BIBLICAL THEMES IN SCIENCE FICTION. Edited by Nicole L.Tilford and Kelly J.Murphy. Bible and Its Reception, 6. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2023. Pp. 271. Paperback, $39.00.
Year: 2024
Type: book-review
Abstract: This book takes ten themes from biblical narrative (Eden, Babel, flood, the handmaid, the utopian city, the land, Babylon, Messiah, resurrection/afterlife, and apocalypse) and offers consistent chapter formulae reflecting upon each of them. Contributors first give a biblical studies overview of the theme, then discuss its wider adoption in science fiction, and finish with a short closer reading of a single text or corpus. The chapters are all of good quality. Margaret Atwood and Octavia Butler receive heavy attention. Christian or directly theological science fiction (e.g., Lewis's space trilogy, Miller's Canticle for Leibowitz, Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End) receives only a brief citation. The science fiction trope of the missionary to an alien species (Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow, Stanisław Lem's Fiasco, Dan Simmons's Hyperion) is not present. Thus, the weaknesses of the volume are those endemic to all collected conference publications: short space for each treatment and the particular desires of each contributor. Why write about indie video games in the Messiah chapter and not about Dune? Why include a chapter on handmaids and not a chapter on prophecy? Because, of course, these are the essays that were presented.
Source: Religious Studies Review
DOI: 10.1111/rsr.17042
Author: Austin M. Freeman
Institution: Houston Christian University
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4396558660