine battles that the Man of Steel can\u2019t easily and obviously win.* The usual approach, then, is to focus on the challenge he faces in defeating his foes without killing them all. It\u2019s more interesting if you can have him square off against good, innocent people who have been tricked or coerced into confronting him. The real trick of telling Superman stories, in other words, is by setting up problems that can\u2019t be resolved with sheer power.<\/p>\n

But the more such stories are told and explored, the more we\u2019re confonted with the uncomfortable politics<\/em> of Superman. Concentrating so much unstoppable, unchecked, near-absolute power in the hands of a single individual seems a bit, well, fascist<\/em>. Unchecked power goes against our hard-earned democratic and republican instincts. We\u2019ve tried that before. Giving one person near-total power doesn\u2019t usually end well.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m pleased to see that the new teaser trailer for the upcoming Batman vs. Superman<\/em> movie addresses this political dilemma.<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\nWhat are the limits on Superman\u2019s use and\/or abuse of his power? Basically, there are only two:<\/p>\n1.<\/strong> His benevolence. The Kents raised him well and he\u2019s a good guy.<\/p>\n2.<\/strong> A couple of eccentric billionaires have green rocks hidden in caves under their mansions, just in case.<\/p>\nNeither of those seems quite satisfactory. The former asks us to place blind trust in Superman himself. The latter suggests that our only alternative is equally blind trust in either Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor. Either way, blind trust that power won\u2019t be abused is never an adequate check on the abuse of power.<\/p>\nSuch Madisonian musing about checks and balances tends to lead to another kind of musing about the relationship between omnipotence and benevolence. It leads us, inexorably, into questions of theology and, specifically, of theodicy. Superman stories, I think, always bring us to this subject.<\/p>\nIt seems as though Superman ought to be able to save anyone \u2014 perhaps even everyone<\/em>. And yet he doesn\u2019t. Why not? Is it simply that Superman doesn\u2019t care about everyone (that he is not really good)? Or is it that he isn\u2019t really all-powerful after all?<\/p>\nThe better answer, I think, is the latter. Superman, after all, is only almost<\/em> omnipotent \u2014 and he is neither omniscient nor omnipresent. So perhaps he cannot be said to be capable of \u2014 or responsible for \u2014 saving everyone or correcting every injustice.** But more often, it seems, storytellers opt for something more like a Calvinist answer. Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen will always be saved, but most people are not among the fortunate elect and lie outside Superman\u2019s capacity for grace.<\/p>\nThat strikes me as an uglier answer because it suggests that Superman isn\u2019t really benevolent. It focuses on the limits to his goodness, not on the limits of his power. (And this answer doesn\u2019t get less ugly, in my opinion, if we simply redefine \u201cgoodness\u201d to mean that Superman thinks all of the people he declines to save deserve to die<\/em>.)<\/p>\nBut just as I earlier suggested that there are more interesting approaches to telling Superman stories, I think there are also much more interesting approaches to the problem of theodicy. The story doesn\u2019t have to be about the limits of power or the limits of benevolence. It might be, rather, about the kinds of problems that cannot be fixed by the application of sheer power.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s intriguing, then, that the climax of the trailer above poses a question to Superman himself. Batman does not ask, \u201cAre there limits to your power?\u201d and he does not ask, \u201cIs your goodness really deserving of our blind trust?\u201d<\/p>\nInstead he asks this: \u201cDo you bleed?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nFor any discussion of theodicy, I think that\u2019s a better question.<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2015\/04\/batman-vs-superman-logo.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27690\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2015\/04\/batman-vs-superman-logo.jpg\" alt=\"batman-vs-superman-logo\" width=\"610\" height=\"394\"><\/a><\/p>\n\u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n* It\u2019s also a storytelling problem in that most people enjoy rooting for the underdog \u2014 and Superman isn\u2019t ever really believable as the underdog. This is something that has always puzzled me about my fellow Mets fan Jerry Seinfeld. He loves the Mets, and he loves Superman. Superman just seems more like a Yankee<\/em>-fan\u2019s idea of a superhero.<\/p>\n** If I were hired to write Superman comics, I\u2019d want to explore those limits by questioning, for example, just how much sleep the Man of Steel requires. Does he even need to sleep at all? If so, how does sleep-deprivation affect him?<\/p>\nI\u2019m thinking of a storyline in which Clark pushes the limits \u2014 pulling all-nighters out of a sense of obligation to all the people he might be able to save in other time zones \u2014 until his lack of sleep begins to affect his ability to think and function clearly. Then I imagine Lex Luthor taking notice of this effect and trying to put it to use to weaken his nemesis. \u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Basically there are only two limits on Superman’s use\/abuse of his power: 1. His benevolence; and 2. A couple of eccentric billionaires have green rocks hidden in caves under their mansions, just in case. Neither of those seems quite satisfactory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-27687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-warfare","tag-theodicy"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>The politics and theology of Superman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Basically there are only two limits on Superman's use\/abuse of his power: 1. His benevolence; and 2. A couple of eccentric billionaires have green rocks hidden in caves under their mansions, just in case. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The politics and theology of Superman","description":"Basically there are only two limits on Superman's use\/abuse of his power: 1. His benevolence; and 2. A couple of eccentric billionaires have green rocks hidden in caves under their mansions, just in case. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}