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.
👏👏👏
“Tolkien and Lewis did so much damage to fantasy”
Yeah the heavy-handed Christian science fiction & fantasy has to go but the heavy-handed atheistic science fiction & pagan fantasy stuff … that’s OK.
Um, wat.
I mean, the whole point of His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman was to kill God. If that’s not heavy-handed …
And I loved Arthur C Clarke as a kid but since the whole point of Childhood’s End was to leave behind the religious aspect of society and move on with science (which is apparently inherently atheistic), it strikes me as ignorant of history & human nature.
Christians have been using speculative fiction to tell stories for centuries. Read A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare.
Damage? Really?
Someone’s not reading the really good stuff.
Honest question, are we considering Lewis’s Space Trilogy science-fiction or not?
Wide Spread Interests 