An Unexpected Journal: Superheroes: Why We Look for Superheroes Everywhere

Jesse W. Baker is a United Methodist pastor in North Carolina. He holds a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School and is (much too slowly) taking classes at Houston Baptist University, pursuing a Master of Arts in Apologetics (cultural track). Traveling with family, reading C.S. Lewis, preaching, and teaching are among his greatest joys in life.

Donald W. Catchings, Jr. is Founder and Board Chair of Street Light Inc. and Pastor of The True Light Church in Conroe, Texas since 2009. Donald regularly contributes to An Unexpected Journal and has published various titles including his most recent release, Strength in Weakness — a Young Adult reimagining of the Theseus Myth.

Annie Crawford lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and three teenage daughters. She currently homeschools, teaches humanities courses, and serves on the Faith & Culture team at Christ Church Anglican while working to complete a Masters of Apologetics at Houston Baptist University.

Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York City whose words have been published in The New York Times, Forbes, and Religion Unplugged. He is co-host of the podcast The Overthinkers and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.com where he discusses art, culture, faith and art with his fellow overthinkers.

Christy Luis has worked as a library assistant and currently runs a YouTube channel called “Dostoevsky in Space,” where she talks about books and organizes public reading events. She has an Associate of Arts in Humanities and graduated cum laude from Regent University with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Regent University.

Jason holds a B.A. from York College in York, NE, where he studied English and Psychology. He also recently completed his M.A. in Christian Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. Along with research and writing, Jason plays drums in a band and works in the mental health field. He grew up in Pierre, SD and currently lives in Spearfish, SD. In his spare time does a lot of outdoors activities in the Black Hills area and volunteers at his local parish."

Seth Myers completed his MA in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Baptist University in 2017. As a power systems engineer, he has been involved with transformer diagnostics and rural electrification projects by partnering with NGOs in West Africa. A volunteer with international students through local churches, he enjoys conversations with friends from all cultures. He considers himself rich in friendships across time and space, including but not limited to C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Bede the Venerable, Augustine, Ravi Zacharias & friends, and many student friends (chess-playing when possible, but not required) typically from throughout Asia. He has recently begun taking online courses in Faulkner University’s Doctor of Humanities program.

Annie Nardone is a two-year C.S. Lewis Institute Fellow with a Master of Arts degree in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. She has homeschooled her three kids for twenty-five years and taught art and humanities at her local co-op. Her heart is for Rohan, Narnia, and Hogwarts, far fairer lands than this. Annie contributes and edits for An Unexpected Journal at www.anunexpectedjournal.com. She publishes online at www.literarylife.org, www.theperennialgen.com, and most recently began writing for the online magazine Cultivating at www.thecultivatingproject.com. She also wrote an historical cookbook for Bright Ideas Press. 

Cherish Nelson is an adjunct professor of World Religions at Kankakee Community College and the Director of Youth Ministries at Kankakee Asbury United Methodist Church. She has a B.A. in English from Olivet Nazarene University and a M.A. in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University, where she specialized in Cultural Apologetics. Cherish also creates and shares apologetics curriculum for youth groups. Her apologetic interests include the historicity of the resurrection, the problem of evil, and imaginative apologetics.

Cherish has a long-standing passion for building a confident faith in her students. She integrates Christian education and discipleship into the retreats, mission trips, and outreach events she organizes. Cherish is particularly interested in integrating the arts into youth ministry to supplement traditional propositional teaching. Throughout her time in ministry and academia, Cherish has written apologetics curriculum for youth groups related to fiction and poetry, science and faith, the resurrection, and the problem of evil.

Megan Joy Rials holds her Juris Doctor and Graduate Diploma in Comparative Law from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center and works as a research attorney in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She is currently working toward an online Master of Arts in Apologetics (cultural track) from Houston Baptist University. Her work has previously been published in An Unexpected Journal and the Louisiana Law Review, where she served as Production Editor for Volume 77. She attends Jefferson Baptist Church with her family, and her main apologetics interests lie in storytelling of all mediums, fantasy literature, and the work of the Inklings, particularly C. S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers.

Jason Smith serves on the board of An Unexpected Journal and as senior editor for acquisitions and development at Wootton Major Publishing. In his spare time, he works a day job as a technical writer and marketing strategist for a medical device engineering firm, where he writes about fun things like FDA regulations and embedded cybersecurity. He is the pseudonymous author of the much-loved young adult fantasy series Fayborn and reviews every book he reads at www.goodreads.com/mrwootton.

An apologist and writer, as well as a father of four, Jim lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife, Cristi, two golden retrievers, and two formerly-feral cats. He read Philosophy and English as an undergrad at SMU and obtained a graduate degree in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. A frequent blogger, Jim travels the United States giving lectures on all things related to C.S. Lewis. For the past few years he has led a popular reading and discussion group called "The Inklings." In his spare time, he likes to fly fish and drink Oregon Pinot noir (though not at the same time).

John Tuttle is a Catholic journalist and creative. He has written for The Hill, University Bookman, Eucatastrophe, CiRCE Institute, Franciscan Media, Starting Points Journal, The Millions, and the University of Notre Dame's Grotto Network. He also contributed a chapter to the book The Right to Believe (Vide Press 2020). Tuttle has previously served as the prose editor of Loomings, the literary magazine of Benedictine College.

Clark Weidner is the founder of Solid Faith: A Podcast, blog, vlog, and Christian apologetics medium. He is holds a Masters degree in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. He has a blue belt in jiu jitsu and plenty of scars from years of skateboarding. He met his wife Amber in a Lord of the Rings book club and now they have a dog named Thanos (due to their love of comics).