Dr. Andrew Wood Office: HGH 210; Phone: (408) 924-5378 Email: wooda@email.sjsu.edu Web: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda

Reading: Pinsky, M.I. (2001). The gospel according to The Simpsons: The spiritual life of the world's most animated family. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.

Note: These comments are not designed to "summarize" the reading. Rather, they are available to highlight key ideas that will emerge in our classroom discussion. As always, it's best to read the original text to gain full value from the course.

In chapter seven, Pinsky explores the ways in which The Simpsons characters confront temptation. Illustrations include “Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment,” an episode that depicts Lisa’s response to Homer’s theft of cable television by choosing to set a good example rather than attempt to foist her morality on Homer in a more direct manner. Pinsky also describes several episodes in which Homer and Marge face the temptation of adultery, most notably the episode in which Homer faces a “foul temptress” whose love of donuts matches his own and the episode in which Marge meets a bowling instructor who does not limit his lessons to the bowling alley. Throughout, the Simpsons respond to sin in a two-fold manner: striving not to do something and striving to do another thing.

Activity: Identify another Simpsons episode in which a character confronts temptation. Provide a more developed theory of sin than offered by Pinsky. What role does sin play in social order?

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