Bonus Material

Course: Science Fiction & Religion

Bonus Material

THEOLOGY THROUGH TIME AND SPACE

Science fiction and religion

Do you remember the 1968 "Star Trek" episode Bread and Circuses? This was science fiction seeing the recognition of the Messiah's coming in the 20th century instead of the 1st in a Roman Empire that never fell. Science fiction is a media through which writers and filmmakers express ideas about ethics, eschatology or end times, messiah figures and views of reality as in the above example. Many science fiction stories overtly discuss religion as, for example, Frank Herbert's Dune series. Others are more subtle as are many of Arthur C. Clarke's stories such as Childhood's End or movies such as The Matrix.

Religion can be defined as the state of being grasped by an Ultimate Concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of the meaning of life. This ultimate concern may be a belief in God who will reward Christians with eternal life, or it may be a state of being such as Nirvana, as the Buddhists believe. In Frank Herbert's Dune series, different groups had different Ultimate concerns, which came into conflict causing several Jihads, or Holy wars, to be fought at various times. Whatever constitutes the Ultimate concern of a group will determine what world view that group will adopt.

Science fiction as the art of the hypothetical has been in a unique position to speculate freely about religious concepts since both religion and science fiction deal in matters transcending the every day world. Both deal in different possible views of reality.

A chronology of religious science fiction

Before World War II most science fiction was largely innocent, or ignorant, about religion. Jules Verne's wondrous voyages were more concerned with technology as the ultimate answer to humanity's problems than with the transcendent. Likewise, H. G. Wells saw a future where the notion of the spiritual should have disappeared. When religion did appear in these writings it was primitive.

Following WW II it became clear that science did not have every answer. Both physics and science fiction became more open to religion. In the late 1940's and 1950's the culture was basically optimistic. We had the bomb and were invincible. However, science fiction of this era was basically pessimistic, seeing all kinds of horrible repercussions because we did have the bomb. This is the era of movies such as "Them" in which the Trinity Site explosion causes ants to become gigantic. In the 1959 book by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Canticle for Leibowitz, he looks far into Earth's future when, after many near destructions and recoveries, Christianity will be carried into space as Earth is finally destroyed.

In the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's society became much more pessimistic and cynical while science fiction became more optimistic. Books like Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, which became the bible for the so-called love generation and Frank Herbert's Dune series showed a much more optimistic view of the future of humanity.

In the media of TV, "Star Trek" and its offshoots with occasionally clearly religious themes also show an optimistic view of humanity's future in which we solve our problems and overcome prejudice and poverty. The series of movies that began with "Star Wars" is based on a Chinese Taoist understanding of reality. This mystical view conceives of the Tao, or way, which pervades all creation and is made up of both good and evil. The theme of good triumphant in "Star Wars" is ultimately optimistic. Throughout these last six decades it is as if science fiction is a mirror reflecting religious and cultural needs of each era.

Religion of the future?

For many people traditional religion, the religion handed down to them from their culture, is no longer meeting their needs. By projecting their needs, hopes and dreams into the future of the universe, the sacred, or what is considered as ultimately important, is not lost. Rather the sacred is being honored in new forms which the theologians and philosophers do not yet recognize as holy. The Star Trek voyages in its many incarnations cannot go anywhere without running into some cosmically powerful being or some kind of psychic awakening. The alien races of science fiction are strongly reminiscent of the gods, angels, demons and fairies of legend, and are often gifted with supernatural abilities. Thus, the eternal return of the past, whether understood as cyclical or historical, has given way to an aspiration toward the future which projects the same ideals that inspired traditional religions and mythology.

Christianity, as an historical religion, is always tempted to revisit the past in its stories and liturgy. However, the Church, by rereading the Gospels in an optimistic and forward-looking sense, always has the opportunity to see the future as tempered with healing for all humanity coupled with the prophetic call to justice for all creation. In the sense that Jesus was both wise teacher and liberator, aspects we have overlooked too often with our sacrificial and salvation language, Jesus in ministry and teaching offers always new combinations of expressions of faith for the future which are nearly as varied as the widest expressions coming from science fiction. The Church has only to open itself and enter in.

Additional information regarding science fiction in religion can be found in the following:

For more information and a positive embracing of the future see the Exodus and Exile macro-stories in: