Jack Amos Holloway (he/they) is a writer, music producer, film director, activist, minister, and dog-sitter based in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of Hands of Doom: The Apocalyptic Imagination of Black Sabbath, and is also Founder and Creative Director of Morbid Instinct, a film and music production collective and record label. Jack sings, produces, and plays lead guitar in the heavy metal / dark wave band The Heavens, and has over a hundred original songs to his name. He wrote and directed a short film called The Prisoner, and he promotes and organizes for prison abolition under the name Act for Abolition.
Jack received a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in 2018, and a Bachelor of Arts from Regent University in 2013. His master's thesis looked at two leading anti-fascist thinkers of the 20th century (Theodor Adorno and Karl Barth), putting critical theory in conversation with liberation theology. At UTS, he studied with such legendary scholars as theologian James Cone, philosopher Cornel West, and Old Testament expert Phyllis Trible.
Jack's research interests range from philosophy, religion, literature, and science, to art, music, comics, and film. He has written and edited for academic journals, presented papers at over a dozen conferences, and also served as Secretary-Treasurer for the International Society for Heresy Studies. He has contributed online articles to Popular Culture and Theology, Narrative Muse, Directed by Women, and And Philosophy.
Born "John Daniel Holloway, III," in Portland, OR, Jack spent most of his childhood in the area southeast of Seattle, WA, but has also lived in southern California, southwest Florida, and Richmond, VA. He took the middle name "Amos" to signify his commitment to prophetic witness and speaking truth to power.
Jack was raised in a conservative, evangelical social world, but at Regent University—the school associated with Pat Robertson and CBN—he discovered the biblical prophets and the work of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and underwent a radical change in theology. Today, he sits on the Leadership Table at St. Lydia's Dinner Church, a progressive, LGBTQ-affirming congregation he joined in 2015. Jack is also a congregant and frequent preacher at Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope, Brooklyn. While he identifies as a Marxist, a goth, and a heretic, Jack is active in many Christian church circles, has served on the Anti-Racism Committee of the the Metro-New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and has also preached at a friend's congregation in Esslingen, Germany, named Johanneskirche.
Having been inspired to activism by the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of Eric Garner's murder, Jack regularly protests, marches, and organizes. He volunteered as a researcher for the activist group Black Womxn's March, as a music teacher for the youth development services center The Door, and as a fundraiser for both the Prison Library Support Network and a local political campaign for NYC Councilwoman Sandy Nurse.
Jack married his partner, Debbie, in 2013. She is a writer, editor, music teacher, minister, gardener, and zero-waste expert. Together they make quite a team, and are invested in many of the same pursuits.
Beyond his academic, artistic, and social work, Jack walks dogs in Greenwich Village, and has many dog pals. He is also a gardener and baker in his spare time.
Follow Jack on Instagram @jack.amos.holloway
Photos: Nico Márquez