A Novel Approach to Religion and Science Fiction

A Novel Approach to Religion and Science Fiction July 25, 2016

I’m in the process of finalizing the reading list for my course on Religion and Science Fiction. I found I could not choose from among the many novel options that I considered for the course. In the past I’ve had one novel and the rest of the course short stories and articles. This time I’m just opting for the latter, since there are plenty more short stories than I have included in the past, which would be perfect for this course – indeed, more have been written since the last time I taught it that would fit nicely.

What do you think? Is that a good move or a bad one? And if you think a novel ought to be included, how would you choose from among the following?

Frank Herbert, Dune (and sequels?)

Dan Simmons, Hyperion (or the whole Hyperion Cantos)

Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow (and Children of God)

Chris Crawford, The Tuning Station

And of course, I could mention others, such as Carl Sagan’s Contact.

As I have been preparing to teach the course again, I revisited a lot of links and websites that I hadn’t for a while, and so they may be new to some of you, too, or ones you’d find it helpful to revisit. Here are a few…

Seven Deadly Sins of Religion and Science Fiction

Religion and Science Fiction: Asking the Right Questions

Religious Science Fiction

SF Encyclopedia entry on “Religion”

The Nature of Science Fiction and Its Relation to Religion

Gabriel McKee on his Top 10

Don’t panic: Religion, science fiction and everything

Sometimes I found articles that I did interviews for, which I had forgotten about…

Fred Kreutziger’s book The Religion of Science Fiction:

Any other reading (or viewing or listening) that you highly recommend on this topic?


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