The Gospel according to Science Fiction: From the Twilight Zone to the Final Frontier by Gabriel Mckee

The Gospel according to Science Fiction: From the Twilight Zone to the Final Frontier Reviews

• 
  Zak

  Although I only recognize 1 out of every 10 books the author cites, it makes me want to seek most of them out.
  
  A really good romp through sci-fi history, detailing the religious implications of our greatest stories. What I like is that balances the overt spiritual themes of stories about cybernetic souls with the less in your face subtext of popular sci-fi like Star Trek. Who knew Spock was really a Jew?
  
  
• 
  Genevieve Trainor

  This book was rather disappointing. As a huge SF/fantasy fan, I'd had hopes for some revelation, or at least interesting insight. Nary a bit. Little more than a series of (not-so-)glorified synopses, this book is one that I couldn't even force myself to finish. I suppose there exists a possibility that it picks up towards the end. I should give the author the benefit of the doubt. Sadly, what I was able to trudge through was not very enlightening, or even interesting. There was no sense of cohesiveness, no overarching goal or theme, and no depth to the analyses. As both a Christian and an uber-geek, I'm well aware that one can, indeed, find inspiration and truth in SF. Sadly, this author couldn't seem to get past the point that: NEWSFLASH! SF authors talk about God a lot... and (hold on to your hats) sometimes they veil their references. Oh yeah, but sometimes it's obvious. Hmmm, perhaps that is an overarching theme?
• 
  Mariusz

  This book consists mostly of synopses. Thus, serves well only as a reservoir and a round-up of plots. The Author ingores evolution of the genre and omits theoretical papers, in the result each chapter follows somewhat obscured, temporary and chaotic logic. There is Ketterer at least, but very briefly summarized. No Kermode. No Brummett and others. The profit: vast choice of plots, can't deny that (one to mention is the lack of non-English writers, there are few, Lem, thanks for that. But no Strugatsky brothers?) I got irritated by few obsessively repated sentences. After 100 pages of reading you begin to take account of sentences like: "Few SF stories have embraced the concept of a divine plan as completely as...", as really repetitive. Nevertheless, the book contains very good, interesting insights, only you have to look for them carefully.
• 
  Neil

  I enjoyed this book overall. I had used it as a reference for a paper I had written for a college class and decided to read it after the class was over. Despite having citied it, I still really was not sure what to expect from it, but I was happy to find that I did enjoy reading it. While it held my interest from start to finish, I did find myself wishing he had gone a little deeper into some topics (granted, I failed to make notes about specific instances I wish the author had dug a little deeper to mention in my review, so that is on me). I felt like he was skating along on the surface, as it were, when he could have dug into the various points that he was making a little more. Perhaps he was merely laying a foundation upon which the reader could build and do his or her own digging into the observations he makes throughout the book.
  
  To be honest, I wish I had taken notes as I was reading and maybe written my own synopsis for each chapter. I read the book during breaks at my evening job and kept forgetting to grab a pen and paper before I left for each shift. But, yeah, as much as I enjoyed the book, not a lot of it really stood out to me which is disappointing.
  
  One thing that did stand out was his discussion about Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. I had never heard anything good said about this book; I was always told it presented Christianity in the worst light possible (which I realize is not a problem to many people) and was a serious turnoff to me. However, the author talks about it as being a cautionary tale AND discusses how there are . . . “good/true Christians” in the book versus those in charge who claim to be Christians but clearly are not. In any case, his discussion of this book has actually changed my mind and I think I will read it at some point in time in the relatively near future. So that was an interesting impact this book had on me regarding Ms. Atwood’s story and not something I expected to happen.
  
  I remember “liking” chapters 7 (“Believing and Knowing: Faith and Religious Experience”) and 9 (“Imagining the Afterlife”) the most, but I do not remember why. Maybe I’ll go back and reread those chapters again so I can actually come back and update my review and comment intelligently as to why I enjoyed those the most, hahahah!
  
  At one point, he talks about artificial intelligence and whether or not it can “be saved” whether or not it needs a Savior. It was an interesting discussion and it brought to mind some comments that Annie Jacobsen made in a video I watched where she was talking about DARPA and how AI does not have same emotions that humans have and therefore does not have the same “natural stops” or “pauses” that might prevent an accidental nuclear launch (she talked about how there have been four times when technology somehow sent accidental orders to launch the nukes but the human operators refused to launch the missiles for various reasons; a machine does not have the “emotional” or moral qualms or opposition to disregarding or refusing to obey an order to launch and would have launched the missiles as a result).
  
  I found myself wishing he had taken “more of a stance” on some of his topics, been a little bit more firmly “this is what the Bible says”, but I do not know from what standpoint he was writing this book. If it was meant to be read by the general public (which I imagine was the point), I can kinda see his not being quite so strong in the various stances he makes to avoid alienating readers, but at the same time, I still found myself wishing he had been “more forceful” or “stronger” in terms of where he stood. I don’t know if that makes sense. There were times in the book I felt like I had a stronger opinion than the author did, which is fine because I am sure other readers had stronger opinions in other parts of the book regarding different topics.
  
  I was surprised at how many SF books and films actually had religious themes to them. I did not think there was that many, to be honest, and that they were always “negative in nature.” I found out otherwise, that there were actually books he considers to be thoughtfully written explorations about religion and religious themes as well as valid questions about various religious beliefs and how those beliefs might be challenged in the future.
  
  His closing paragraphs were interesting. He first points out that David Ketterer believes that the “apocalyptic sensibility” that is “the defining trait of SF is also the key to understanding not only how religious themes are explored in SF, but how all SF is religious. The contemplation of the world as it should be (or how it must not be) is at the core of all SF, and this utopian impulse parallels the goals of human religion. By shaping how we think of the future, SF hopes to unlock the kingdom of God, of which Jesus says in Luke 17:21: ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’ (NIV)” (249).
  
  He then finishes with “the future is already here, waiting to be unveiled. By speculating as to the nature of the future, criticizing the past and present ideas of faith, and proposing new ways of thinking about God, SF helps to create the future of faith. This shaping of what is to come not only anticipates the world of tomorrow, but teaches us how to be in the coming kingdom. By its very nature, SF explores, anticipates, and defines new worlds of the spirit” (249).
  
  I think the weakest part of the book, though, is how it just . . . ends. He has an introduction; he has a brief two-page blurb after that in which he defines some of the terms because of how he intends to use them, and then he gets into his discussions in which each chapter is a sci-fi theme/topic. He really needed some kind of summary and conclusion, in my opinion. The book feels like it needs some kind of chapter “to wrap things up” in which he briefly summarizes what has been discussed in each chapter, highlighting the major point or points, and then gives his general conclusion. Maybe an “afterword” or something; it just feels like it is incomplete and leaves the reader wondering what happened, if the printer forgot to print the final chapter after chapter 10.
  
  It was an interesting book, overall. Although he does seem to take a lot of issues with conservative Christians and certain Christians specifically (which I thought were a little distracting and took away from some of his points), I thought he made valid points and observations throughout the entire book regarding religious themes in various scientific themes. Granted, most of the book is written from a Christian perspective; he occasionally talks about other non-Christian religions, but they truly are few and far in between (the one that stands out to me the most is The Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny), but he states in the beginning of the book that he is going to focus pretty much exclusively on Western religion(s) and Christianity specifically. I enjoyed reading it and I could see myself rereading it again at some point in the future.
  
• 
  Rick Bavera

  One thing I always said: Religion and science are not enemies. They are talking differently about things. Done correctly, they can complement each other, not fight.
  
  This isn't a perfect way of saying it, but it works for me: Science looks at the "how" of things. Religion looks at the "why". How did things happen, versus why did they happen/why are we here?
  
  This book takes a look at where SF has looked at things, and tried to understand some of the why.
  
  And it has reminded me of some books I'd like to re-read, and movies I'd like to watch again. And mentioned some I haven't gotten around to reading or watching, and should.
  
  
• 
  Gary Avants

  This was an interesting take on Christianity as seen through modern Sci-fi books, movies, and short stories. It doesn’t get preachy, but what this book does gives topics related to the Gospel, such as salvation, Heaven, sin, etc. and how it has been viewed in media.
  
  I believe this books tells how Sci-Fi tackles these issues so people know how to present these foundational topics to seekers of knowledge and truth.
• 
  Mark Edlund

  Non fiction
  The author presents, with exhaustive research and a huge bibliography, a well reasoned book that science fiction and theology are not actually diametrically opposed but could be two sides of the same coin. I liked his chapters on faith and science fiction and the Apocalyptic writings of the bible and many authors.
  It is even more interesting in that many of the authors appear to have no firm faith of their own but explore the effects of religion on the human condition.
  Canadian references - brief reference to Gordie Howe (as a clone), reference to Quebec and many quotes from books by Atwood and Sawyer.
  No Pharmacy references.
• 
  Billie

  This book is a great guide for interpreting science fiction films and literature by looking at the gospel and the shared characteristics, themes, and stories. The only issue with the book is that it often gives away the entire plot of a film or movie, which is fine as long as you are okay with spoilers. The book would have also been much shorter had he written less summary of the fiction and focused more on interpretation.
• 
  Gwynne

  This book makes a persuasive case that science fiction is one of the richest genres for exploring religious ideas. It's absolutely fascinating, from both a religion-studies and SF geek perspective. Highly recommended!
• 
  Joshua

  A review of science fiction stories - books, comics, television, movies, etc. - that deal with issues of faith. It is a little light on analysis but gave me lots of interesting material to check out.
• 
  Emily

  I had to read this book for a science fiction and religion class. Some chapters are a bit too long but the book is good overall.
• 
  Summeralism

  Great book! I really enjoyed the story and movie excerpts. My To-Read shelf just got bigger!