ABSTRACT

Religion and Science Fiction: An Introduction guides students into deeper understanding of how religion and science fiction engage often overlapping questions.

This textbook introduces key ideas of religious studies through critical consideration of print and visual media that fall within the general category of science fiction. The goal throughout is to help students move beyond simply identifying points of interrelation between religious studies and forms of what is often called, more broadly, speculative fiction, to considering how the studied texts open new ways of thinking about human (and nonhuman) experience taken to be religious.

With discussion questions, lists of key terms, extensive additional resources, and suggestions for projects and essay questions, this book is a foundational text for students and instructors of religion and science fiction.

chapter 1|16 pages

Introduction

Knowing Things

chapter 2|20 pages

Re-Presenting Traditions

New and Old

chapter 4|14 pages

Imagining Divinity

chapter 5|14 pages

Evil, Sin, and Suffering

Dealing with What's Wrong

chapter 6|14 pages

Being Human?

chapter 7|14 pages

Encountering the Alien Other

chapter 8|15 pages

Gender Utopia/Gender Dystopia

chapter 9|15 pages

Race, Science Fiction, and the Future

chapter 10|19 pages

Running Out of Time

SF Eschatology

chapter |1 pages

Conclusion