God on the Streets of Gotham

Coinciding with the finale of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, God in the Streets of Gotham, by PluggedIn.com associate editor Paul Asay, offers a breezy, faith-inflected reading of the Dark Knight that neither overstates its case nor idealizes its flawed, ambiguous subject. Asay depicts Batman less as an implausible Christ figure than a flawed human being touched by a sense of calling; compromised by trauma, but living by a code; tortured by personal demons, but living sacrificially for others. Asay keeps the focus practical and devotional, emphasizing the spiritual lessons to be drawn from comic-book heroism and villainy.—Steven Greydanus