‘It’s bigger on the inside’ Doctor Who: A Theological Engagement with contemporary television

This research addresses a neglected area in the study of theology and popular culture; engagement with television. It argues this oversight by academic theology is to its impoverishment because television is a powerful site of meaning-making in contemporary culture. It works with a popular, long-lived example of British television culture, Doctor Who and uses an interdisciplinary approach. It uses empirical data, gathered from panel discussion groups of participants who watched episodes of Doctor Who. The research design, using empirical data and an adapted grounded theory method for analysis, avoids the accusation levelled at theologians working in the field of theology and popular culture; they look at the object of their study through a preconceived theological lens and find what they want to see. The resulting codes and categories were brought into conversation with other interdisciplinary academic literature; then with theology, examining the contribution they can make. It argues that engagement with television and its reception gives theologians a way of reading the ‘signs of the times’ (Ward 2005). This is vital because it reveals the multiple narratives worlds which everyone, including Christians and theologians, are inhabiting. It asserts it is the mundane and ordinary exchanges between the participants which reveal what is sacred (Lynch 2012). Although the empirical data does not immediately identify the participants demonstrating a theological outlook, it is significant theologically because it makes visible what is important to people in shaping and forming their meaning-making. It argues that if theology is like a language (Lindbeck 2009), which native speakers of the community pick-up through participating in the community then this research raises questions about who holds the grammar and how it is acquired within its cultural context.