Timothy Furnish is an expert in Islamic and Middle Eastern history and Islamic fundamentalism as well as Mahdism (Islamic messianism. He is the author of Holiest Wars: Islamic Mahdis, their Jihads and Osama bin Laden (Praeger Publishers, 2005).  He is a former military Christian army chaplain.

Yvonne Y. Haddad is professor of the history of Islam and Muslim-Christian relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She co-authored Muslim Women in America: The Challenge of Islamic Identity Today and Educating the Muslims of America. Her scholarly interests include Muslims in the West, Islamic revolutionary movements, 20th-century Islam and the intellectual, social and political history of the […]

The Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut has this page with links on Muslim-Christian relations.

Chris Seay is pastor of the Houston church Ecclesia, a congregation that is part of the emerging church movement. Seay frequently writes about faith and pop culture and is co-author, with Greg Garrett, of The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in The Matrix.

Stephen Skelton is based in Nashville, Tenn., and is the founder of The Entertainment Ministry, which is dedicated to “finding God’s purpose in popular entertainment.” He is the author of The Gospel According to the World’s Greatest Superhero and other books. Read Superman’s Second Coming, an article adapted from the book. It’s posted at Beliefnet.com.

Edward H. Sewell Jr. is associate professor emeritus in the department of communication studies at Virginia Tech. He co-edited (with Matthew P. McAllister and Ian Gordon) the volume Comics & Ideology, a collection of 11 essays.

Jeremy Lott is an author and a contributing editor to Books & Culture. He wrote a July 10, 2006, article in Books & Culture about the movie Superman Returns. He lives in Fairfax, Va.

Matthew P. McAllister is a professor in the department of film/video and media studies at Penn State University in University Park, Pa. He co-edited (with Edward H. Sewell Jr. and Ian Gordon) the book Comics & Ideology, a collection of 11 essays.

The Rev. James McDermott is a Catholic priest and former associate editor of America, a national Jesuit weekly. McDermott writes frequently about spiritual themes in popular culture and takes a keen interest in the comic book culture.