What were the most-meaningful cultural influences of 2016? The Christ and Pop Culture 25 is a list of our favorite people, works of art, or cultural artifacts from the past year that we feel best represent God’s truth and grace in the world. The list is extremely weird, a meandering, whiplash-inducing product of the diverse perspectives of our writers. We wouldn’t have it any other way. The goal of our list is to illuminate and appreciate the good both in and outside of the church, to show the way God uses Christians to shine a light on the world and the ways God’s common grace spills out into the most surprising places. We’re counting down the list each day this week; stop back to see The 25 of 2016 take shape.

Throughout the year, our podcast The 25 provided a place for Christ and Pop Culture writers and friends to nominate powerful cultural artifacts and happenings from 2016. Nominations covered a wide array of potentials from film, television, music, games, Internet, and people. We then used our magic algorithm to compile those choices into a tentative list of around 30 items. Finally, a panel of six (aka, the CAPC 25 Council), each representing various perspectives and expertise, met over the Internet for three-plus hours to hash out exactly how the list should look.

While our list is in no way meant to be authoritative or objective, it is a serious attempt at appreciating culture, a task that is at the forefront of Christ and Pop Culture’s purpose.

Our final deliberations were recorded and produced into a two-part podcast in which you can hear exactly how the CAPC 25 Council determined the order and make-up of the 25 of 2016. Part one is available today; part two will be released later in the week so as to not spoil the surprise for the top spots.

More Installments: #25-#21, #20-#16, #15-#11, #5-#1, The 25 of 2016

Donald Glover

“Gambino let loose stylistically and took his talents to the next level.”

It’s not like we needed any convincing that Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) was the dopest polymath on the planet — he can act, he can rap, he can make you laugh. But in 2016, Gambino let loose stylistically and took his talents to the next level. 

His hit FX show, Atlanta, isn’t what anybody expected — if they even had expectations to begin with. Atlanta was written by and stars Glover as an Ivy League dropout hanging around his hometown (guess where) and riding along as his cousin, Paper Boi, is starting to make a name on the local rap scene. What follows is thoroughly unpredictable. At times Atlanta is as slapstick as Community (think: fake Dodge ads, a black Justin Bieber, and an entire episode set in a public access TV shoot) and at times absolutely gut-wrenching as we follow Glover through life as a young black man in Atlanta. It shouldn’t work, but it totally works.

Speaking of “shouldn’t work, but totally works,” Childish Gambino’s 2016 LP Awaken, My Love! is exactly that. A straight rip off of Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain and Sly & the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On, Gambino doesn’t rap a single verse but soulfully yells over Eddie Hazel-esque guitars. On first listen I was disappointed, waiting for Gambino to break out into that “Sweatpants”-style flow that never came. But the more I listened the more I realized that this record was more than a funk album — it was a coming out album. With Awaken, My Love! Glover is telling the world that he is going to do whatever he pleases, whenever he pleases. He has made it, and with that we get an already creative genius coming into his own — both steeped in history and way ahead of his time.

When Donald Glover came onto the rap scene with “Freaks and Geeks” back in 2011, he warned us that this was coming, and in 2016, he proved without a doubt that “Gambino is a mastermind…” (I’ll skip the rest of the verse, for the sake of our more sensitive readers). — Nick Rynerson

The Chicago Cubs World Series

“[T]hey broke a 108-year championship dearth.”

Three things are certain in life: death, taxes, and the Cubs losing. This lesson was painfully drilled into my soul in 2003 as I watched Steve Bartman lift his “cursed” hand into the air and deflect a pop-fly out away from Moises Alou. Although this was not the cause of the team’s eventual collapse to the Florida Marlins and subsequent elimination from the playoffs, it certainly was the catalyst. My heart was broken. I was sure the Cubs would play in the World Series for the first time in 95 years. However, it was not meant to be. I remember telling a good friend, “I finally know what it means to be a life-long Cubs fan. Always losing.”

I lost faith, and interest, in the Cubs. Shortly after the hire of Theo Epstein and the subsequent 90+ loss seasons, I gave my heart to the city I lived in and their three-time champions, the San Francisco Giants. Here, I finally knew what it was to win. And yet, I knew a day would come when the Cubs would break The Curse of the Goat and win a World Series.

In all reality, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the Cubs won the Series in 2016. This was the game plan since Epstein’s first day on the job. And he unpacked that plan to perfection. The Cubs received the warm embrace of everyone outside of Cleveland as they broke a 108-year championship dearth. The Cubs winning the World Series also became a portent of the “when pigs fly” reality of 2016. In such, sport has reflected reality once again and taught us that even the ones that seem the most unlikely to win can pull it off against all odds. — Jeremy Writebol

The Life of Pablo by Kanye West

“[A]n uncomfortably raw peek into the depths of Kanye’s mind and soul.”

Thanks to his latest antics, Kanye West the human being seems to be fading further and further out of the public’s purview. Instead, we’re becoming increasingly familiar with Kanye the provocateur, Kanye the troll, Kanye the screwup, and Kanye the monster. “Kanye needs mental help” is the pop psychologist’s platitude, “Kanye needs God” the pop culture Christian’s. Thing is, Kanye’s quest for mental health has been at the forefront of his music and public statements for years, including a track record of therapy, diagnosis, and prescription. With The Life of Pablo, the same is true of his quest for a higher power (the Christian God, to be exact). It’s hard to believe a philanderer-cum-family-man would make such a transition by marrying a Kardashian, and Mr. West admits in the confessional Pablo the process has been as hard as it sounds. In an uncomfortably raw peek into the depths of Kanye’s mind and soul, we see that West is acutely aware of just how much help he needs (and wants) to find redemption.

The truth is, we don’t like hearing from people whose problems are so loud, and we struggle to give grace to those we say need it. But Kanye West’s artistry is too good, and his pleas too transparent, to let ourselves all the way off the hook. — Cray Allred

The Star Wars Franchise

“Disney/Lucasfilm has continued to build the expanded universe and enlarge the canon through a number of other mediums.”

This has been quite a year for fans of the beloved galaxy far, far away. Rogue One, the franchise’s first foray into non-saga films, proved that Star Wars can indeed thrive at the box office without a Skywalker in the spotlight. In addition, director Gareth Edwards’s trademark sense of cinematic scale and commitment to imbue the film with a grittier tone helped establish Rogue One as a game-changer for the franchise.

With their triumph on the silver screen, Disney/Lucasfilm has continued to build the expanded universe and enlarge the canon through a number of other mediums. First, there’s the Disney XD television show Star Wars: Rebels, which creatively and effectively retconned material from the the old canon (now branded as “Legends”). Season two saw Ahsoka Tano—a fan favorite from The Clone Wars TV show—face off with her former Master, and the third season brought an iconic EU villain back into the fold with Grand Admiral Thrawn. In the comic book world, Kieron Gillen completed his wildly popular Darth Vader arc and launched Doctor Aphra, an ongoing spinoff series with an Indiana Jones vibe. Moreover, this past year also gave rise to a couple of standout novels in the new canon, namely Claudia Gray’s Leia-centric story Bloodlines and E. K. Johnston’s Ahsoka.

In spite of these delightful new additions to the Star Wars Universe, however, 2016 will ultimately be remembered as a bittersweet year, as Carrie Fisher passed away after suffering a massive heart attack. She will be missed, yet never forgotten. — Blaine Grimes

Stranger Things

“[T]he series reminds audiences that the innocence of youth — while formative — is only a brief mirage.”

Much has been made of Matt and Ross Duffer’s Stranger Things being something of a blender meal. “Take a cup of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, add three tablespoons of The Goonies, and then finish the dish with a pinch of Alien.” But describing last summer’s Netflix original series primarily in terms of its influences doesn’t give the hit show the justice it deserves — let alone the justice it’s earned.

In its first episode, Stranger Things introduces viewers to four pre-teen boys, and then makes one of them, Will, mysteriously disappear. As Will’s mother (Winona Ryder) and a sloppy sheriff (David Harbour) search for the shy adolescent, his three friends find themselves in the thick of a government conspiracy, after befriending a mysterious girl dubbed “Eleven” (Millie Bobby Brown).

As Stranger Things snakes its way through an eight-episode first season, the show’s central mystery shimmers with both eighties nostalgia and the popcorn munching entertainment we’ve come to associate with filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and his spiritual protégé, J. J. Abrams. Yet more important, the series reminds audiences that the innocence of youth — while formative — is only a brief mirage. The young characters in Stranger Things routinely find themselves in genuine (versus comical or faux) danger. They experience both loss and the potential for more loss.

Sure, the eighties may not have passed everyone through its birth canal, but Stranger Things still has a way of causing audiences of every age to consider the wonder and tragedy of a childhood that slipped past their fingers.

At least that’s probably what Barb would say. — Wade Bearden

Illustrations courtesy of Seth T. Hahne. Check out his graphic novel and comic review site, Good Ok Bad.