The World Turned Upside Down: Finding the Gospel in Stranger Things

Drawing analogies between the Bible and story lines from the Netflix series Stranger Things, Heiser (The Unseen Realm) provides a novel take on spiritual warfare and Christian beliefs about the supernatural conflict at the heart of the salvation of mankind. Each chapter focuses on a different character or subplot from the show and a corresponding spiritual concerns, such as the power of love, the cost of sacrifice, and the ongoing battle between good and evil. For instance, he sees the show’s chief of police, Jim Hopper—someone who “can’t admit [he] needs help instead of trying to change the unchangeable”—as representative of the “dilemma” of Jesus’s gospel: “our inability to fix ourselves and resolve our separation from God’s family.” Heiser also concludes each chapter with a “Right-Side Up” section summing up his intended spiritual lessons—a reference to the show’s fictional town, where the disappearance of a young boy exposes the reality of an unseen world, dubbed “the Upside Down,” where monsters set on the destruction of human life reside. Though Heiser’s detailed retelling of the show’s myriad subplots can get tedious, his insights into the series and firm belief that life apart from God would be akin to living in Stranger Things’ horrifying Upside Down will please Christian fans of the series. (Oct.)