LITMIR.BIZ

      The Doctor and the Apostle

      Intersections Between Doctor Who and the Letters of Paul

      Copyright © 2020 Jeffrey A. Nelson. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

      Wipf & Stock

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

      Eugene, OR 97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      paperback isbn: 978-1-7252-6317-8

      hardcover isbn: 978-1-7252-6315-4

      ebook isbn: 978-1-7252-6318-5

      Manufactured in the U.S.A. 08/19/20

      All scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible (NRSV), copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

      For Chris and Gavin, who know best what this led to.

      “Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.”

      —The Twelfth Doctor

      Acknowledgments

      I wrote the bulk of this book under some very interesting personal and professional circumstances. I was in the middle of a job transition, and my family and I were as caught up as everyone else in concerns over the coronavirus. It was challenging at times to keep my focus for this project. I drew support from a wide variety of people to remain centered, both for purposes of writing and for the strange context in which I had to complete it.

      I am grateful once again to Matthew Wimer, Daniel Lanning, George Callihan, and the rest of the team at Wipf and Stock for their aid and guidance in each step of the publishing process. It was a pleasure to work with you all again.

      Thank you as always to my family for their gifts of patience and time as I stole away to write, and for their ongoing love.

      I had so many people loving and praying me through my changing of ministry positions, among them Ian Borton, Mindy Quellhorst, Elizabeth Dilley, George Miller, Mike and Jeanne Murawski, Alex and Hope Molozaiy, Brian Burke, Gayle Tucker, and the group known best as The Cohort. Thank you as well to my Community of Practice clergy group: Melody Ward, Gene McAfee, Allen Kahler, Steve Hockstra, Brent Gundlah, and Adam Marquette. I am glad to have so many companions with whom to share this journey with all its twists and turns.

      Thank you to the people of Grace United Church of Christ, who got to hear more than their fair share of pop culture references on Sunday mornings over the years, including a few from Doctor Who that turned out to be the earliest seeds for this book.

      And a thank you to Daniel for introducing me to The Doctor all those years ago. I hope that you’re doing well, wherever you are.

      1

      Fifteen Lives and Two Universes

      I sometimes say that I was a Doctor Who fan before I realized it.

      When I was in elementary school, I was hanging out with a friend at his house. Our relationship had begun thanks to a mutual love of science fiction and fantasy, especially Ghostbusters. But that day he was eager to show me some episodes of a show he’d recorded, which featured a strangely dressed man who could travel through time and space in a blue police call box that was noticeably much bigger on the inside.

      The man only went by the name The Doctor. In these particular episodes, his most defining sartorial choices were a long tweed coat and an even longer multicolored scarf. He was joined on his adventures by a young woman named Romana and a robotic dog named K-9. The episode I most clearly remember, and which I have long deemed my definitive first experience of the show, was a series called “Meglos,” during which The Doctor tries to foil a shape-shifting alien cactus in its efforts to steal a powerful glowing element known as the Dodecahedron and use it for destructive purposes. My friend showed me other adventures, but this one stood out for reasons that are lost to me.

      I do remember loving the fantastical elements of the show, especially The Doctor’s ship and the fact that he could regenerate into a new form in order to avoid death. This earliest introduction to the world of Doctor Who made a lasting impression, and its mythology found its way into my playtime in many ways.

      Given the influence of this show on my imagination, however, I never made much of an effort to watch more than what my friend had on hand at his house. Even more inexplicably, I didn’t make it a point to watch when I was older and had easier access to it via reruns on TV or through the library. I didn’t even get into the series when it was first revived in 2005, although I can recall a tinge of joy in reliving old memories when its return was announced.

      But once I finally decided to delve back into the world of The Doctor a few years later, I remembered everything that I loved about it. When your show’s central character can go to any planet and any point in time that they want, there are very few limitations that can be placed on the potential for the

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