“Christianizing” Science fiction
What I would really like to see (or be) is an author who can do for science fiction what Lewis and Tolkien did for fantasy.
I don’t mean to write a grand sweeping space epic with an allegory in it. Even if it was set on a space ship, the genre of such a story would still be fantasy.
Fantasy was once considered pagan, and still is by some people, but it was “converted”, if you will, by taking the elements of the genre such as symbolism and supernatural powers and making them Christian. But the thing is, symbolism isn’t the hallmark of the sci-fi story, so it would be a mistake to think you could make a “Christian sci-fi” story by inserting Christian symbolism. You have to actually work within the boundaries of the genre, which is something that I rarely see Christian writers do for sci-fi. Ted Dekker is a great example of how not to do this, since almost all his supposed sci-fi stories rely heavily on symbolism. This comes off heavy-handed and just weird in this genre.
No, the hallmark of sci-fi is posing difficult philosophical questions. And then answering them. Exploring ethical dilemmas or dangers that could potentially be real life. If you wanted to Christianize science fiction then what you would have to do is try to answer these questions from a Christian point of view. If the fantasy genre is perceived as pagan than the sci-fi genre is perceived as atheist, since it is usually atheists or humanists answering the questions in the stories, but they don’t HAVE to be.
This is what I was attempting to do in Copper (the automaton with a human soul) and what Julie Rollins did in her (very edgy) stories discussing ethical issues, which were a big influence on me. For example one of them was about a woman who, in a parallel universe, had an abortion, and another one was about a society where clones are raised to harvest their organs, but considered to not be alive since they’ve never been conscious. I’d love to see more of this sort of thing and if anyone knows of any authors who are doing this sort of thing please let me know.
Can we please not? Tolkien and Lewis did so much damage to fantasy for so long, it’s all built up on Christian bias and “Civilising the pagans” tropes. Sci fi is about the boundaries and social commentary on current world through analogy, we don’t need one of our few outlets dragging into the christianisation and homogenisation of the world. Fantasy is only just getting over this now.
Someone better at wording what I mean, please take over, because this is just wanting more problematic sci fi pushing harmful doctrines… (Such as the heavy handed anti-abortion stuff).
I am a Christian, so you’re not gonna sell me on the idea that Christian doctrines are problematic, and certainly not that Tolkien and Lewis, the fathers of modern fantasy, “damaged” the genre. Sorry.
Tolkien, Lewis, and Godawa improved fantasy, you’re just too cowardly to see you’re own depravity.
👏👏👏
I don’t see symbolism as turning science fiction into fantasy but at least the post is well-written. Along the same line, I do not believe C S Lewis or J R R Tolkien damaged the fantasy genre.
Each person writes from his/her own perspective so his/her world view may be reflected in their works. Just as Christians shouldn’t call fictional works by secularists problematic, I think the reverse shouldn’t happen, fiction is fiction. It may help us draw parallels and empathise with people of certain view points, but fiction itself cannot convert anyone unless the reader confuses certain elements of it with reality.
Science has an ambiguous view of the soul, some say it exists, others say it doesn’t. Where is the line in which scifi crosses into fantasy? Is saying a robot having a soul fantasy? Star Wars, with this mysterious Force, may have crossed the line into fantasy. Or one could argue that an alternative universe is governed by different natural laws.
I’d say so whether the OP is rooting for any other school of philosophy or religion. Fiction policing is so yesterday…
Well, fair enough. I don’t think the presence of symbolism automatically turns sci-fi into fantasy. But it’s not really native to the genre so to speak.
I also wondered about whether a robot having a soul counted as fantasy, but that sort of depends on whether you think of a soul as being real or imaginary. That particular story was steampunk though which sort of adds fantasy elements to the mix.
When it comes to Star Wars though, yes I would argue that Star Wars is a space fantasy and is not actually sci-fi. However, I’m not making this post to tell anyone what NOT to write. I’m mostly trying to promote more creation of a particular thing.
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