I need your help #bookstodon. One of the classes I’m taking at the graduate level this semester is Religion & Science Fiction. I read more fantasy, and would like to do my research paper on something that’s not obvious (like ST/BS5/Matrix/etc.) & I’d love to use more modern sf rather than the golden age classics.

Anyone have any interesting ideas for my research paper on regarding the intersection of religion and science fiction?

@bookstodon #sciencefiction #scifi #ReligiousStudies #academia

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    1·
    6 months ago

    @KitMuse@eponaauthor.social It’s a little golden-age, but “Lord of Light” by Roger Zelazny is an excellent hard science fiction book with a heavy religious component. “A Rose for Ecclesiastes” also by Zelazny, and “The Deathbird” by Harlan Ellison are both top notch as well, and deal with religion through their own very different lenses.

      • Billy Smith@social.coop
        1·
        5 months ago

        @punklawyer@mastodon.sdf.org @mozz@mbin.grits.dev @bookstodon@a.gup.pe @KitMuse@eponaauthor.social

        The Golden Age of Sci-Fi is 11-14 years old. :D

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        1·
        5 months ago

        @punklawyer@mastodon.sdf.org

        I looked it up, and Wikipedia said 1938-1946. That was obviously wrong though, so I decided 1950 through 1980, beginning with Ray Bradbury and including most of the careers of e.g. Larry Niven, Roger Zelazny, Harlan Ellison, etc.

  • Token Sane Person@mastodon.me.uk
    0·
    6 months ago

    @KitMuse @bookstodon A couple of Heinlein novels that spring to mind are Job and Stranger in a Strange Land, both of which have religious themes.

    Also the science backed religion in the first Foundation novel by Asimov. And Childhoods End by Clarke has some broad cosmic themes to it, although they don’t emerge till late in the book.
    Edit. Sorry, just noticed you wanted to avoid the Golden Age

    • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
      1·
      5 months ago

      @tokensane@mastodon.me.uk @bookstodon@a.gup.pe @KitMuse@eponaauthor.social

      I’ll second both of these. “Job” in particular is one of the best direct satires I’ve seen of authoritarian Christianity. The other weirdly enough is the the Gnostic Gospels; it’s an alternate garden of Eden story that’s absolutely wild.