SojoMail - 'The Odyssey' isn't spiritually subtle

View this email in your browser Tyler Huckabee Managing Editor, sojo.net “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” That’s not just a quote from The Dark Knight; it’s the thesis of director Christopher Nolan’s entire filmography. From Batman to Oppenheimer, his characters grasp at power for reasons that seem defensible. But they live long enough to see the wreckage. Batman became a fugitive. Oppenheimer became death, the destroyer of worlds. And Odysseus? As film reviewer Georgia Coley writes, the hero of Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of The Odyssey is a tortured figure: a military genius who betrays the image of the divine in all people. That betrayal, Nolan suggests, kicks off the beginning of the end of the civilization Odysseus thought he was fighting for. Watching the film, I kept thinking of C.S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces: like Lewis, Nolan uses Greek myth to unpack Christian teaching from a slant angle, and what he unearths is an enthralling tragedy that casts a long, dark shadow over our present moment. The Odyssey isn’t the only foundational legend getting deconstructed out of Hollywood this month. Zachary Lee talks to filmmaker Michael Sarnoski about The Death of Robin Hood and why we keep needing new versions of an outlaw myth about who justice is actually for. Noah Berlatsky digs into the “Protestant myth” about bigotry rising out of the wreckage of Graham Platner’s Senate bid in Maine, and what it reveals about how white evangelicalism talks about its own prejudice. And Julian Tiburcio asks “Why These Nuns Set Their Land on Fire.” Spoiler alert: It’s a good thing. Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ Confronts Civilization’s Original Sin In an age of shamelessness, Christopher Nolan’s epic asks how a society loses its soul—and whether it can find its way home. Read the full article Advertisement Our Latest Stories The Protestant Myth That Allowed Graham Platner To Get as Far as He Did (by Noah Berlatsky) Bigotry is not merely something that resides in people’s hearts. Read more Why These Nuns Set Their Land on Fire (by Julian Tiburco) Across the country, faith communities are treating land stewardship as a matter of faith, not just conservation. Read more Everyone in ‘Robin Hood’ Is Praying for Something Different (by Zachary Lee) Brutality, spirituality, and grace of history’s most famous outlaw. Read more From the Magazine: Retired, Not Done (by Jim Rice) Christian baby boomers are joining the “gray tsunami” of elders working for social justice. Read more Advertisements New: Throughlines Resource for Group Study of Healing Haunted Histories Bridge the gap between learning about injustice and taking action. Throughlines is a new ten-session curriculum by Elaine Enns and Ched Myers that invites Christians to confront the ghosts of settler colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and white supremacy in their own family and communal histories. Use code SOJOSAVE40 to save 40%. Action Alert: No War With Iran! Contact Congress now to demand peace and an end to the war with Iran. As Christians, we know that each and every life is precious and every step must be taken to avoid bloodshed. Instead of recklessly pursuing a policy of escalation, we demand an end to violence and vigorous oversight from Congress in pursuit of peace. Donate Subscribe Copyright © 2026 Sojourners. All rights reserved. 611 Pennsylvania Ave SE #342, Washington, DC 20003 Email: sojourners@sojo.net | Tel.: 202.328.8842