BLACK MIRROR REFLECTIONS, Ep 22: “Smithereens” with James Buchanan Wallace

For Episode 22 (our last episode!), I am joined by Dr. James Buchanan “Bru” Wallace to talk about religion, techniques of the self, guilt, the imperative to look up from your screen and really see others, and “Smithereens” (Season 5, Episode 2 of Black Mirror), which first premiered in 2019.

Dr. James Buchanan Wallace, known to friends and colleagues by his nickname “Bru,” is Professor of Religion at Christian Brothers University, where he also chairs the Department of Religion and Philosophy. He has taught at Christian Brothers University since 2008, the year he received his Ph.D. in Religion from Emory University. He is the author of Snatched into Paradise (2 Cor 12:1-10): Paul’s Heavenly Journey in the Context of Early Christian Experience (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2011), and co-editor, with Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr and Predrag Dragutinović, of the volume, The Holy Spirit and the Church According to the New Testament (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016). With Athanasios Despotis, Bru is co-founder and co-chair of “Biblical Exegesis from Eastern Orthodox Perspectives,” a program unit of the Society of Biblical Literature. His research interests include the Greco-Roman and Jewish religious contexts of the New Testament and the history of the interpretation of New Testament writings, especially the letters of Paul, in the eastern Church Fathers. Most recently, he has been writing about and assessing modern Eastern Orthodox (Christian) biblical scholarship.