Mythic Realms

A sequel of sorts to Bradley Birzer’s Beyond Tenebrae (Angelico Press, 2019), Mythic Realms seeks to pursue excellences in the last hundred years of literature and film. Still rooted in Christian Humanism and Burke’s moral imagination, Birzer offers here a series of autobiographical vignettes, following which he analyzes fiction from Willa Cather to J.R.R. Tolkien to Stephen King to Frank Miller, and considers everything from the novel to the graphic novel. From the world of film he explores the works of John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Roland Joffé, and Christopher Nolan, while not neglecting popular TV series such as Star Trek, X-Files, Daredevil, and Stranger Things. In the end, though, after these many thought-provoking investigations, Birzer concludes that all things come down to reverence-both mythic and real-for the Blessed Mother and, especially, for her son, Jesus Christ.

Author Biography

BRADLEY J. BIRZER is Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies and professor of history, Hillsdale College. He also spent one academic year as the Conservative Scholar at CU-Boulder. He is author of books on J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Russell Kirk, Christopher Dawson, and Neil Peart. He is also author of Angelico’s Beyond Tenebrae: Christian Humanism in the Twilight of the West. He and his wife Dedra have seven children, one dog and several cats, and split their year between Michigan and South Dakota.